NordVPN is a Premium VPN provider that constantly ranks at the top among its competitors. NordVPN’s global coverage spans across 60 countries, boasting more than 5,500 servers, all primed to deliver fast and dependable connections. Here we will give you a NordVPN Coupon Code that has been tested to work and let you know of any extra promos that NordVPN is having, as they often have limited time offer and coupon codes for new users.
Using a VPN is a no-brainer. They protect you across many fronts, including keeping your navigation activity and data safe and private, accessing an unrestricted international internet experience, and upgrading your browsing performance and speed.
Still not convinced about using a VPN or choosing NordVPN as your VPN provider? Here are further arguments why you should use a NordVPN coupon code to access this premium VPN service.
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NordVPN is easy to use and you can use the same account to connect from multiple devices (computers, smartphones and tablets). The interface is as simple and intuitive as selecting the connection you want on a world map and clicking on “connect”.
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We wrote an article about the 3 reasons to use a VPN – we highly recommend you take a look at it and further read about the importance of protecting your data and privacy by using a VPN. If you don’t have time, let us just tell you that with a VPN, your online activities are securely encrypted and kept private. This level of security shields your internet behavior from prying eyes including governments, hackers, and even your internet service provider. If you’ve worked remotely for a company, it’s probable that you’ve utilized your company’s internal VPN for tasks. This is because such a VPN allows you to access the company’s core network, safeguarding your data against possible threats. If you’re a freelancer who hasn’t adopted using a VPN as a key part of their work, we strongly suggest you begin doing so today!
Another internet reality, and where a VPN comes to your rescue, is that various factors lead many countries to impose restrictions on internet content. Consequently, your browsing experience will vary between countries due to targeting and geolocation constraints. However, a VPN can help you bypass these barriers and censorship. Let’s say you’re a freelancer doing SEO consultancy work in Mexico for a client based in Canada. To ensure your Google homepage and search results reflect the Canadian user experience rather than your local one, all you need to do is employ your VPN to connect to servers in Canada. The result? Your Google homepage will display in English (or French), showing you search results tailored to the Canadian audience. And on your leisure time, you’ll have unlimited access to content on streaming platforms that has been either blocked on your country or made available only on international versions of these platforms!
We hope to have convinced you why you need a VPN, why NordVPN is the best option for you, and that the NordVPN coupon codes we’ve offered you here are the last motivation you needed to move forward and get NordVPN today!
10 Free Old Money Aesthetic Fonts for your projectsThe RGB Latte Team2023-12-01T17:00:29+00:00
The “Old money aesthetic” has taken the internet by storm – and given that one of it’s main pillars is “timelessness”, we believe that it’s here to stay! This aesthetic refers to a style or philosophy of living associated with wealthy families who have maintained their wealth over generations, and it’s valued for its sophistication, class, conservatism, and the value it places on traditions, quality over quantity, and discretion over ostentation.
There are a few aspects and traditions of the old money aesthetic that are a creative person’s dream. Think: customized stationary, elegant paper invitations, bespoke hand-written menus for weddings, thank-you notes sent by mail… But unless you have the time and ability to learn calligraphy, you may be wondering how you can incorporate such elegance in your life. This is why we thought that it’d be a great idea to compile 10 FREE old money fonts you can use for your stationary, invitations, and anything else you have in mind!
Before we move on to the fonts, here’s a brief description of what the Old Money Aesthetic entails. We hope it inspires you when thinking of uses for the fonts we’ve compiled for you:
Dress: “old money” fashion tends toward the classic and timeless. Luxury brands are sometimes used, but without prominent logos or extravagant designs. Instead, quality, craftsmanship and durability are valued.
Home: “Old money” homes tend to be large and traditional, often with a family history. They are frequently decorated with antiques, art and books, and may have a style that could be described as classic, English or “country club”.
Culture and Traditions: Formal education is highly valued, not only academically but also on manners and etiquette. Emphasis is given to the arts, history, literature, and languages. Members of the “old money” family are expected to be cultured and well-traveled, and know social etiquette including sending invitations and correspondence.
Now, on to the 10 free old money aesthetic fonts that we have compiled for you (in no particular order)
The best 10 Old Money Aesthetic Fonts
Calligraphy from Belina Studio
Calligraphy is a dying art – and certainly an art that has long been associated with the old money aesthetic. Only the elites of the past had the time and resources to learn pristine calligraphy skills and put it to use on their journaling and correspondence, to name a few uses. This font is understated and sober. It would look great to create a signature of your name (imagine getting it printed on custom stationary!) or on print material used for personal events and engagements (i.e. invitations, table markers…). We suggest not going overboard with it, use it sparingly and combine it with another less adorned font. This is the true spirit of the old money aesthetic.
This stunning font, like anyone who masters the old money aesthetic, displays its class and elegance without any pompousness nor trying to hard. We think it would be fantastic for any sort of marketing uses for products that you want to associate with the old money aesthetic. We think it would be particularly stunning on a liquor bottle. Of course, you can also use it for your stationary and correspondence. We think that using it on an engagement announcement letter will set the tone to the classy, timeless events that all subsequent celebrations will be!
The name of this font speaks for itself. It conveys old continent elegance and status. We can associate this with an exclusive old money club. This is another one we think would be spot-on to use for the marketing of a product where you want to speak to the right audience. One of the characteristics of the old money set is that “if you know, you know”, and using a font that will immediately speak to them and let them know that your product is part of their club will surely make your product a success.
This font is a dream – it is adorned, but just in the right amount for it to be classy and to fit the old money aesthetic. For any gentleman who wants custom stationary, this would be a great choice to use for your name (of course, in the old money world that would include the initial of a middle name, and even an academic title, such as “esquire”). We really believe this font suits the use we have just suggested – but visualize different old money activities that could easily include this font. We can think of adorning the header of a custom cocktail menu of an event. Beyond custom stationary, why not try using this font to get your initials engraved on embossed on other personal belongings?
Back in the day, most people of high social standing knew the art of lettering and handwriting. Sadly this has been lost to time (if you want an old money hobby, we highly suggest calligraphy – not only will it allow you to write beautifully for yourself, but you can even charge a pretty penny to handwrite invitations and other documents! The Elegant Signature font captures this dying art in the most old money aesthetic possible. Just imagine an elegant lady pulling her signature fountain pen from her quiet luxury bag to sign the bill at the country club. You can now capture this moment in your projects with this free font!
The old money aesthetic is not about excess and in-your-face-ness. It is all about understatement and elegance that speaks for itself. This is what we find in this font. Wherever you may use it, you will project a subtle message of confidence, elegance, and dignity. We can envision this as a letterhead with your name on custom stationary, or embossed as your initials on your leather goods (like your luggage, wallet, or briefcase). The best thing is that, unlike the other fonts, which we recommend to accentuate your projects, this can be used throughout text-heavy paragraphs without detracting from the content.
This is another ideal font if you want to give an old money aesthetic style to your documents, correspondence, and other paper wares. It reminded us of something… we could not tell what it was until it clicked that it looks just like traditional French handwriting! This could be beautiful as a signature (or even an e-signature!), as the title on your wedding’s menu, or as the header on custom stationary like thank-you notes (as your full name, or just your initials). Once more, this is one not to overuse.
Another classic font that exudes old money aesthetic. Back in the day, entire hand-written letters were exchanged with such calligraphy. Those days are gone and while nobody expects to get letters written in this manner, this font will certainly be a hit on correspondence: from thank you notes, to invitations, to custom stationary, and anything in between. Also excellent for headers on menus and other similar materials. Once more, not to overuse.
It is tricky to find handwritten fonts that are feminine AND elegant. Many fall under the very gauche “live, love, laugh” style of font. However, Priestacy made it to our cut because we can absolutely see it as the hand-written signature of an old money debutante. Thread lightly, and this font will work on your favour when going for the old-money aesthetic. Overuse it, and it will play against you.
The Old English Font is a classic font that may seem medieval – but don’t forget that in Europe, many old money individuals are aristocrats, nobles, and royals, who have had fortunes and palaces since the 11th century. This is why we wanted to also include the Old English Font to this list. Any brand of heritage products (for example, spirits and liquours like whiskey or leather goods) will certainly have an old money aesthetic if it looks to have been a heritage brand from an old money noble family with a family tree dating centuries, alongside a family estate and a coat of arms!
The old money aesthetic is timeless and elegant. The use of fonts that match convey this aesthetic can greatly enhance the overall look and feel of your projects, conveying sophistication and a touch of classic charm. In this article we compiled ten free font options, each with its own unique appeal and appropriate for various situations and contexts. These fonts are suitable for a wide range of applications, from graphic design, branding, to your own personal stationary and monogramming. As a tip, we highly suggest you use Canva for your projects – it allows you to create all sorts of custom digital and print material, including your own personal monogram! Check out our Canva Review!
Take advantage of these free resources and infuse your projects with an aura of class and timelessness that is reminiscent of old money aesthetics. One extra note: most of these are free to use for personal use! Please verify their individual licenses and make sure to get the paid version if you are going to use them in commercial projects. Since you are here, why don’t you check out our compilation of 100 free fonts to download, including wedding fonts, futuristic fonts, holiday fonts, and many more?
Cover photo via MontBlanc.
Are Google certifications worth it? (plus the ones you should get!)The RGB Latte Team2023-05-23T09:36:44+00:00
The world of digital marketing has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years, and this trend shows no signs of stopping. With the rise of online learning platforms, enrolling in a course and getting certifiedis now easier than ever. Google is at the forefront of many of the digital marketing tools used across industries. Although there are alternatives to popular Google tools, Google’s solutions are still the industry standard. Google offers courses and certifications for many of its own products. In this article, we answer the question “Are Google certifications worth it?” and provide links to the certifications that we think will help you in your career, especially in digital marketing!
There are many areas and sub-specialisations within digital marketing. The reality, which is no longer a hot take, is this: Studying digital marketing at a university or college will not fully prepare you for the job market. Even if you learn the basics, many prorgrams do not cover in detail the tools that are key to getting a job. Even if they do, given the nature of technology, your knowledge will become obsolete if you don’t make an effort to keep up with new developments, updates, and tools in your field. This is one of the reasons why Google offers several certifications in digital marketing and its many tools. These certifications will help you improve your skills and stand out in the job market. Read on to find out how and which courses and certifications we recommend. Our article breaks down as follows:
Table of Contents
Are Google certifications worth it?
We start by answering this burning question: Are Google certifications worth it? Our answer is YES. There are many job and career opportunities in digital marketing. It’s a very dynamic and ever-evolving field, and all paths within this career are very interesting and rewarding. As we mentioned earlier, there are several specializations within the field, all of which are in constant demand (we’ve written an article on the best digital marketing specializations that we recommend you read if you’re just starting out in digital marketing!) Given the popularity of its search engine and web browser alone, it’s no surprise that Google’s digital tools and platforms are an absolute standard in companies and teams, given its popularity as a search engine alone. As mentioned in the introduction, the company offers many tools that have been adopted for several key aspects of day-to-day digital marketing processes.
For traffic and engagement reporting, you’ve got Google Analytics 4. For Business Intelligence teams, Google Looker offers data exploration and reporting. If you want to monetize a website with ads, Google Ads will help you display ads across the internet and track their performance. These tools do require some time to master. If you don’t get training for them at work or you are looking to boost your CV and job prospects, Google offers many courses and certifications to get the hang of it and prove that you know how to use them. We confidently state once more that these certificates are worth it – and here are our reasons:
These certificates are free: Both the courses and the tests towards a certificate are (almost always) free – and that’s great!
Name recognition: Recruiters and employers instantly recognize “Google” if you add the certification to your C.V.
High-demand skills: With a Google certification, you can easily stand out among candidates land the job you want, or even move horizontally towards another branch of digital marketing.
Now, we want to move on towards the the best Google Courses and Certificates that we recommend
Google Digital Garage is a comprehensive platform that offers free courses, including ten capsules dedicated to digital marketing courses. The first module, “Digital Marketing Basics,” will leave you with a solid understanding of digital marketing. It is spread over 26 modules, lasts around 40 hours to complete, and includes an official certification from Google and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
Other courses available include “Connect with Customers over Mobile”, “Understand Customers Needs and Online Behaviours, “Promote a Business with Online Advertising” and “Use Content to Promote a Business”. These other ones don’t include a certification, but they all very useful digital marketing courses either to gain knowledge in this area for your own business or to bring your knowledge within a workplace. You can still mention these courses during the interview process – name dropping Google is never a bad idea! Plus, if you are still getting started with digital marketing, these will lay the foundations for more advanced tools such as Google Analytics 4.
The Google Marketing Platform groups together a dozen courses for digital marketing. These include the following courses, all with several capsules within them to leave you ready for their respective certification: Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360, Campaign Manager 360, Google Creative Solutions (containing a single capsule called Create Effective Ads for Google Marketing Platform Campaigns), Mobile Solutions, and Google Web Designer. We also recommend going over the Privacy Resource Hub, as it will help you with extremely crucial concepts around privacy settings and regulations, all of which have had tangible, if not paradigm shift-causing impacts in digital marketing in the past few years.
The certifications offered under the Google Marketing Platform are individual, so you can mix and match the courses above, or take only one if that is what you need. The Certification Exams you can take towards getting yourself Certified include: Search Ads 360 Certification Exam, Creative Certification Exam, Campaign manager 360 Certification Exam, and the Display & Video 360 Certification Exam. As you see, there is something for everyone here, and we promise that any of these certificates will make your job applications stand out!
Google Analytics Academy offers free courses on Google Analytics, including a specific course on Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Google Analytics is pivotal for any businesses with a webpage, be it informational and transactional. This tool allows business owners to understand several aspects around the traffic that arrives to their page, as well as the behavior of users within the site. In other words, Google Analytics offers a wealth of powerful analytics capabilities that can help improve the effectiveness of marketing efforts and spend. It goes without saying that knowing and understanding this tool is a highly sought-after skill.
GA4 is the latest version of Google Analytics, and this Google course covers topics such as tracking user engagement, reporting and goal setting. At the end of the course, you can take the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) exam, which certifies your knowledge of Google Analytics 4. Being able to say that you are certified in this platform will leave a great impression in your job interviews, especially given the fact that in 2023, Google Analytics 4 will become the absolute standard after the previous version of this tool, Google Universal Analytics stops processing any data on July 1st 2023.
Google Skillshop offers free courses on Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords). Google Ads is a crucial tool in a digital marketer’s toolkit – especially if they want to specialize on programmatic and display media. Understanding how to use it effectively allows you, as a professional, to help a business get higher online visibility, targeted marketing efforts, measurable results that can show how to better manage budgets and constantly improve marketing initiatives.
The Google Ads courses will help you understand how to create and optimize ad campaigns across several specific placements, such as search, display, video, shopping and apps. By completing these courses and passing the corresponding assessments you will be able to write exams to get a few different certifications within the larger Google Ads area. These include Google Ads Search Certification, Google Ads Display Certification, Google Ads Video Certification, Google Ads Shopping Certification and Google Ads Apps Certification. Digital Marketing is a broad field and no single individual can be expected to know everything – so don’t attempt to master every single course within Google Ads. An employer may only be looking for someone who knows Search Ads. In this case, knowing a bit of the other subcategories within Google Ads is useful, but not necessary.
Digital marketing is a fast-growing and in-demand field that offers excellent career prospects. Google is at the forefront of many of the tools that are industry standards, and therefore we answer the “Are Google certifications worth it?” with a roaring YES. By completing these online courses and obtaining a certificate you can expand your knowledge, develop your skills, and improve your career prospects in the world of digital marketing.
We need to reiterate that Digital Marketing is a broad field and no single individual can be expected to know everything. It is not that we only included four courses in this list – each one is an entire field in itself, and you can then see which field interests you to specialize in for your career. You may just be starting in digital marketing, you may already be specialized in one aspect of this work field and want to move horizontally to another one, or you may be a manager who wants to get a good grasp of what the teams below you are doing. All of these courses can help you with whatever your situation is – and remember, the “Google” name is always an asset on your CV!
Frequently Asked Questions about Google Certificates
Are Google certifications worth it?
Digital marketing is an ever-expanding sector with high demand and abundant career opportunities. With Google leading the pack in terms of widely recognized industry tools, our response to the question “Are Google certifications worth it?” is an unequivocal YES. By taking these online courses and getting a certificate, you are broadening your understanding of tools that are industry standards, honing your skills, and enhancing your career potential within the digital marketing landscape backed by an extremely legitimate and recognized company.
Where can I find Google certificates?
Google’s Courses and Certificates may be a bit tricky to find. There is the “Google Digital Garage”, which includes courses that lead to certificates such as “Fundamentals of Digital Marketing”. Then there’s Google Skillshop, which offers other courses that lead to certificates for tools such as Google Analytics and Google Ads. Sometimes the courses offered in these two pages overlap, so we recommend going over both – or simply Googling the exact domain in which you want to find a course and finding the exact landing page.
Does Google offer free certificates?
Yes, several of the certificates offered by Google, as well as the courses that prepare you towards completion of the exam that issues these certificates, are free. This applies to all of the certificates listed in this article – but not to other certificates such as the Google Professional Certificates, which are hosted on third party platforms like Coursera and that do come at a price.
8 major AI Chrome extensions (including Bard and ChatGPT App!)The RGB Latte Team2023-05-17T11:44:07+00:00
Both in the modern workplace and daily life, artificial intelligence (AI) plays an increasingly important role in optimizing processes and efficiency in various areas, be it writing, researching, organizing, or creating all sorts of content. One of the most accessible and practical ways to take advantage of AI in our day-to-day lives is through extensions for the Google Chrome browser. These tools allow us to make the most of technology and improve our work productivity – plus, they are for the most part free and can be installed in just a couple of clicks! In this article, we will explore 10 Google Chrome extensions that use artificial intelligence and are definitely worth installing to save hours of work and raise our efficiency to unimaginable levels. This includes the incredibly powerful Chrome Extension of the ChatGPT App, called “UseChatGPT.AI” and described as a “copilot for the web”.
Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It has become the most popular and used browsers, and offers many streamlined features, including the ability to support extensions. These are lightweight applications that integrate directly into the browser and extend its functionality, allowing users to customize their browsing experience according to their needs and preferences, and which can be easily installed from the Chrome Web Store. There are thousands of extensions available in the Chrome Web Store, covering a wide variety of functions and utilities. These include ad blockers, password managers, productivity tools, social networking plugins and many other categories. With the rise of A.I., there are more and more extensions that leverage artificial intelligence to offer innovative and efficient features that can improve productivity and save time on various tasks.
AngryTom is a self-described “Consultant and AI educator”, who recently posted a very useful Twitter thread with his 10 picks of “insane” AI Chrome extensions. We encourage you to follow AngryTom on Twitter, but also leave our 8 best picks below with a few extra info about each one!
This tool is a must-have for students, researchers, and anyone who has to find and digest papers, journals, and other high-level publications. It is an “AI research assistant” and truly a time-saving tool that can condense hours of reading and comprehension into just minutes. With the ability to highlight complex text, mathematical equations, and tables, this innovative Chrome extension turns challenging content into easy-to-understand explanations. Plus, you can ask follow-up questions and receive immediate answers if you need to further enhance your understanding. As an added bonus, this tool offers a unique method for searching and finding pertinent academic papers without the need for specific keywords, streamlining your research process.
This tool is fantastic for anyone who has to work with teams, especially over video-conference. It allows you to automatically record and transcribe your meetings across video-conferencing apps, dialers, and even existing audio files (examples of compatible videoconference platforms include Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Ringcentral, Aircall, etc). It works by simply “inviting” the Fireflies Notetaker to your meetings, where it will capture the audio and video of the call and generate transcripts. The Chrome Extension will help you seamlessly perform all of the above-mentioned tasks from your browser – especially for Google Meet calls. It additionally adds speaker labels and time-stamped captions and even includes some neat features like “smart search” and sentiment filters.
AI is relatively new territory and every day we discover that new prompt on that specific tool that just hits the spot in making our tasks easier. If you wished you had somewhere to note down all the prompts you have used across AI applications, Promptbox comes to the rescue. Promptbox not only allows you to save your prompts but also makes sharing and organizing them a breeze. This versatile solution is compatible with a wide range of AI tools, including Chat GPT, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Bing, Jasper, and Nichess. Elevate your productivity and centralize all your favorite AI prompts with this game-changing Chrome Extension.
Get seamless and efficient AI-powered assistance with the free “UseChatGPT” Chrome Extension, the ultimate ChatGPT app for interacting with text across any website. With just a single click, you can write, rewrite, summarize, translate, explain, or reply to text effortlessly. The “UseChatGPT” plugin offers versatility and compatibility, working with any text on any website. It supports ChatGPT Plus, Plugins & GPT-4, and provides a robust connection to your ChatGPT account. Compatible with popular AI providers such as ChatGPT, OpenAI API key, New Bing Chat, and Google Bard, this plugin ensures you have access to a wide range of AI-driven features.
Ask questions and chat directly with the plugin to refine your results, and receive comprehensive answers and creative inspiration. Enhance your writing by selecting any text on a website and allowing the plugin to rewrite it for you in an instant, and improve your reading experience by letting the plugin summarize, translate, or explain selected text with a single click. You can also simplify your electronic communications by generating effective and personalized replies in seconds.
Power your Facebook Ads with AI and optimize your ad spend and conversions! The Ad Copy Chrome plugin allows you to create, rewrite, and even translate your Facebook ads in a matter of clicks. Avoid spending valuable time struggling to craft compelling copy or wasting time on unreliable freelancers who may not meet your business’s needs. With the AdCopy Chrome Extansion, you can handle your marketing department’s demands effortlessly and in-house. This plugin streamlines the ad creation process and is powered by AI fine-tuned from the top brands in your niche. You have to just copy and paste any ad to generate a fresh variation within seconds. The AdCopy website claims that it is trusted by the top 1% of Facebook media buyers, so why not try it yourself!
Another Chrome Extension dubbed as a “ChatGPT assistant” on your Google Chrome browser (and rightfully so, as it is powered by ChatGPT 4), Monica is AI-powered extension that offers a multitude of features to enhance your browsing experience and productivity. With just a couple of clicks, you can effortlessly translate, explain, or summarize any selected text on a webpage, or even create your own prompts.
Monica is also capable of answering questions, engaging in contextual conversations, and providing writing inspiration. The extension allows you to easily create copywriting content, such as emails or blog post ideas, and it comes with 80+ templates for additional support. Monica offers a free option with 30 queries per day and access to basic features, as well as two paid subscription plans for over 2000 queries per day and access to all pro features. Get the free version and if you are impressed, consider a paid plan!
We believe Wiseone.io is another truly useful extension if you are a student, academic, or researcher. This AI-powered Google Chrome extension revolutionizes the way you read and explore information. Get assistance in understanding complex words, concepts, and even fact-checking through cross-referencing of various sources, which is especially crucial in the age of AI-generated misinformation.
Wiseone simplifies intricate information into easily digestible answers, allowing you to ask questions about any article that you are reading online and receiving clear, concise responses. Additionally, the extension saves you time by summarizing content on any website in just seconds, helping you extract and retain key information. A must-have!
An extremely useful Chrome extension if you spend too much time of your work day writing emails and other texts. Compose AI is a free AI-powered Google Chrome extension that can reduce your writing time by 40% with its autocompletion and text generation capabilities. Easy to install and use, this extension integrates seamlessly into your writing process, offering intuitive prompts and shortcuts. For example, you can generate ideas for blog posts, website copy, and research topics with a simple “//” command.
When writing longer texts, compose AI provides autocomplete suggestions and allows you to rephrase sentences or draw inspiration from its AI-generated ideas. In our opinion, one of the most useful features is the ability to efficiently respond to emails by having the extension craft full messages from just a few keywords. (currently compatible with in Google Docs and Gmail, with more sites coming soon). This is one extension we are definitely adding to our Chrome browsers!
This is not a Google Chrome extension per se, but it is by Google too and it has generated a lot of hype, so we may as well tell you about it! Bard is Google’s response to ChatGPT and other A.I.-powered search assistants. The technology will presumably used to power Google’s announced A.I. enhancement to its own search engine and other tools, including Google Docs and Google Sheets. If you are curious, you can take Bard for a test drive here. We will keep you posted on any updates, including Chrome extensions (though it is our prediction that when A.I. features will be added to Chrome, it will be a seamless integration and independent of a Chrome Extension!).
These 8 innovative AI-powered Chrome extensions will enhance your productivity, streamline your workflows, and bring your browsing experience to the next level. Each extension brings its own unique capabilities, from intelligent text generation and editing to insightful content summarization and translation. Using power of AI, these tools effectively address a wide array of tasks, allowing you to maximize your potential and dedicate the time you save on menial tasks like reading and writing to more important and productive tasks. Food for thought: we are still at the dawn of AI and these extensions are just a teaser for what’s to come.
If you work remotely or are a freelancer, we highly suggest you use a VPN for all your online browsing. Read why in our article about reasons why you should use a VPN. The above-mention AI tools are ideal for people working in digital marketing – if you want to start a career in this field, or are looking for more guidance within it, we suggest you read our article about the main 6 job sectors in digital marketing!
Cover Image via Pixabay
Canva Pro Price and Review + Canva Free Trial (2024)The RGB Latte Team2023-11-24T16:06:24+00:00
Chances are you’ve heard of software like “Photoshop” or “Illustrator” and technical terms such as “.PSD” and “vector”. If you’re not familiar with advanced design tools and terminology, you can easily feel intimidated when it comes to graphic design for your projects. As a creative person, entrepreneur, freelancer, or marketing professional, you undoubtedly need to design all kinds of creative materials and this is where Canva comes to the rescue. In this article, we tell you about all that Canva has to offer, including our opinion on both the free and paid services, the Canva pro price, their free trial , as well as ways to save on subscription costs.
Canva is a website that offers various graphic design tools and templates for all kinds of creative needs. In their own words, “Canva makes designing quality creative assets easy for everyone“. Among the graphic materials you can design are resumes, infographics, slideshows, graphic elements for social media, among dozens of others. Using Canva is free – however, you’ve probably seen that Canva also offers a paid Pro version. We will go into detail on both the free and paid versions – so let’s get started!
Free Canva Account
Canva offers several of its tools and hundreds of its templates for free. To access these, you must simply create a free user profile. This is what you will see as a free registered user:
Canva as viewed by a registered user
There is a menu on the left that allows you to go to the home page, an access to a specific project’s portal, a page with all available free templates, as well as two free-to-use apps (which are Smartmockups and Product Photos, two impressive tools that combine the best of artificial intelligence and graphic design. Smartmockups allows you to transform photos of your products into mockups showing how they would appear in a user setting, while Product Photos allows you to create professional photos of your products with various backgrounds just simply uploading the photos you wish to transform.
Many of Canva’s features are free, and we’re not exaggerating when we say that this site doesn’t skimp on what it offers to its free users. These are the major categories of templates you can find as well as the most useful templates under each of them:
Professional and Business Templates
Create a CV in Canva and you won’t need any other tool to stand out among the other applicants!
As you can see, simply the free version of Canva gives have access to an endless number of tools and templates. However, if you need to take your graphic creation to the next level, Canva Pro opens the door to even more services, tools and templates, which we’ll tell you about below.
Canva Pro
As we already mentioned, Canva Pro offers you unlimited access to premium content and design tools. In this section we show in more detail you all the advantages Canva Pro has to offer.
Canva Pro gives you access the door to over 75 million premium stock assets!
In our opinion, this single feature of Canva Pro singlehandedly justifies its cost. You get access to over 75 million stock files for your projects as part of your subscription – this includes stock images, illustrations, icons, video, and audio! Discover tens of millions of premium images, videos, graphic elements and audios all in one place. With these images made and designed by professionals, it’s easy to find high-quality content without the stress of having to create the content yourself. If you compare the subscription cost of Canva Pro to just the cost of a subscription to one of the popular stock library materials, you’ll realize the savings and value this single feature of Canva Pro represents to its users.
The Canva Pro Brand Kit will help you standardize your brand’s visual identity and manage it in a centralized manner.
Canva Pro’s Brand Kit allows you to create a document that compiles and standardizes the visual elements of your brand, including fonts, logos, colors, among others (click here to learn more about what a brand kit is). With this Pro tool you will be able to define your brand identity (from scratch or by compiling in one place the elements you already have) to obtain a uniform look in all aspects of your brand. This way, you and your team will always have a unified visual reference to refer to so that, no matter who creates what, there is a consistent look and feel across both internal and external materials. Read more about Canva’s Brand Kit here.
Canva Pro’s Background Remover tool allows you to remove backgrounds with just a couple of clicks.
How many times have you needed to remove the background of an image or video and wondered how to do it? You can do it with software like Photoshop, but you have to learn how to use it. The Background Remover tool included in Canva Pro helps you do it with just a couple of clicks – this tool will save you a lot of time and money (An off-topic tip if you need to change the background of a picture? Buy a portable green screen and use a tool like Fotor to change the green background into any color or image you like!)
Canva Pro’s content planning tool will help you manage all your social networks from Canva. This means you won’t have to post content individually across multiple networks. Instead, with a couple of clicks you will simultaneously publish everything you want in an efficient and centralized way. You will also be able to check the performance of each post and campaign with a dashboard included in the tool. This is a great alternative to Hootsuite and similar tools, which represent an extra cost for a benefit that Canva Pro offers you as part of everything you get as a subscriber.
Canva’s magic resizing tool helps you adapt your content to all your platforms and campaigns.
Let’s say you have your logo designed for the dimensions of a Facebook cover image. If you need to share it on Instagram or use it for your company’s LinkedIn profile cover image, you’ll need not only a tool like Photoshop, but also figure out what dimensions are needed for whatever other platform you need to use it on. Canva’s magic resize tool saves you these two steps by automatically adjusting the dimensions of your artwork based on the platform you choose in the tool. It’s really a matter of one or two clicks.
Canva Pro Price
Canva Pro is offered in two payment plans:
Monthly Payment: $12.99 USD/€11.99 Euros per month
Annual Payment: $119.99 USD/€109.99 Euros per year (more than 20% savings than with the monthly plan!)
If you plan to use Canva Pro within your company or organization, you can opt for Canva for Teams. These subscriptions allow more than one person to access the same account and include extra tools to help collaboration between team members. Pricing varies depending on your needs and the size of your team, so we recommend reading more about these plans here.
Here’s one question which we have seen asked often: can you get Canva Pro for free? And there is one case where the answer is YES. This is in the case of Canva for Education. Students and teachers in elementary and high schools can get access to a Pro tool with customized features for their needs. If you are a teacher or student, read more about how to check your status and activate Canva for Education here.
We hope you find this article useful when deciding if you need a Canva Pro subscription. In conclusion, a free Canva account itself offers you an incredible amount of free tools and templates for all your creative needs. Canva Pro, on the other hand, offers you an all-in-one creative tool for your personal or professional projects at an absolutely reasonable price. As we said, the benefits like the multimedia stock library or the content planning tool itself justify the price of this subscription. When you take into account that all these tools are included along with an unlimited selection of premium templates, it’s clear that Canva Pro is a service that will bring you a lot of value for a low price! If you were interested in this article, check out our creative reviews and coupons section – bookmark it, as we’re always adding new reviews and offers for you!
10 sites with FREE freelance graphic design resources in 2024The RGB Latte Team2023-11-24T16:06:42+00:00
Graphic design resources are an absolute necessity across several areas of freelance digital marketing. While it may seem that such resources are limited to images, there are dozens of resource types that will come handy across a variety of projects. If you do Social Media or Email Marketing, you certainly need stock images – but also templates showing you the dimensions of posts by social media as well icons for your mailers. Likewise, if you are a freelance website developer, you will likely need placeholder images to present design mock-ups, as well as buttons and other navigation elements for the final result. Keep reading this article for our recommendation of the best pages to get FREE freelance graphic design resources. We break these resources down in the following sections:
Table of Contents
Image via Balázs Kétyi on Unsplash
What are graphic design resources?
Graphic Design is the art of communicating through visual content, including fonts and typography. It is a wide area with several concentrations (read more about Graphic Design as a creative career here). You may relate graphic design to posters and advertising – these are certainly a part of graphic design, but this field covers a many other areas. A business logo and business cards, a website’s landing page, infographics, product labels, and mobile app interfaces all require good graphic design. And good graphic design requires great element that will help you with the task and save you time and money.
10 sites with FREE freelance graphic design resources
Canva will help you become a creative powerhouse with several all-under-one-roof tools. In their own words, “Canva makes designing beautiful creative assets easy for everyone”. You will find so much under one page and under several freelance graphic design resource categories:
Canva is truly a creative goldmine with so much to offer – and so much of it free!
2. Unsplash
Image via Unsplash
Unsplash.com offers you a huge range of free stock images. This is not restricted to photos (which come in a vast variety of themes and subjects), but also includes Editorial images, wallpapers, and 3D renders, and several other freelance graphic design resources.
3. Pexels
Image via Pexels
Pexels.com offers you a vast selection of freelance graphic design resources, including stock images and videos for you to download and use in your personal and professional projects. The variety of subjects is comprehensive, and it is organized by tags, collections, or discoverable via a search.
4. Pixabay
Image via Pixabay
Pixabay.com is very similar in its offering to Pexels (fun fact: they started as competing sites, now they both belong to Canva). Its library includes freelance graphic design resources such as stock images, illustrations and vectors, video, as well as music and sound effects.
5. Freepik
Image via Freepik
We would be silly not to include Freepik here. It offers a gigantic library of freelance graphic design resources, namely free stock vectors, illustrations, and images. Thousands of these are offered for free, but there is also premium content accessible via one of their affordable subscription plans. If you only want to see the free stuff, make sure to use their handy filter to hide the premium content.
6. Flaticon
Image via Flaticon
This page is actually a sister site of Freepik. It offers thousands and thousands of free icons and stickers for your personal and professional project. Same as above, several thousands are free to download, but you will also see premium assets while browsing. You can simply use a filter to just display the free ones.
7. Graphic Burger
Image via GraphicBurger
This page is unique in that it offers compilations of free freelance graphic design resources like no other. Mockups, icons, design and logo templates, text effects, textures…. You can lose yourself in all that they make available to people in need of free creative assets!
8. Vecteezy
Image via Vecteezy
Vecteezy.com offers hundreds of thousands of free stock vectors and clipart graphics, as well as stock photos. They are also behind the ever-useful Videezy.com, which focuses on stock video. However, it appears that their pages are now centralized to offer you a one-stop-shop where you can download several of their assets without leaving the page (we see videos offered directly on Vecteezy, for example!). They also offer a Pro subscription plan, which expands their freelance graphic design resources library and allows you to download some amazing asset mega bundles.
9. Design Bundles
Image via DesignBundles
Designbundles.net does not focus solely on free assets – but they do have a section of free downloads, which includes stock graphics, templates, fonts, and other freelance graphic design resources.
10. Behance
Image via Behance
Behance is the outlier on this list as it is mainly a platform to build and display your creative portfolio online. However, it also offers freelance graphic design resources, including mockups, icons, etc. You just need to know what to search for (we recommend putting “free icons” in the search bar to get started!).
We hope that you found this article where we list 10 pages with free freelance graphic design resources useful. Make the most out of them for all your personal and creative projects – however, one more thing. Most of the stock assets that are offered for free in the pages we listed above (and overall, on the internet) do not have a royalty-free license. They usually come with one of the several attribution licenses that exist out there (for example, Creative Commons 3.0.). This means that while you are fully allowed to use these assets for personal or commercial purposes, you must provide an attribution to the author or source as instructed by each page. For the sources that do offer paid subscriptions, becoming a paid user makes all the assets you get access to royalty free material that do not require an attribution. Also, why not read our article covering the different fields of freelance digital marketing jobs available to you as a freelancer?
If you are new to graphic design, we leave you some FAQ for any doubts you may have!
Graphic Design FAQ’s
What resources do you need for graphic design?
There are several types of resources that are useful for graphic design resources. These include stock images, vectors, illustrations, motion graphics, and video. Additional resources include templates, typography, logo presets, and any other assets that will save you time and money in your personal and professional graphic design projects.
What are the 7 types of graphic design?
According to Berkley College, the 7 types of graphic design are grouped as follows: Web Design, UI and Interactive Design, Advertising and Marketing Design, Motion Graphics and Animation, PackagingDesign, Game Design, Illustration, as well as Publication and Typographic Design.
What are the 12 rules of graphic design?
These are not rules per-se, but principles. The 12 principles of graphic designs are as follows: Variety and Unity, Movement, White Space, Pattern, Rhythm, Repetition, Hierarchy, Proportion, Emphasis, Balance, and Contrast.
What are the 4 C’s of graphic design?
This term refers to Graphic Design when applied to UX design, and it is: Consistency, Continuity, Context, And Complementary.
Cover Image via NordWood Themes on Unsplash
3 reasons to use a VPN in 2024 (including Forticlient VPN, Express VPN, NordVPN…)The RGB Latte Team2023-11-24T16:07:56+00:00
You have probably heard the term “VPN” in relation to your online browsing. And the truth is that we hear it in many contexts: protecting your data, consuming content blocked in your country, avoiding the famous “dynamic pricing“, among others. The term VPN stands for “virtual private network”. VPN’s have many uses, especially for freelancers and creative people who read our blog. Keep reading this article for our recommendations and reviews of various VPN options, including Forticlient VPN, Express VPN and NordVPN, among others.
Table of Contents
What is a VPN
As explained in the introduction, VPN stands for “virtual private network”. VPNs have many uses, but in this article we are going to focus on those that will be useful to you as a freelancer, remote worker, and as a private citizen. There are many companies who offer you VPN connections (generally in the form of subscriptions plans), including Forticlient VPN, NordVPN, Hola! VPN, among others. We share our recommendations at the end of the article, so read on.
When using a VPN, your internet connection is handled in an encrypted and highly private manner. This means that your internet activity is protected from governments, hackers as well as from your internet provider. If you have already worked remotely for a company, it is likely that you have had to connect to the company’s internal VPN to work. This is because this VPN puts you on the company’s central network, which protects your data from potential vulnerabilities. And if you are a freelancer and do not use one, ¡we recommend that you start right away!
Why we recommend that you use a VPN as a freelancer
There are many advantages (and pressing needs) why a freelancer should consider using a VPN service. This applies not only to freelancers, but to anyone who works remotely and who may be using public internet connections for their work.
1. Safety and Privacy
As a freelancer or remote worker, you probably work from a laptop, which you have probably used in airports, cafes or coworking spaces. Even your own home Internet network can be open to vulnerabilities. A VPN helps you keep your data secure. This is because with a VPN, your connection is encrypted. This means that, unlike public or vulnerable networks, no one can see what websites you are visiting or the files and data you are transmitting.
Image via FLY:D on Unsplash
Como Freelancer, esto agrega una capa de confianza a las relaciones que tienes con tus clientes (¡puedes incluso dejarles saber que trabajas usando una VPN, lo que protege tu trabajo y sus datos!). Es más que probable que estés intercambiando contratos, métodos de pago y archivos con mucha gente. Con una red privada virtual estás invirtiendo en tu protección y reputación. Como mencionamos más temprano, es probable que si trabajas a distancia para una compañía, te hagan utilizar una VPN para conectarte a sus servidores centrales por default.
2. Unrestricted International Access
It is nothing new that, for various factors, many countries restrict content on the internet. Not only this, your browsing experience across countries will be different due to targeting and geolocation issues. With a VPN you avoid censorship and restrictions. If you are a freelancer who does SEO consulting work in Mexico and your client is in Canada, you will want to see Google’s homepage and search results as a Canadian sees them, and not as they appear locally. You simply need to use your VPN to connect to servers in Canada and that’s it: when you enter Google, you will see that it is in English (or French) and that the results will be those of the Great White North.
Image via NASA on Unsplash
In a similar manner, if you work in digital marketing, your client may ask you to set up campaigns with specific creatives and copy unique to different countries. There’s nothing more practical then to be able to see in real time each geo is displaying their unique campaigns according to plan.
This point will also help to see streaming content available exclusively in other countries … so a VPN is useful during your working hours, as well as during your leisure time!
3. Speed and Performance
When you work in an office, there is an IT team that specializes in making internet connections work quickly and efficiently. When you are a freelancer or remote worker, the connections you use can be saturated and slow. This is where VPNs come in: by relying on an external virtual server, the performance of your connection can be improved and perform at stable levels while you work.
Image via Frederik Lipfert on Unsplash
If you work in creative industries, you know that there are a lot of files to send, many of them heavy (for example, RAW photos, videos, images, audio and video files, or in special software formats such as AutoCAD, AfterEffects, DaVinci Resolve, among others). A VPN will save you more than one frustration with slow connections and failed file transfers.
Our VPN Recommendations:
In our team we have tested some VPNs for both professional and personal browsing. These are the ones we recommend based on our experiences.
This Premium VPN provider is one of the most popular, well-known and reputable out there. They have servers on a global scale (more than 5,500 in 60 countries) and all set up to offer you fast and reliable connections. Your data will be safe thanks to their advanced encryption technology and the fact that NordVPN does not store any of the user data that passes through their servers.
Logo via Nord VPN
NordVPN has other more advanced features, such as a double encryption option (which encrypts your connection through two servers for even greater security). NordVPN is easy to use and you can use the same account to connect from multiple devices (computers, smartphones and tablets). The interface is as simple and intuitive as selecting the connection you want on a world map and clicking on “connect”.
Their pricing is very reasonable and comes in a few purchase formats. You can opt for a monthly billing plan, an annual billing plan, or a prepaid plan for a two-year subscription. As usual, the two-year plan is where you save the most, especially since there are often great deals and discounts.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is another of the best-known names among premium VPN providers. It has an excellent reputation in terms of the speed and stability of its connections – which, as we mentioned, is key for a freelancer who needs stable browsing for surfing the Internet, using tools that depend on fast connections, as well as sending and downloading files with their clients.
Logo via Expressvpn
Other advantages of ExpressVPN are its encryption technology, the privacy that their lack of logging and data storage offers, its global coverage with servers in countries all over the world, as well as its renowned customer service that is available 24/7 (not to mention its 30-day satisfaction guarantee policy). ExpressVPN also offers a free trial period. Their subscriptions offer monthly, semi-annual, or annual billing. It goes without saying that the longer subscription you chose, the more savings you will have.
This premium provider is another one that we refer to as the “big three”, which include the two previous ones above. It is a service that will accompany you across your devices (in fact, as they themselves say, you can use it on an infinite number of devices). In terms of privacy, you are just as protected as with the other VPNs mentioned above, since Atlas VPN has advanced encryption technology and a zero data storage policy (Atlas VPN uses what is called a “WireGuard” protocol, which focuses precisely on security and privacy). Another advantage is that AtlasVPN offers protection for your email.
Logo via Atlas VPN
With this VPN provider you will have optimized servers for streaming, which will be very useful for both your work and personal browsing. In the same way, it has no bandwidth restrictions, which keeps your connection at an optimal speed through more than 750 servers around the world. Another very useful thing as a freelancer or remote employee is that Atlas VPN allows you to share files Peer-to-Peer in a secure way, which is ideal for teams and projects that need efficient file sharing.
You can purchase a monthly, yearly or 3-year subscription. The longer you opt for, the more you save (not to mention that there always seem to be extra coupons and promotions to entice you into a subscription). Atlas VPN also offers a 30-day satisfaction guarantee policy.
Forticlient VPN
Forticlient VPN belongs to Fortinet and it is one or the more advanced options here, though at the expense of intuitiveness of use. It offers robust security and privacy features like SSL and IPSEC encryption protocols, which will shield you from several cyber threats. It is available across various platforms, including Windows and Mac for desktop, as well as Android and iOS for mobile devices.
A neat feature is its automatic detection of unsecured network connections, which will immediately prompt your device to connect to its VPN. It also adds an extra layer of security to your connection via 2-factor authentication. It also offers you default malware and antivirus protection, which will filter out any issues with incoming files and data.
Logo via Fortinet VPN
As mentioned, it is not that Fortinet VPN offers bad UX – it is just not as intuitive and attractive as the previously-reviewed competitors. Indeed, our team had to follow a YouTube tutorial to resolve a doubt it had when trying to connect (or perhaps we were spoiled with how easy the other Premium VPN services do things!)
Regarding pricing, it offers a free trial (once more, a bit of a cumbersome process since you have to apply for it), and the transactions go through a sales team to find the best solution for you. All-in-all, it may be a better solution for professionals or large networks. For freelancers, we recommend sticking to the easier-to-use options.
Hola! VPN
Hola! VPN offers both a free and a premium VPN service. The disadvantage of the premium version is that usage is restricted by time limits. This means that you will be disconnected when using the maximum daily time limit and you will have to wait until enough time has passed to connect again. To avoid this, you can opt for the Premium version, which Hola! VPN offers under monthly, annual and three-year billing (need we repeat that the longer you opt for, the more you save?)
Logo via Hola! VPN
You can enjoy HolaVPN through a Chrome extension, as well as a Hola! VPN app for both desktop and Android. It’s worth mentioning that there are some aspects in which HolaVPN is at a disadvantage to the other providers mentioned. For example, HolaVPN’s encryption is not the most robust (far from what other tools offer), which is definitely not ideal for professional use. Another aspect is the limitations of the free version, including usage, bandwidth, and speed limitations. As a freelancer, we recommend you to go for one of the previous ones that offer premium plans and services.
We hope that now you understand what a VPN is and the advantages that using one brings to you as a freelancer. We also hope that our recommendations will be useful to you when choosing a VPN provider (although there are many other providers that we did not mention in our reviews). Protecting your security and privacy is priceless, especially when the quality of your work and your reputation as a professional are at stake, so don’t hesitate to visit the pages of each of the recommended providers and see which one is best for you!
We wrap up with some frequently asked questions to further help you with the topic of VPNs.
VPN FAQ’s
What is VPN and why do I need it?
A VPN (“virtual private network”) establishes a private communication channel between devices over the Internet. One of the primary functions of a VPN is to transmit data securely and anonymously across Internet networks, including your own connection or public networks. You don’t need it – but it has many benefits such as enhanced security, privacy, and connection speed.
Are VPNs free?
Some are, like Hola! VPN. However, if you find free VPNs, chances are that they come with strings attached (usage and speed limitations, for example). Most providers offer trials and satisfaction guarantees.
Do I really need a VPN at home?
It depends. If you just use your internet to stream Netflix or Disney+, no. But as a private citizen, you likely use online banking and do online shopping. It goes without saying that using credit card and banking information without a VPN, even at home, exposes you to vulnerabilities. Now, if you are a freelancer or work from home, then yes – we strongly recommend using a VPN for safety and privacy reasons.
6 job sectors for freelance digital marketing specialists in 2024The RGB Latte Team2023-11-24T16:08:05+00:00
There is a prevalent myth about freelancing that gets repeated time and again: “to be a freelancer, you must be a developer or a graphic designer”. This is false, and too many potential freelancers and digital nomads don’t pursue their passions remotely and independently due the prevalence of this belief. In this article, we will dispel this stereotype and share the best freelance digital marketing jobs and occupations you can work in as a remote and self-employed professional.
Ambroise Debret is a coach for anyone who would like to become a freelancer. He has worked as a digital nomad and freelancing coach for years, and advises his community on finding clients, working remotely, and using the internet to its full potential to build a digital freelancing career. Referring to the big freelancing myth at the beginning of this article, Ambroise has seen how, out of hundreds of professionals that he has coached to become freelancers, only 10%-15% fell under graphic designers and developers. There are dozens of freelance digital marketing jobs and careers in which you can find work, for which there is demand, and which pay well, too!
Table of Contents
The Principles of Freelancing
Let us start with a reminder of what freelancing means before we dive into the jobs and careers you can pursue. Freelancing is a very simple concept: you offer one or more of your competences to clients who need them. The client is usually a company, and you usually work as a contractor instead of being a full-time employee. Your clients will often have a specific mission for you to accomplish based on a need they have.
This could be a stock image of a freelance digital nomad, but it is actually our friend Ambroise Debret working remotely!
It is possible that the company has specific short- to medium-term needs. Alternatively, the company may have decided to outsource a longer-term role to a specialist rather than hiring a full-time employee. This is why they could be on the look for freelancers – who can likely complete these jobs remotely!
Companies have several marketing needs. Yes, they need graphic designers and developers, but also email marketers, social media managers, copywriters, video editors, data science experts, photo retouchers, and even customer service agents. Oftentimes, these missions have combined roles: they may need someone with knowledge in graphic design but who also has experience in project management so they can collaborate with other company stakeholders like the UX designer and the webmaster towards completing a task.
Going back to the point about you being an outsourced specialist, charging and getting paid as a freelancer is an important aspect, but also a whole separate topic. We cannot go in full detail here, but you can start by thinking about the different billing methods. Billing by the hour is self-explanatory: you charge for the hours it took you to complete your task. Fixed price billing means that you charge for the task, regardless of the hours it takes you. Finally, Project-based billing entails a price estimation for the project, but with possibilities of the final cost increasing given extra work or revisions that may be needed.
The 6 Main Freelance Digital Marketing Sectors
Now that the basics of freelancing have been covered, we can move on to the main digital marketing sectors where you can find a job as a freelancer. They are grouped in six main categories, and we mention examples of jobs that fall under each of them. This will make it abundantly clear that virtually most jobs can be completed by a remote freelancer.
1. Web Marketing
This first category includes (but is not limited to):
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
Email Marketing
Social Media Management
Affiliate MarketingManagement
Photo via – Stephen Phillips – Hostreviews.co.uk on Unsplash.com
For example, a business can have a general need for growth, but this will be split across marketing channels. An SEO expert will come handy for them to improve their presence on search engines. An SEM manager will help them pay for ads that appear above organic results on search engines like Google. They may want to reach their user base via a newsletter, for which the Email marketing expert will come in handy. Finally, they could also want a solid social media presence – they may already have someone who creates the images to share on social media platforms, but need someone who knows how to reach the target audiences on them.
As mentioned before, these tasks may be punctual, but you may also get an ongoing freelance digital marketing contract to manage them on a mid to long-term bases. You may have expertise in more than one of these fields, which definitely adds value to your profile, but it is understandable that with domains as intensive as SEO, the person in charge will focus solely on that.
2. Software and Web Development
This second category does include the usual suspects like web developers (frontend, backend, and full-stack), but also includes:
Mobile App Developer
AI/Machine Learning Developer
Game Developer
Operating Systems Developer
DevOps Engineer
Big Data Developer
This last one, “Big Data Developer”, touches on data science, which isthe setup and implementations for data tracking and collection, data analysis, data visualization, among others.
Photo via Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash
As you can imagine, each of these examples mentioned is a job up on itself, and many are interconnected. For example, an e-commerce company will need help to create product catalogs and identify what data needs to be collected. Following that, they will need someone who puts all their data in a collectable format and installs tracking software, such as Google Analytics. A website may collect data from many sources, so an expert who knows how to centralize data into a data visualization tool like Looker, Tableau, Zoho Anyltics, or Klipfolio may be needed, too!
3. Written Content and Translations
This point includes all that has to do with written content – in the company’s native tongue, and in multilingual versions if applicable. A copywriter is needed to write efficient commercial copy. An editor is needed to write and edit content such as articles for a company’s blog or commercial newsletters. Proofreaders and fact-checkers add an extra layer of reputability for a company that relies considerably on content…
Image by Lucia Grzeskiewicz from Pixabay
And if you are multilingual, you will find luck with roles such as translation and localization. A website may need a fully or partial Spanish version. A British company may need someone to adapt the language and context for a North American expansion… There are so many roles in this section, and being a bilingual in freelance digital marketing specialist pays off! Once more, these skills can be combined with others mentioned here. If you are a copywriter or text editor, and know SEO, you are set for an amazing freelance digital marketing role!
4. Project Management
In the points above, we mentioned how each of these domains under the global “digital marketing” category entail themselves several sub-specialisations that often collaborate towards the final goal based on a company’s needs. These projects take many steps across several stakeholders, so naturally there is always a need for project managers as well.
Picture via Alvaro Reyes on Unsplash
An agile way of doing things is preferred to maximize budgets and resources. This is why past experience as a product or project manager, or as a Scrum master(either as an in-house employee or as part of a freelance digital marketing project) will be an absolute asset for you. Once more, this is a role that may be limited to a particular project, or which will be more long term in assisting many teams work together across several projects.
5. Design and Media
Yes, this category includes graphic designers, but so much more as well, including:
Many of these creative and design roles are interconnected with the ones mentioned in previous categories above. Remember the role of social media manager? If you know graphic design or video recording and editing, as well as how to use social media for advertising, you have a natural competitive advantage over any other candidate for such roles. After all, think that you will be saving the client time and money by hiring you at a reasonably higher rate than hiring two different in-house or freelance digital marketing specialists who will each focus on one single aspect of this hypothetical mission.
6. Other Freelance Digital Marketing roles
This is a category that groups roles in which digital marketing freelancers can get roles, but that do not really fall under the ones described above. This includes virtual customer service assistantsand direction assistants, as well as digital marketing coaches.
Consultants fall under this category too. These are professionals who have experience in coaching businesses and guiding them in the right direction according to their goals, without necessarily having a deep expertise in any of the above-mentioned fields.
Now that you have an idea of the plethora of freelance digital marketing jobs where you can work that fall under “digital marketing”, you can now see how your experience and skills can help you find a job for you to get started. You will find it incredibly satisfying to find a job that you enjoy, for which there is demand, and that pays fairly.
This article is second in a series of articles that have generously been shared with RGBLatte by our friend Ambroise Debret. In our previous article, we shared his list of common mistakes that freelancers make, which we encourage you to read as well!
If you have already leaped into the world of freelancing, you may want to improve your LinkedIn profile to grow your network and find a job. At RGBLatte we cover all sorts of creative careers – if by any chance you are interested in the music industry, we have a list of 40+ useful websites to find jobs in the music industry (hint: they are not limited to producers and musicians!).
We covered a few of the basics of freelancing in this article, but here are a few extra FAQ’s if you still want to learn more about it before fully diving into it!
FAQ’s about Freelance Marketing
What is a freelance marketing?
When it comes to digital marketing, a freelance digital marketing specialist is a self-employed professional who specializes in one or more of the marketing sectors mentioned in this article. They will work for clients in short- medium- or long-term projects based on the client’s marketing needs, and they can usually work remotely.
How much does a freelance marketer make?
There is not a single good answer for this. It depends on many factors. Salary.com estimates that the salary range for a Freelance Marketing is from USD $84,169 to $111,166 per year in the United States (and the similar equivalence in Euros depending in which European country their clients are based). However, this depends on the amount of clients they are taking in, the nature of their contracts, as well as where their clients are based and what budgets they have for outsourced missions.
How do I become an independent marketer?
First of all, you need to sit down and list the skills you have and how it can translate as value to a company. Secondly, you will want to put yourself out there and offer your services to your network, but also look for marketing missions aimed at freelancers. You can always consult with a Freelancing coach to get on the right track and thrive as an independent freelance digital marketing expert.
Is freelance marketing a good career?
Yes, if you know how to optimize your talent, network, clients, and time. Instead of a fixed-salary, you can make as much money as you want based on the hours of a day you are willing to work for the number of clients you can accept. Freelancing gigs can also be an extra income additional to your full-time job. To boot, most gigs are remote! We recommend not idealizing freelancing, though – if not done correctly, it can lead to issues with clients and earning less money than you would with a regular fixed-salary full-time job.
6 FREE pages with cute kawaii drawings to color (Updated 2024)The RGB Latte Team2023-11-24T16:08:35+00:00
Let’s face it – there is a high correlation between being creative, being a bit of a geek, and at the same time, needing an activity to distract you from work. One thing that never fails among our team is doing creative activities and crafts. This includes taking a box of colors or crayons, printing out pictures, and spending hours coloring them. If this includes cute kawaii drawings to color, even better! (If you don’t know, kawaii is a Japanese aesthetic that focuses on all things adorable and cute. If you’re interested in learning more about the meaning of the term kawaii, read this article to the end)
The fact that we love coloring as a hobby is no coincidence: studies show that coloring is therapeutic and offers many benefits: fostering mindfulness, reducing stress, improving psychomotor coordination and spatial orientation, and even reaching a meditative state during the activity (not to mention the sheer nostalgia brought on by the smell of coloring pencils and crayons). If you have or work with children, this is also an ideal activity to develop their creative side.
In this article we have compiled several pages where you can download kawaii illustrations for coloring. You can print them out, or use them as the basis for digital art using your favorite illustration or photo manipulation software.
Tokidoki is a brand full of amazing characters that was created in 2006 and whose popularity has only continued to grow. It may not be obvious, but the brand is not Japanese, but Italian. You can find their amazing designs in clothing, accessories, toys and vinyl figures, mugs, backpacks (given their collaboration with LeSportsac), among a myriad of other tantalizing merchandise. On their official website, Tokidoki offers a wide variety of coloring pages for you to download and enjoy!
Coloringonly is a website that offers over 50,000 black and white illustrations for coloring. They have a large selection of Sanrio characters (including Hello Kityy, My Melody, Pochacco (our favorite!), Pompompurin, among others). Some illustrations look official, others look like fan art (for example, the Emo Hello Kitty). We’re not sure what license they have (or not) with Sanrio, so we recommend you use what you print only for personal use… Coloring pages aren’t enough for you? There’s endless Sanrio merchandise that can be yours. We want it all.
This well-known library of stock assets has lots and lots of black and white illustrations for coloring. A search with the words “Kawaii+coloring” brings up over 1500 results. Shutterstock is offering a free trial period that will give you some free downloads. You can also download a high-quality preview of the images by creating a free account. They will include the library’s watermark, but it doesn’t matter if you just want to distract yourself or give them to kids to color. Shall we recommend this series of kawaii horror character illustrations for coloring? Or is it too geeky?
IHeartCraftyThings is a website full of arts and crafts materials and ideas. The link above shows you 15 Pokemon coloring pages ready to print (we find it impressive that after playing the original Pokemon Red and Blue games over 20 years ago, this franchise is still only growing in popularity, with a veritable empire of merchandise to buy). Again, we are not sure of the licensing agreement this site has with Nintendo, so we recommend you only use them for personal use.
Another kawaii franchise found on Coloringonly is Pusheen. This cat stole our hearts and we are still obsessed with him (or her?), drooling over every piece of Pusheen merch. To avoid repeating ourselves over and over again with licensing matterrs, we’ll just mention that we recommend using these pages for personal use only.
And that’s all. Have a lot of fun printing and coloring these images. Here’s a creative idea. Kawaii goes hand in hand with rainbows, why not create rainbow gradients with these pages we compiled for you and use them to color these images digitally? We think they would look amazing!
If you are a geek, here are some frequently asked questions around kawaii:
What is the real meaning of kawaii?
The word kawaii comes from Japanese and translates into English as “cute” or “adorable”. The concept of kawaii is rooted in Japanese culture. It is a term for something that sparks a unique emotion that makes you go “aw!”.. It is used to describe people (especially babies and children) and animals, but also objects such as clothing and household items. It is a true aesthetic and is found throughout Japanese culture. Even mascots and logos of otherwise boring services as train networks include kawaii characters as mascots.
What is kawaii style?
This depends on what you mean by style. For an object or illustration to be considered kawaii, a set of cartoonish and exaggerated features are needed, especially those that are particular to what the human eye considers “adorable”, like big eyes. An object or animal posessing anthropomorphic features makes it kawaii too. Bright or pastel colors help too. On the subject of personal style, you can look at the famous Harajuku fashion styles. Kawaii behavior adopts specific characteristics such as covering your mouth to laugh or exaggerating the expressiveness of your emotions. If you want to make it easy, simply opt for a hoodie or headbands with animal ears (or a Kigurumi!).
Is kawaii still a thing?
We don’t think that cuteness will ever go away. Therefore, we don’t predict kawaii disappearing any time soon!
What is the opposite of kawaii in Japanese?
This is a very fun fact. The opposite of “kawaii” is “Kimochi warui“, which means “ugly and weird”. However, if something ugly and weird manages to be cute, it can become “kimokawaii“.
What is a chibi girl?
This concept is a part of the kawaii aesthetic. “Chibi” in Japanese can be translated as “small”. It can be applied to animal, people, or objects. For people it would be closely translated as “shorty”. This is cute in illustrations and cartoons, but could be rude if you refer to a person like this.
Foto de portada via Tokidoki
7 common mistakes freelance digital marketers make in 2024The RGB Latte Team2023-11-24T16:08:42+00:00
For a few years now, the words “freelance” and “digital nomad” have become part of mainstream work vocabulary. More and more people are taking full advantage of the many benefits that these modern ways of employment bring. One of these people is our friend Ambroise Debret, a freelance digital marketer and digital nomad expert. Having gained several years of experience in these fields, Ambroise is currently a coach for anyone who is curious about or who wants to become a freelancer. His expertise includes coaching on how to find clients, how to work while traveling from place to place, and how to fully take advantage of the internet to thrive remotely and independently. Of course, experience does not come without a few lessons learned, and that’s why he has also written about mistakes that freelancers make and how to avoid them.
Ambroise is French and has lived both in French Canada and France. His website and blog are thus only available in his native tongue at the moment. We want to make his incredible advice available to even more who want to dive into freelancing. This is why, with his permission, we are presenting you his guide to the seven mistakes you should not make as freelancer – as well as what you should be doing instead to start on the right track. This article appeared originally on his blog and has been fully translated by our team with Ambroise’s permission.
The top mistakes freelance digital marketers make
Being a freelancer can be incredibly satisfying and we always talk about its perks: traveling when and where you want to, working on your own schedule, and choosing the gigs that interest you the most. However, we rarely talk about the negative aspects, including the mistakes you may sometimes make and that can cost you dearly. We present them structured by themes, including client targeting and prospecting, communication during projects, as well as the project delivery processes and getting paid. These are by no means unique to digital marketing jobs: graphic designers, proofreaders, translators, and many other freelancing professionals will surely find them useful too!
Freelancing Mistake #1: Not identifying or targeting your clients correctly
Image via Cytonn Photography on Unsplash
This is an area where beginner freelancers make a lot of mistakes. If you need to find new clients, you need to leverage the power of the internet. The old school “knocking-on-doors” approach to prospecting will bear little fruit within the digital world. There is no point of approaching people physically: talking to opticians, veterinarians, or restaurant-owners will not likely turn them into a client. If you work in a digital environment, it will be hard to find people who will see the value in a digital presence among traditional businesses.
The lesson learned is to never force things nor to propose your services to a company that does not already express a need for them. Your network is key for finding clients, and you will make a better use of your time by reaching out and pitching your freelancing services. Speaking from experience, this will help you find customers a lot more easily and productively.
Freelancing Mistake #2: Not getting in touch with the decision-maker and being sure of their needs
Once more, this one comes from experience. Miscommunications happen, even within companies. Imagine you get approached by the Community Manager of a company telling you they are looking for a Growth Hacker. You go through telephone and in-person interviews, and you dedicate time and resources to put together a service proposition. Things keep going in circles until you meet the decision maker for the company’s project who lets you know that, in fact, your services are not what they needed for their project! When we say this comes from experience, it is because it is exactly what happened to Ambroise!
The lesson learned here is that you need to get in touch with the decision-maker as early as early as possible in the process. If not, you will be losing your time. You must make sure that they have an urgent need for your services so you can quickly move on to collaboratingwith them instead of being stuck talking abouthow you could collaborate with them.
Freelancing Mistake #3: Ignoring your client’s budget for the project
Image via Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
The third mistake to avoid is working with companies that do not have the correct budgets or sufficient commercial activity. The result of doing so is that these companies will not be sure of what they need from you and will try to negotiate disadvantageous conditions and payment for your services. Expectations will shift throughout the project, and conditions will get unclear and frustrating as you try to progress. Working like this can lead to you agreeing to something, getting started, and then not being able to continue because of lack of budget or because the client did not know what they really wanted or needed for the beginning.
The takeaway here is not to work with companies who do not set a clear budget from the very start or who do not seem to have an active commercial activity that justifies the work they want you to do for them. (On the other hand, it is also a bad idea to work with companies that treat you like a guru who will solve all their problems. This will also create issues in the long run).
The best thing to do is to set clear minimum budgets that you will work across the different services you offer. You can do this by task or at an hourly rate. When it comes to negotiating the project, make sure to clearly ask what their budget is, see if it corresponds to what you are willing to accept, and then make a list of deliverables for the specific tasks agreed upon.
Freelancing Mistake #4: Failing to limit the exchanges with your client
Freelancers can always expect a few back-and-forths with their clients. This is especially true if you work in design, website creation, or digital marketing. However, if you do not set limits, you risk that the client will contact you dozens of times and ask for rebuilds, major changes, or even several small changes that will start to add up.
The most important thing here is to set limits and make them clear before you start. As an example, if you design someone’s website, you can set the limit of iterations as follows: You present a draft, you present a working prototype, and you present the final page, each step with a maximum of two revisions before advancing to the next one.
Another important thing is to stick to your expertise and put limits to yourself, too. If you agree to tasks that you are not familiar with, you will then force yourself to expect extra revisions that will cost you time and money. You can always delegate parts of the project that are not your strenght to another freelancer and avoid falling in a spiral of endless emails and calls with the client.
Freelancing Mistake #5: Taking on too many projects with overlapping deadlines
Image via Tim Gouw on Unsplash
This point will spare you a great deal of nerves. It is inevitable that your work will be planned around deadlines and launch dates. If you take on clients who let you know they want their results around the same dates, you will just be making things difficult for yourself. You do not know how long the tasks ahead of a deadline are, or how long the launch will take, or what unexpected issues you may run into. The moment you find yourself with simultaneous deadlines drawing closer, you will simply regret having taken on all the projects that you did.
The takeaway here is to make sure to space out your clients’ deadlines. As a consultant, you can even exert some influence over deadlines and help clients set them around what is best for you. In this way, all the work and stress will not take place at the same time. It is also a good idea to get to know your own work rhythm in relation to each type of project you take on. The more you do, the more you will be able to estimate what time and effort your projects more or less take.
Freelancing Mistake #6: Not setting boundaries on your availability
Something aggravating that happens frequently is that clients will ask you for too many things. Some clients will respect you and make collaborating a pleasure. Others will start abusing your professionalism and goodwill. They can start contacting outside of established working hours and via personal communication methods. They will then ask you why you are not replying. This will in turn ruin the line between your professional and personal life.
There are a few tips to this point. For starters, start by clearly stating the details of your professional relationship in your contracts (this applies to all the previous points, too). You can state how, when, and how often communications will take place. You can specify, for example, that you will use a project management tool which you will update daily at end of day, with the possibility of a weekly 30-minute call. Make sure to leave an urgent contact method, but precise it is for absolute emergencies only. Avoid creating precedents too. If the client sends you a voice clip on WhatsApp and you reply, they will think it is an acceptable communication method and continue doing it in the future.
Secondly, you can assign a specific date to your different clients and let them know about it. For example, you can tell one of your clients “I will work on your project Mondays and Wednesdays and can therefore answer to emails and offer updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This will lay out things clearly and precisely for both you and the client.
Freelancing Mistake #7: Being disorganized with your bookkeeping
Image via FIN on Unsplash
This is the final topic of this guide, which happens to be where you can find yourself losing the most time and money in your journey as a freelancer. This is best illustrated with something that, once more, happened to Ambroise. For some years he had a project with a marketing agency where he helped increase social media followers for several of the agency’s clients. The main issue was that he was sending a generic invoice at the end of the month, without fully breaking down the work made for each of these agency’s clients, whose workload varied month by month. The issue is that one of these clients had stopped paying the agency, and Ambroise was not getting paid for the work done for them. This is something he was not realizing because he was just sending generic invoices without any itemizing. After running the numbers, he realized he was owed $4,000, but then the marketing agency went out of business and this money was nowhere to be seen.
The lesson here is to beextremely careful with and strict about your bookkeeping. In business, anything that touches money and payments is of utmost importance. The most important takeaway is to keep track of your accounting to the last penny. If anything does not add up when writing your invoices or getting your money, communicate it with the client immediately.
Another lesson: set clear payment deadlines and extra fees for late payments. The usual payment period is net-30 (payment is due 30 days within the invoice being sent to the client). You can therefore set a penalty of 25% of the owed amount for each week that passes after the payment deadline. You do not have to always enforce this, but it gives you an excuse to chase clients for payment, which you can expect doing a lot as a freelancer.
And there you have it. These are some of the main mistakes freelancers make and which they should avoid. Freelancing has a lot of benefits, but as outlined here, you will have to wear a few extra hats as part of your business, including being your own human resource manager and accountant. Thank you, Ambroise, for these tips. Make sure to consult Ambroise’s guide on becoming a freelancer. It is only available in French at the moment, but you can still use a translation tool and get a great idea of his content.
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