If you are in the contract based business like web development, design, programming, writing, or any other freelance art form. You will may need to communicate from time to time. To make sure your work is in the right track on what your client want. So, I have found 6 very useful application that will really help you to solve your communication and make things easier on you and help you keep your sanity.

Organize your business and share

information with your team.

Backpack is a web-based service that makes organizing your information incredibly easy. Backpack lets you make pages which can contain any combination of notes, to-dos, images, files, etc. You can keep these pages to yourself or share them with colleagues, co-workers, friends, or family.

Backpack makes it easy to share your pages with co-workers, family, or anyone else. Just click the “Sharing” link on any Backpack page and choose the people you want to share the page with. Now they’ll be able to view and change the page too. It’s that easy to collaborate or share information.

Backpack Reminders allow you to set up text message and email alerts that can be sent to your cell phone whenever you want. It’s a great way to stay on-time even when you’re away from your computer.

The perfect way to collaborate on a text document and keep everyone literally on the same page.

With EtherPad, anyone in a meeting can contribute to the notes, or watch them as they’re typed. This means more efficient meetings, more useful notes, and fewer misunderstandings.

EtherPad literally keeps everyone on the same page

It’s a great app that can be used along with Skype for hashing out project specifications with clients. Make sure you have all the details right from the start and avoid headaches down the road.

When you’re working with multiple clients, it is easy to lose track of what needs doing. RememberTheMilk is one of the original to-do list web apps and remains one of the best. It’s simple, easy to use, works across a variety of platforms, and lists can be shared with clients so they can be kept abreast of your progress or add or clarify items if necessary.

New! Now available on the iPhone App Store.

Take your tasks anywhere with this feature-packed application. See tasks located nearby, add and complete tasks on the go, organize upcoming tasks, and sync it all seamlessly with Remember The Milk.

Just a few things you can do with Remember The Milk…

Manage tasks quickly and easily.
An intuitive interface makes managing tasks fun. Set due dates easily with next Friday or in 2 weeks. Extensive keyboard shortcuts make task management quicker than ever.
Get reminded, anywhere.
Receive reminders via email, SMS, and instant messenger (AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo! are all supported).

Besides, Organize the way you want to.
Are you a list lover? Create as many lists as you need. Into tagging? Use the task cloud to easily see what you have to do. Want to store notes along with your tasks? You can do that too.

Locate your tasks.
Use the map to see where your tasks are located in the real world. See what’s nearby or on your way, and plan the best way to get things done.

Work together to get things done.
Share, send and publish tasks and lists with your contacts or the world. Remind your significant other to do their household chores.

Add tasks wherever you are.
Adding tasks is as simple as firing off an email (even from your phone). See an important date on the web? Add it to your list with Quick Add.

If you only fax very occasionally, it might not make sense to invest in a fax machine. Instead, use FaxZero to send faxes for free. If you need to receive them as well, use jConnect to do that for free.

One thing you’ll definitely want to take pains in communicating to your clients is how much you work you’ve completed and how long it took you to get it done. We recommend Harvest, a time-tracking application that also handles the invoicing and billing of your clients. If you make it a point to tie time tracking into other client communications, they’ll never expect that they owe you less than they do.

Email is no good for sending larger files, and a private FTP server might be over your client’s head. We always use senduit for passing files that keep it simple and has a generous 100mb limit, No attachment, No complain about not receiving file from client email. Files are destroyed after a set period of time (30 minutes to one week) so you don’t have to worry about private client information leaking out.

However whoever are dealing with large projects, senduit might not a good ideas. When you sending the file, it take long time to download for review. Then Fluxion will be your second choice where it will cut for file for passing files in little bit faster. If you’re buried in files from clients, you need an asset management application like Fluxiom.

Always searching but never finding? Especially if you’re working in a group you know that a hierarchical growing folder structure is hard to handle.

fluxiom searches not only the title but also through your assets’ metadata information, which ranges from document author, number of pages or image resolution to advanced information like color profiles or authoring software.

Easily browse and search your assets’ metadata. When adding files fluxiom extracts and reports metadata including IPTC and EXIF so you won’t have to waste time reentering data.

Where it Fits in Your Workflow

inMotion Another The Fast, Easy Way to Get Control over Project & Approval Workflow for all your Video, Flash, Animation, Web & Print Content too.

From ideas to briefs, from 1st & 2nd drafts through to final signoff, every step of your creative process
needs to get reviewed, approved and kept under control. Introducing inMotion, a revolutionary Project Approval Management Solution so you can manage, collaborate, track and get approvals on all your rich,
interactive content and print projects too.

inMotion’s appeal is its ability to be inserted into many points throughout the creative process. Here, there are opportunities to gain efficiencies within internal communication workflow as well as with client or external communications. Used creatively, it can also assist in preparation for face-to-face client review sessions and enhance those meetings as a presentation and feedback capture tool. Watch the Project Cycle Flow video to see insertion points and opportunities for streamlining workflow with inMotion.

If you found this articles is useful for you. Thank you for buying me a drink!