Hi, everyone! Just wanted to let you know that Bob and I have just released a new episode of Answers for Freelancers. No doubt this comes as a surprise to many of you who have been with us from early on. You may remember that in September of 2008 we published our last episode of A4F and moved on to Creative Independence. So, what are we doing back on A4F?

A few months ago, as I was setting up Esmaya and Me, I took some time to really look over the rest of the sites on the CI Network, and to see how much work it would take to bring all of them onto the same template in order to unify their look. A4F needed a LOT of work and Bob and I seriously considered taking the site down permanently. Then we looked at the traffic. The numbers were high enough to prove to us that many people still found the content useful, and we figured with a little updating, it would be even more so. So, we’ve taken the time to fix the site up.

Copious amounts of spit and polish were the obvious initial need. The real question was to figure out what to do with the podcast episodes and written updates. Some are obviously dated. Others, while hinting at their age through references and anecdotes are fairly timeless. So, our solution is this.

First, as I said, we’ve released a new episode, Episode Zero. This new recording is just a very short overview of what a new listener will find in the A4F podcast feed. Since the last episode is generally what a new listener will hear first, Episode Zero is perfectly placed to introduce the show and set expectations.

Second, we pulled every episode from the feed. Bob and I are listening to them one at a time and deciding on whether or not the episode still matters. If it does, we are rewriting the accompanying post and then either creating new art or formatting the existing art to fit the new template. Once these are done, the episode is added back into the feed. While not a herculean effort, this work does take some time and so will likely be spread out at about an episode or two per week until we are finished. So far, the first three episodes have been rereleased. We expect to have the rest that make the cut back into the feed by the end of the year.

Third, while we are updating the art and written content, we are not editing the audio. No director’s cuts here, folks. We are choosing to spend that time on Creative Independence (more on that later). So ignore side references to MySpace, Macromedia, Adobe CS and whatever else no longer exists and just enjoy the nostalgia and the advice that still applies today.

What does this mean for our longtime listeners? Probably not much, but if you haven’t heard these episodes in a few years, why not subscribe to the feed? These won’t appear in your normal CI feed since A4F was split off shortly after we started CI. Go ahead and reinforce some of the timeless principles presented in these episodes while taking a walk down memory lane as interviews with Michael Gerber, Bill Kenney, J.C. Hutchins, Mitch Joel and others are released back into the lineup.

Now that A4F is pretty much back on auto-pilot, we’ll be focusing on Creative Independence. The site is being updated to the new template even as this post goes out and Bob and I are lining up new interviews for the podcast, so stay tuned. Pod on.