Must-Have Cloud Storage Tools for Freelancers

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I’ve been doing freelance writing and blogging for awhile now and have come to realize that cloud storage is my best co-worker, in more ways than one. Sure, cloud storage is great for making backups and ensuring I don’t lose important files or project progress. However it’s also great when integrated with apps and other services to allow you access to your work wherever it is your work takes you. I’ve outlined a few of these services that I don’t think I would be able to work without.

 

Evernote

While not a cloud storage service in the same sense as most of the services we talk about on this site, Evernote uses cloud storage to allow you access to your notes and documents wherever you are. I use Evernote religiously – in fact it’s where I type up all of my notes and initial drafts of all my articles I write. I know that even if something terrible happens to my computer, I can just grab my phone or tablet and access my draft there. While in meetings with clients I can jot down my notes on my tablet or even record the meeting as an audio note. Later when I’m back to writing at my computer I can access all that info.

On top of the traditional word editing capabilities, Evernote has a bunch of other handy features that make it great for freelancers who use multiple devices for their work: digital handwriting notes, business card scanning via the camera, and Work Chat and sharing abilities so you can share your notes with collaborators or clients. For free you can access all your notes and utilize Work Chat. Bumping up to Evernote Plus for $29.99 USD per year lets you upload up to 1GB of pictures and even save emails directly to Evernote. Evernote Premium lets you annotate PDFs, gives you access to presentation mode, and more for $55.99 per year. Since Evernote is available for Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac devices, it’s the tool I personally recommend the most.

Google Drive

Google Drive is a no-brainer for most freelancers. It’s incredibly simple to access from any device you might use, which makes it great for sharing any files you need with your clients and co-workers. The default maximum storage is 15GB, which is quite sizable. I use Google Drive to share all sorts of files with my clients – folders full of stock images, article drafts, and my podcast co-hosts even use it to share me their audio files for me to edit. You can put pretty much any files you might need into Google Drive, though you can’t necessarily open all files within Google Drive. Since nearly everyone has a Google account now, Google Drive has become my go-to way to get notes and articles to my clients fast.

Adobe Creative Cloud

This is another service that isn’t quite a cloud storage service so much as a service that utilizes cloud storage to make your life much easier. Rather than paying thousands of dollars to get access to the Adobe suite of creative software, you can subscribe to the Creative Cloud for $49.99 USD per month. This gives you access to all 15 Adobe products. Creative Cloud syncs fonts, color swatches, and tons of other settings across all the computers and devices you might use the creative suite on, which makes it perfect if you need to to work directly on a client’s computer. You also get access to all new versions and updates of the software, some extra fonts and 20GB of cloud storage for your Adobe files. There’s also the ProSite portfolio website you can use to set up a portfolio of your work if you subscribe. If you’re a freelancer of the more artistic persuasion, you definitely need Creative Cloud.

LastPass

If you’re a freelance blogger, you probably have access to half a dozen WordPress sites at any given time, at the least. LastPass makes it super easy to keep track of your login details for all of your sites and autofills in your username and password when you visit a site you’ve saved. You can even have LastPass generate extra secure ‘hack-proof’ passwords for you so you can make sure everything remains secure. The best part is that LastPass allows you to share login details with others to make for easy account sharing for services you might need for a project. I’ve used LastPass sharing with clients to gain access to important site analytics and stock photo accounts. It’s saved us a lot of time and hassle and has allowed us to just get on with the project. Once you login to LastPass on a computer you get access to all the usernames and passwords you’ve saved. With LastPass Premium you gain access to mobile app login details as well.


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