More and more people are discovering the pleasures of freelancing. Whether they decide to freelance on a full-time basis or just to supplement their income, it’s a way to gain some control in a unique way.

Accepting online payments can be a simple process. But in some cases, getting paid is not as simple as it could be. Accepting online payments can simplify the process for everyone concerned.

In fact, there are several reasons that accepting online payments is a good idea. Some of the most important ones are discussed below.

Most Freelance Work Is Online

This means the company the freelancer works for may be located in another part of the country or even in another part of the world. Obviously, dropping off completed work at the office and picking up a check is out of the question. Instead, the completed work will likely be emailed to the company.

Invoices, also, will likely be emailed to the business that requested the work. The good news is, there are numerous templates for online invoices. Plus, most online payment services, such as PayPal, provide invoice platforms.

This allows the freelancer to quickly create and send professional invoices, which are more likely to be paid promptly.

Reliability with Credit Card Payments

When freelancers opt to accept online payments, they actually have options. With an online payment processor, they can choose to accept credit card payments. This is a reliable payment option; however, a fee may be involved.

Credit card payments can be accepted over the phone. Just collect all the pertinent information and enter it as appropriate. Accepting mobile payments is another option.

There are both paid and free mobile credit card reader app programs available. This allows freelancers to swipe cards, get authorization, and collect signatures while on the go.

Enjoy Electronic Transfer Funds

Some freelancers prefer to have their payments transferred to their bank account electronically. In order to use this service, the bank routing number and account number must be shared with the person/business that will be paying the funds. A direct deposit is made into your bank account.

PayPal

PayPal is a popular online payment option. It can be used for accepting payments, making payments, or even for transferring funds to your bank account. Plus, PayPal offers a debit card. In most cases, the only information needed when using PayPal for accepting online payments is an associated email account.

Professionalism

Accepting online payments is another way to make freelancers appear more professional. Besides the fact that it seems less than professional, many clients will consider it an inconvenience to hassle with checks or money orders.

Freelancers have an opportunity to set their own schedule and therefore to have time freedom that many other people envy. Taking advantage of the many tools and strategies available, like accepting online payments, will help ensure that success will be achieved.

Are you aware of how impressively technology has escalated?

The following is a small timeline of popular modern day technology based on the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st centuries – that’s 300 years worth of tech; looking into cars, cameras, computers and more.

Perhaps you sometimes wonder how we could live without our mobile phones or computers – would we even survive without such luxuries!? You’re about to find out.

Music

Music has always meant a great deal in everybody’s lives whether it was to listen and dance to or to go and watch your favorite band. Let’s face it, without music our lives would be pretty pointless – as Friedrich Nietzsche quoted: “Without music, life would be a mistake.” And he is right!

When it came to technology and music, the 1800s introduced us to the Jukebox. Arriving in 1889 and invented by Louis Glass, who received help from pal William S Arnold, recordings had become popular primarily through coin-in-the-slot phonographs in public places such as restaurants and diners.

Further enhancements were made in early 1900s with Lee Deforest inventing AM radio that allowed for a multitude of radio stations. He was also the first person who used the word ‘radio’. In 1933 radio technology was progressed by Edwin Armstrong who invented FM radio with super heterodyne tuner that allowed radios to tune into different radio stations.

Fast forward to the 21^st century and, in 2001, Apple announced the iPod, which was a portable music digital player invented by Steve Jobs. The iPod was announced months shortly after the release of iTunes. A program that converts audio CDs into compressed digital audio files, iTunes could organise your digital music collection. iTunes also allows you to buy online music files which you can simply add to your iPod.

Cars

A car is the well known way of getting around – the preferred mode of transport for getting from ‘A to B’. Without cars, just imagine how busy public transport would be! 1700 marked the beginning of automobile which took many decades worth of planning by several inventors.

Sometime around 1833, Robert Anderson invented the first crude electric-powered carriage powered by non-rechargeable primary cells. Further improvements were made in 1835 when a small scale electric car was invented by Thomas Davenport, the inventor of the first American-built DC electric motor.

The Ford Model T produced by Henry Ford was regarded as the first affordable automobile and was named the world’s most influential car of the 20^th century. The Model T was set as the historic year that the automobile became popular in 1908.

Moving swiftly on to the current century, Ettore Bugatti invented the Bugatti which was awarded ‘car of the decade’ in 2005.

Camera

Photographs are a great way of capturing memories throughout your life. It’s something to look back on and remember that chapter in your life. Cameras are everywhere now, and the quality is only getting better!

Before the terms “megapixels” and “HD” were ever likely to become commonplace, back in the 1800s Joseph Nicephore Niepce used a sliding wooden box to take photographs.

As our thirst for capturing a moment intensified, Edwin H. Land Invented the Polaroid Instant Cameras were developed and first sold from 1948.

Produced by Nikon in early 2009, a DSLR was released, which was the first DSLR to feature video recording. Nowadays though, cameras are everywhere. Heck, you can even take high resolution images with your mobile phone.

Computer

Computers have come a long way in the last three centuries. Now everyone has access to a computer that is hooked up to the web – ah the possibilities!

Believe it or not, the computers and technical PCB designs we know today can be traced back to 1837 where Charles Babbage proposed the first general mechanical computer, the Analytical Engine. The Analytical Engine contained an Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), basic flow control, and integrated memory and was the first general-purpose computer concept.

Produced by Italian manufacturer Olivetti, the Programma 101, released in 1965, was the first commercial desktop computer and helped to pave the way for the office environments we’re privy to today.

In 2011, IBM announced the Smart Cloud framework to support Smarter Planet. Among the various components of the Smarter Computing foundation, cloud computing is a critical piece.

The Telephone

Without the telephone there would be no way of getting in contact with people unless we meet them face to face. What did we ever do if we had an emergency? You can’t imagine what it was like before telephones become a way of communication. The popularity of telephones has soared to an extreme amount – with over 999 billion phone users worldwide!

In the 1870s, the telephone was invented by Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically.

Dr. Martin Cooper invented the first portable handset and was the first person to make a call on the portable cell phone in 1973. The Motorola Dyna-Tac was the first commercial mobile phone invented.

Touch screen mobile devices – or smartphones – have become wildly popular in the 21^st century after Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007. What started out as a means of communication between one voice and another is now so much more than that.

Hoover/Vacuum Cleaner

The hoover – or the Vacuum Cleaner – was, and probably still is, the main key to cleaning. The vacuum cleaner evolved from the carpet sweeper which was dedicated to cleaning up carpet, but now carpet is becoming less popular with laminate flooring taking over.

The Hoover, or what is often referred to as the Vacuum Cleaner, was the first hand pumped Vacuum Cleaner, and was invented in 1860 by Daniel Hess.

In 1901, H. Cecil Booth introduced the first powered vacuum cleaner model that used the technology of the vacuum tube.

Dr. Helen Greiner at iRobot invented the Roomba vacuum cleaner, which entered the market in 2002. These small vacuums can be placed on the floor and roam around freely without the manual hardship of pushing it around.

Public Transport

Unless everybody drove – public transport is our only way of getting about! There is so many ways of getting to places now with the help from trains, buses, ferries, trams, aeroplanes – the lot!

Before anyone bemoaned about the unreliability of public transport, the horse drawn omnibus originated in Paris and was brought to England by the coachbuilder George Shillibeer in 1829 and was used to take members of the community from place to place – albeit slowly.

In 1909 the engineer Thomas Clarkson started the National Steam Car Company to run steam buses in London.

As public transport has become a staple method of arriving at a pre-defined destination, more than 6.3m hybrid buses have been sold worldwide through March 2013 led by the Toyota Motor Company.

As Technology continues to grow we would expect Technology to become more reliable and progress even further! I wonder what the future hold?

Every month more than 500 million Facebook users share some 30 billion pieces of content with their friends. The cream of the crop become crazes, viral videos or internet memes that everybody’s talking about. Read on to discover the ways technology made our favorites possible.

“Gangnam Style” Goes Global

The music video for Psy’s breakthrough single “Gangnam Style” made internet history when it reached one billion YouTube views last December. Its success wouldn’t have been possible without the global video sharing platform, which allowed the South Korean pop star to upload his music to be viewed and distributed around the world.

“In the past, music distribution was mostly regional. It was more difficult to learn about great artists from around the world,” explained YouTube trends manager Kevin Allocca. “But with a global platform at their fingertips, people are now discovering and sharing amazing music from all over the planet.”

Rickrolling Revives Rick Astley’s Career

British pop singer Rick Astley surged back in to the public eye in 2007 with the advent of Rickrolling. The trend was a kind of virtual bait and switch, where browsers clicked on seemingly relevant links, only to be redirected to the film clip for Astley’s 1987 smash “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

On April Fool’s Day, 2008, global video sharing platform YouTube even got in on the act, Rickrolling any visitors who clicked on its featured videos. By mid-April 2008, an estimated 18 million Americans had been Rickrolled.

Rickrolling stepped out of the virtual world when “Never Gonna Give You Up” was played unexpectedly during a New York Mets game and the 2008 Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. However, neither of these events would have made sense without the online buzz technology helped create.

Planking, Owling, and Milking

It seemed right to group these three together as they’re very similar at heart. It all began with planking, a pastime which saw folks lying down “plank style” in unusual locations. Then there was owling, another odd one which saw people mimicking perched owls. Perhaps the craziest of all is milking, a hobby which sees enthusiasts dumping entire gallons of milk over their heads in public.

Without video and photo sharing sites for followers to distribute their efforts, we wouldn’t have a craze. We’d just have a bunch of disconnected people doing strange things in public.

Grumpy Cat Takes Over the World

In September 2012, photos of beloved moggy Tardar Sauce were uploaded to social news site Reddit and an internet star was born. Tardar Sauce became known as Grumpy Cat, the star of a photo meme which saw her complaining about laser pointers and volunteering to be pope across social networking sites.

This technologically-driven fame saw Grumpy Cat cast in a new commercial for Friskies cat food. She also appeared at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, where fans waited in lines stretching three blocks to meet the curmudgeonly cat.

Nyan Cat

To go along with the cat theme, the Nyan Cat was quite intriguing in a strange way. A cartoon cat with a pop tart body riding a rainbow as music singing meow at a fast pace took off. This led to the sale of T-shirts and spinoffs of this video. Although not as large as some of the other internet crazes on this list, this took a certain demographic by storm.

Posterizing

People are always looking for the next big thing whether it be a viral video or a business idea. Posterizing in my personal opinion could be one of the funniest and newest crazes you may or may not have heard of. At my job, I am going to get a posterizing video done by “dunking” on a coworker. Who knows? This could be the spinoff of a craze that makes it big!

So you’ve probably heard about Google’s latest attempt to break into the hardware industry; Google Glass. But what’s it all about, why should you care, and how do you get one? These are the questions I’ll be answering after a quick aside from Google themselves:

“Glass is a potentially transformative technology. It’s a window into the world’s information, and a new way to share experiences with those you care about.” - Google Ventures

What’s It All About?

The idea is that Google will free us from handheld and desktop devices altogether such that access to data is easy and immediate. To do this they have created a pair of glasses which can project interactive information into your field of vision and allow you to effortlessly perform tasks through voice commands and simple touches to the frame.

Google claims that this device heralds a new world of “wearable computing” which will change our relationship with computers and with the internet. Their aim is that this device will become as ubiquitous as the mobile phone (but with game-changing consequences).

A Google Glass device includes: a 5 megapixel camera (which can record 720p video), 16GB of storage, a touchpad on the side of the frame, Wifi, and Bluetooth. This spec allows you to film videos, take pictures, check emails, make calls/texts, navigate to your destination via GPS, and search the internet hands free.

To achieve this experience, the Glass uses a small prism to project various interactive visual elements into the top-right area of your vision. This is designed to augment your reality so that you have continual access to information that can be layered on top of your normal field of vision; the screen that is projected to be the equivalent of looking at a 25-inch HD screen from 8 feet. As soon as data is overlaid over your vision, the benefits of Glass become very clear – GPS functionality becomes a seamless and intuitive experience, real-time translation is easy and hands free, and notifications from calls, texts, and emails are immediate and easy to deal with.

Equally, the voice-recognition is meant to be extremely good and functions as well for calls as it does for voice commands (even in crowded rooms). When interviewed by The Guardian, Andrej Kostresevic stated that “I can walk around all day and respond to emails and text messages just by speaking, even in noisy rooms – it’s really cool.”

Why Should I Care?

You’re not alone in asking this question, many people are confused as to the value and practicality of continually “wearing” your phone or laptop (which is essentially the premise of this technology). Opinion ranges drastically from the extremely conservative nay-sayers who fear its effect on our human relationships and privacy, to the fanatics who believe it will change technology forever and pledge to wear it in the most extreme of places.

In the same interview, Kostresevic qualified his earlier praise with the sentiment “however Glass is a bit of a mixed bag… overall feeling is just that it’s kind of a tease; it’s a glimpse into what could be possible, but the technology just isn’t there yet.” Major criticisms are levelled at the short battery life, the screen being hard to see in daylight, and the lack of applications and functionality.

Google is primarily a software company and their forays into hardware have been mixed at best, let’s face it they wouldn’t be the first multi-national corporation to take a gamble into a new technology that doesn’t pay off – look at the Nokia N-Gage. So should you care about Glass at this point? Whether you can see yourself using them or not, this stands a very good chance of being a significant technical development: it’s a pioneering product backed by the largest digital company in the world; chances are it’s worth keeping an eye on.

There also seems to be such a vivacious momentum surrounding Glass from within the Google campus that you can’t help but get carried away with it. From the ridiculous launch event with skydivers and BMXers donning the device, to the global competition and pre-launch fan base, the feeling is that Google believes in this 100%, with no holding back. So should you care? With that much weight behind it, absolutely yes.

How Do I Get A Google Glass?

Unfortunately you can’t. Not yet at least, the brilliant minds at Google allowed a sample of 8,000 contest winners who submitted a 50 word summary of what they would do if they won the device. These avid testers have got a first glimpse since late March but it didn’t come cheap; the device still cost them $1500 so Google is obviously keen to make sure their perceived value stays high (at the cost of tainting their benevolent public image by charging so much for a test product).

The rumour mill has gone crazy as to whether they’re going to do another competition or whether they’ll be launching to the consumer market by Christmas. I won’t add to this speculation other than to say that the best way to stay up to date, is to sign up to Google Glass’s official mailing list at http://www.google.com/glass/start/how-to-get-one.

Just make sure if you do get one, you use it for good and not evil…

Humans have had a long love affair with cats. For thousands of years, people kept cats for one reason: They are the world’s experts at catching and killing rodents. Cats were also declared to be demigods. The Egyptians believed cats kept evil away at night. Pretty wild huh? Also many people now believe that cats are able to see ghosts.

So why do we love cats? Our lives can be very stressful. Cats can instantly relieves us of stress and bring a huge smile to our face. I’m sure you’re read articles online about the dangers of stress on our health. So looking at the cute and funny cat memes is actually beneficial to your health. Plus, their humor requires no explanation.

Today we’ve collected sixty cute photos of cats that are bound to bring a smile on your face. Enjoy!

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Have you ever visited a store just to take a look at the goods and an hour later you find yourself walking out with bags full of purchased products? Have you ever thought about the reason for this strange behavior? The whole secret is in the hands of smart managers who’ve studied psychological techniques.

“Do You want to have healthy teeth?”

Pronouncing this phrase, the seller uses two techniques of persuasion. The first – the use of rhetorical questions. They are delivered in such way that they force you to agree with the speaker, because the answer is obvious. This is done to inspire confidence and the feeling that the seller has the same outlook on life as you. The second technique is – the use of “yes-questions.”

It might not be questions related to the product. The seller may ask: “Nice weather, is not it?” Once a person agrees to something, even something small and insignificant, it will be easier to accept more important things, such as, to say, “Yes, I buy it.” Just like the “yes-questions” the good humor is valid. A person in a good mood,  relaxed, and is ready to buy a product that is associated with pleasant emotions.

“You deserve this car”

People love flattery. They like it when they feel special, significant and intelligent. In everyday life, you can use this by talking to a man with the phrase: “I don’t think that a man of such level as you will agree to find the time to help me …” In advertising, this technique usually involves a direct appeal: “You appreciate quality”, “You do not like to waste time in vain.”

Sometimes, to grow in viewers a sense of superiority, advertising shows people doing stupid things. We like those who make compliments, and we tend to trust those who are like us. Consequently, it is easier to convince us to buy something from them. (We believe that such intelligent people as you understand how this technique works.)

“You want to sell sugary sodas for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world? “

In this famous phrase, Steve Jobs used several techniques of persuasion to lure John Sculley from PepsiCo. First, a simplification. The reality constantly makes people feel uncomfortable. Professional manipulators help them relax for a moment, ignoring the difficulties and offering simple solutions. Deodorant, car, or a certain brand of beer can make a person beautiful, popular and successful. It also acts as a factor of the Big Lie.

As the great manipulator Adolf Hitler said: “People are more suspicious with a small lie than with big one.” The third technique is also quite well known: the reduction of choice to two options, one of which is obviously worse. Instead of allowing a person to think about the many alternatives, manipulators give only two options to choose from.

“Only today 50% off”

This technique works on the instinct of survival, causing fear of missing out something valuable. The researcher Noah Goldstein of the Anderson School of Management calls it “the instinct to grab all you can, or be left with nothing.” The ads often use appropriate slogans: “Last Chance”, “Hurry up, before its too late.” According to statistics, during the last days of a sale, people spend 10% more than they would have.

Why? Because they’re led by panic, which takes away a person’s ability to think rationally. Renowned researcher Robert Cialdini calls this technique “the creation of scarcity”. The use of fear as a manipulative techniques possible in real life. For example, your boss may insinuate that in the nearest future there will be personnel cut – that forces you to work overtime.

“It’s worth a million dollars!”

In English, this technique is called the door-in-the-face. The principle of this operation requests an outrageous price that a buyer can’t pay. Then the manipulator offers a lower price, compared to the first sum. Because of the strong contrast, the buyer thinks it’s a good deal and agrees to buy it. The opposite of the door-in-the-face technique is also frequently used. Here, on the contrary, the buyer receives an offer to buy something cheap.

Agreeing once, it’s easier for him to make a more serious decision later on. A similar principle is used in the technique of “boiling point”. In this case, the dealer drives the buyer to purchase inexpensive things. For this examples, let’s use a watch. When he’s ready to buy the watch, he “suddenly” discovers that this item is no longer in stock, however there is a similar, more expensive watch available instead. The buyer is already mentally prepared himself to buy, therefore he easily decides to spend more money to buy a watch just to finish the job.

Don’t be afraid or angry. Just smile and relax! The knowledge is the best arm against greedy businessmen. Always use logic when making a purchasing decision, and don’t fall for these sleazy tricks.

Currently this website provides three different ways for you to promote your work.

1. You can join the Flickr group and submit your images (Please make sure that they’re not locked and I can download the image. I don’t really have the time to print screen the page and manually crop in in Photoshop).
2. If you’re on Tumblr, you can submit your artwork here: gallery.inspirationfeed.com/submit 
3. If you have a personal project that deserves attention, you can contact us here: inspirationfeed.com/contact-us

Today we will showcase a mix of high quality works for your viewing pleasure. Our Flickr group pool contains over 19,666 items and 2951 members. We do these showcases frequently, so if you wanna see your work here, make sure to join our group. Please note that every single image is linked to their original author, so don’t hesitate to check out more of their work. Enjoy!

Learning to paint (or draw) well takes years of practice, and on the way it’s not uncommon to get stuck in a rut where you feel like you’re no longer improving, but you still aren’t happy with where you’re at. While some might throw in the towel here and declare that they’re just “not talented enough” there are a few relatively simple steps to break out of your box and figure out a new approach that can further develop your skills.

Analyze Art

Before you can really make stylistic choices about your own work, you need to be able to know which assumptions you (and others) are making when you’re painting. Draw a very rough sketch of a person. You’ll probably end up with some kind of oval for a head, and a series of oblong roundish things outlining the rest of the body. Why should a head be an oval? Why not some other shape?

Picasso used square heads; cartoon characters sometimes don’t even have a real head (think Spongebob), but we still think of them as recognizably anthropomorphic. Think about all of the other things that you make unconscious, and really very arbitrary assumptions about. How do you think about trees, clouds, houses, animals, or flowers? What if it were different? What about colors? Is the sun really yellow or the sky actually blue all the time? Does it even matter how it is in real life? What If you decided to change it?

Setting Constraints

Once you’ve removed some of the constraints you didn’t know you were setting for yourself you can set new ones. One of my favorite examples is South Park. If you were on Myspace or early Facebook in the early to mid 2000s you’ll remember a south park character builder that went around at some point encouraging people to make south park avatars for themselves or their friends. This is a great example of a highly constrained medium. Everything is limited, from the shape of head and bodies, to clothing, to hair, to facial expressions. While it’s not exactly fine art and I wouldn’t necessarily constrain myself to such an extent, it’s very distinctive and recognizable while still remaining functional.

Setting Good Constraints

Once you’ve tried that you’ll notice very quickly that setting good rules isn’t as easy as it sounds. The easiest way to learn how to go about it is to borrow from other people’s work. Pick some of your favorite artists and analyze their work. Take note of what assumptions they’re making, and what stylistic choices they’ve decided to make. Then pick up your brush and paint your own version of the same painting.

The way to make it work is to add in, or change, one particular constraint that the original artist was operating under. A single rule can fundamentally alter the entire painting, or it can be almost totally unnoticeable. For example if you decided that everything had to be some sort of geometric shape, you would have a much more drastic impact than if you decided that leaves were always red.