Sunday, April 25, 2010

Are You Prepared For a Full Time Freelancing Career? by Lisa A Mason

It's a big leap between freelancing part time because you like to and switching to a full time career as a freelance writer where your bills depend on whether or not you earn enough through writing. Some people pursue freelance writing on the side while they are active in another career. Some others try it part time while a spouse or partner takes care of most of the bills.

While you still want to succeed, there is a different type of pressure from this compared to depending full tome 100% on the income earned from your freelance writing. While it may sound exciting or romantic to be able to work for yourself or make a full-time living from writing, before you toss away your day job, it's time to sit down and ask yourself some very serious questions.

How can you tell if you are prepared for a full time freelancing career? Here are some tips and ideas to help you know:

· When it comes right down to it, are you motivated enough to continue work on your own?

· Do you know what it takes to be a full time freelancer?

· Do you have a supportive family that can see you through this career decision?

· Have you researched the industry and what it takes to be successful?

· Can you be flexible with the many changes that will come in the industry?

· Are you capable of taking constructive criticism and using it to grow as a freelance writer?

Once you have answered these questions, you have a better idea of whether or not you are prepared for a full time freelancing career. Now you will want to sign up for writer's organizations and other places that you can use as tools to help you grow in your career.

You will want to be sure you have an office or writing space where you can go for uninterrupted work time. You also need to be sure that you have all the tools needed to do your job properly. If you are required to work online, do you have proper, regular access to the Internet, for example?

Now that you know these tips to answering the question of whether or not you are prepared for a full time freelancing career, you can make the decision about what is right for you. This could be an excellent career path if you do all of your research before jumping in.

About the Author:

See "100 Days to Better Article Writing" to find out how you can become a master of article writing today.

Lisa Mason is a freelance writer with a specialty in Internet content and SEO articles and the author of How to Earn a Living Writing for the Internet. She has written thousands of articles, hundreds of ebooks and thousands of website pages and related content in her 10+ years as a professional writer.

Tips to Be the Successful Bidder on Freelancing Board Websites by Charles J William

A lot of people have been seen registering on freelancing job boards in the hope of getting some work which they can do as a freelancer. Around 60% of these freelancers become idle after a week or so. The major reason behind this is that they don't get work and because of this they either get bored of it or stop trying with a view that it is not possible to get job here. The volume of jobs posted by buyers is so much that if you take care of a few things, you surely will start getting jobs.

Let discuss a few tips which are helpful and if properly followed, they will help you in getting a good job. These tips are written by one of the top ranked freelancer on different boards and can be applied commonly for almost all the freelancing job boards and cover very basic mistakes made by new comers.

Identify & Develop Your Skills: The first step towards success is to develop and identify you skills. You should know the key areas in which you have expertise. Once you are sure of your skills, sharpen them so that you are able to get good feedback from the buyers.

Prepare a Good Portfolio: Make a good portfolio highlighting the major areas of your expertise, the past projects done, competency test cleared and your commitment towards work. Its just like a CV, you are selling yourself so be sure of what you write.

Short Listing of Projects: Do not bid on every project you see as a long list of projects in your profile will not give a good impression of yours. Be sure of what you are bidding and only bid on the projects for which you have suitable expertise to complete the project. Remember it's always better not to bid than getting an incomplete or poor feedback.

Be the First One to Bid: This is not a closed bidding for which bids will be opened on last date and evaluated simultaneously. This is rather a person looking for a most suitable candidate and the moment he finds a suitable freelancer, he will award the project. Once you see a project which you can do, do not wait much to bid on it. Remember if you are first one to bid, your chances of getting the project are much higher. As the number of bid keep increasing, your chances to win the project keep going low. The first bid will get the first attention and if your proposal is solid, you will most likely get the project.

Make a Solid Proposal: The most common mistake made by the freelancers is that they don't message the buyer in private after bidding. Make yourself different from others and give buyer a reason to select you. For that make a solid proposal which should show that you have understand the project clearly. The proposal should also give the step wise description on how you will complete the project, what actions you will take to complete the project and what tools you would be using for that. Provide any samples of the similar kind of work which you have done in past.

Charles J William is the marketing manager at freelancing website - http://www.lanceio.com/ - It provides a platform where buyers and providers can meet. Projects are posted by users requiring work and freelance providers can bid offering their services. It's FREE to sign up and can provide substantial income for freelancers and quality skilled work for users.

Using Social Media to Increase Sales and Brand Awareness by Anthony O'Flynn

Companies are continuously launching marketing campaigns in an effort to promote their brand and boost their sales. Some of these are highly successful - Carlsberg's slogan and advertising of 'probably the best lager in the world' generates excellent brand awareness and reputation. This then contributes to increased sales and ultimately increased profits. However, many of these companies have large marketing and advertising budgets. What if your company can not afford these marketing initiatives? This is where Social media marketing comes in. Most social media marketing 'tools' are free to use and can provide the same amount of marketing exposure whether you are just starting out or are a giant conglomerate. This article explains how you can use social media marketing to increase sales at a relatively low cost.

Firstly, let's just dispel the myth that social media marketing does not lead to a direct increase in sales. Here are some examples to prove this: Sony announced in February that through Twitter they had earned an extra £1million in sales, Dell announced in June last year that their presence on Twitter accounted for $3 million dollars increase in sales. You might argue that these are two big companies and they already have a brand reputation. However, other smaller companies have also experienced increased sales through this form of marketing. John Fluevog Boots & Shoes Ltd, a small shoe making company in Canada, reported a 40% increase in sales in 2009, the same year it started social media marketing, this was not by chance.

So how can social media marketing contribute to increased sales for your company? Social media tools allow you access to millions of people. A television advert will reach the people watching at that time and allows for no interaction with the consumer. One tweet can reach millions of people. Sainsbury's for example regularly tweet their latest offers. Anyone wanting to keep up with these can simply follow Sainsbury's on Twitter. This gives a much bigger potential customer base and allows for sales to increase, whilst also creating brand awareness. Furthermore, people can respond to these tweets, which provides a forum for customer interaction and thus customer insight. Your business can emulate this, tweeting your promotions provides free advertising. If this is done creatively, it really can boost sales and get your company noticed.

Social media marketing works in a similar way to other forms of marketing; it is viral. A small company initially works on a word of mouth basis, people tell their friends. This type of marketing, especially Twitter and Facebook, work with the 'friend' concept. People can give you positive reviews, recommend your product and tweet about your company. This whole social community allows your company's name and brand to be viewed by a significant amount of people. Continuous use of social media over time creates brand awareness and thus helps to increase sales. One of our clients, PeachorLemon, a car review website, gained over one hundred followers on Twitter within a week. This is a hundred more people who know about promotions and offers, may tell their friends, visit the website or use other social media outlets to mention PeachorLemon. All this creates brand awareness and over time increased use of the website, thus increasing its value.

The effect social media can have on brand awareness is critical in the future of small businesses marketing strategy. Brand awareness is only one way in which sales are increased, there are many other important contributing factors. However, as this article has demonstrated, creating brand awareness through this new exiting variation of marketing can have a huge impact on your business and revenues.

Anthony O'Flynn

http://www.ortegra.com/

Scribd Launches Readcast, Integrates With Facebook Social Plugins To Make Reading More Social

Scribd, the world's largest social publishing and reading site, launches Scribd Readcast along with Facebook's new social plugins. Readcast is a set of features that enables people to automatically share what they're reading on Scribd with their friends on Facebook and other social sites. The Facebook Like button and Activity Feed are also now part of the Scribd social reading experience.

"Scribd is the place where connections form around shared reading interests," said Trip Adler, CEO and co-founder Scribd. "Now, the universe of social reading suddenly opens up to include Twilight fan fiction, investigative reports about Goldman Sachs, Mary Meeker's Web 2.0 presentation, tips for using solar power. This reflects the breadth and depth of what people read on a daily basis, not just what they're reading on news sites."

Readcast is a customizable feature that enables people to automatically share what they're reading on Scribd with friends on Facebook and contacts on other social media sites. People can also choose to share Scribd reading events such as scribbles, comments, ratings, downloads, and eventually mobile reading activity, printing and purchases. Visit http://blog.scribd.com/ for more information about Readcast.

Faceboook social plugins integration enables Scribd users to "like" their favorite reading material and to see -- without leaving Scribd.com -- which Scribd books, research, presentations, illustrations and other written works their friends on Facebook friends "like," comment on, and share.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Earn Money From Home Working As a Freelance Copywriter by Jesse Whitehead

How many times have you thought about the possibility of working from home? If you could set up a home office and have a steady flow of income, how much better would your life be? If you feel like you have some good writing chops, you may be able to earn money from home as a freelance copywriter.

However, before you quit your day job you should consider a few things. First, you should take a realistic look at your skills. Many people who think that they are good writers are actually quite mediocre. Think back to when you were still in school. Did you excel at writing papers for English class? Were you a good poet? Did you enjoy writing, or did you find writing anything other than your name an arduous task?

You can also think about how persuasive you are. Are you a persuasive person? Can you get people to take your side in an argument, or get them to do what you want them to do? Do you like explaining things in a way that people can understand? These are all important skills if you would like to work as a freelance copywriter.

Next, you should consider the time commitment that you are willing to put in. If you actually start getting freelance work, you need to be able to commit yourself to getting it done. It is quite common for freelance copywriters to take on a large amount of work that will simply not fit into their life schedule. When this happens, you will be faced with many tough business choices and you may end up with unhappy customers.

Finally, if you feel like you have the necessary skills and time commitment, then you should start working as a freelance copywriter as soon as you can. The internet has created an enormous demand for skilled writers who can write interesting and informative content that compels readers to take a desired action. There are literally thousands of potential customers who are in continual need of fresh, unique content for website pages, blog posts, web sales copy, and so forth.

If this sounds like something you can do, one quick way to get started is to jump onto the Internet and find some good marketing forums where you can advertise your services. All you need to do is write up a quick advertisement for your writing services and post it. Make sure that you provide an email for your customers to contact you. Good luck!

The author writes freelance articles and sales copy for a number of other topics such as Blue Buffalo Dog Food and Royal Canin Dog Food.

25 Most Common Job Interview Questions

Financial blog, ChristianPF.com released an article discussing some of the most common job interview questions asked (http://www.christianpf.com/common-job-interview-questions-asked/). With so many on the job hunt, improving interviewing skills is a great way to better one's chances of success. The article lists 25 common job interview questions that prospective employees should be prepared for, but it also offers additional interviewing tips as well.

An excerpt from the article...

Early in my career I would go to job interview, knowing that they were going to ask some tough anecdotal questions. I would just hope that I could whip out a great answer without a 90 second awkward pause as I tried to think of a time when I had a situation at work that I used problem-solving skills to solve. After doing this interview after interview, a couple things started to dawn on me.

Most of the interviewers often asked similar questions.

If I prepared beforehand I would have much more of an advantage than if I tried to navigate the archives of my brain while under the pressure of the interviewer.

So, next time I had an interview I decided to spend a few hours the night before thinking about stories of accomplishment, conflict resolution, and other answers to interview questions that might be asked.

Read the full article:

http://www.christianpf.com/common-job-interview-questions-asked/

Targeted Internet Marketing Guide A New Hype-Free Blog Launched

A recently launched blog is promising the beginner internet marketers to explore all about targeted internet marketing in an easy to understand way. The writing style of the blog is simple and this blog is receiving a large number of visitors. For a lot of websites, targeted internet marketing can increase the number of visitors several times and it could mean the life or death of the site or blog.

The author and owner of the blog Javed Anwar stated “Most of the sites on internet marketing assume that the visitor to the site already knows a lot about online business and affiliate marketing etc. That causes a huge problem to those who are beginners and want to learn internet marketing from the scratch. That is how my blog http://targetedinternetmarketingguide.com/ came into existence.” He is planning to expand his blog to more areas of internet marketing untouched by others.

Internet marketing is a rapidly growing field in this fast information age. More and more people are now becoming aware of the ability of internet to spread information and the reach of internet is growing in every home, even in developing countries.

Marketers have used internet to advertise their products since its inception. Internet marketing has evolved quite rapidly in the last decade. With this, a lot of services have appeared to help aspiring internet marketers make money on the internet. If somebody is planning to make a living with internet marketing, he or she needs to be familiar with what it is all about and what it takes to be a successful internet marketer.

Amongst many of the topics available on this blog are targeted internet marketing, techniques and strategies which work and detailed analysis of useful products and services that may help internet marketers. The blog can be accessed at: http://targetedinternetmarketingguide.com/ for more details.

Free Report : 12 Powerful Ways How To Get Massive Traffic To Your Web Presence

inBlurbs.com has released an Internet Marketing report to help businesses to gain more free targeted traffic and leads. The report describes online and social media marketing and lead generation strategies.
Company link: http://www.inblurbs.com/

When a business owner comes to the question, how to drive online traffic to his website to generate more leads and make more revenue, than mostly paid ways of online advertising are the first things which come in mind. Constant targeted traffic to a website is the basic to achieve lead generation success!

12 Powerful Ways describes free ways to drive steady stream of targeted traffic to make revenue with a website like, how to run viral free giveaways, link exchange with clients and prospects, request clients and prospects to review your products, submit articles to high PR article directories, the use of lead capture pages, video podcasting and some more. www.inblurbs.com/free_report_12ways.htm

The free report 12 Powerful Ways How To Get Massive Traffic To Your Web Presence was written by Dragan Mestrovic a Inbound Marketing Certified Professional who is in sales and marketing since 1992 and in internet marketing since 1997. He works as a creative consultant helping small and mid sized business and entrepreneurs to become more engaging and successful.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Career Community That Job Seekers Are Using To Land Jobs

JobRadioUSA is a free online career community that has helped several job seekers land suitable jobs during and after the Great Recession.

This is significant since in today’s tough job market, there is a lot of basic job search information. However, with approximately - 2.5M job openings and - 15M+ job seekers, this information is not sufficient. Thus, these individuals need an edge to find rewarding jobs and prevent prolonged unemployment. Specifically, job seekers need step-by-step job search training that allow them to immediately implement strategies which result in job leads, interviews, and offers.

JobRadioUSA's career community provides step-by-step executive job search strategies that are straight from the trenches; tactics and blueprints that have been executed successfully by job seekers during this current economic downturn. Individuals are taught how to source job leads via traditional and non-traditional avenues. They are also trained to effectively maximize social networks such as LinkedIn and Twitter to develop advocates at their targeted companies.

Job seekers are also provided with instruction of how to demonstrate their expertise with or without a blog and how to capture the interest of hiring authorities. They are also provided instruction of how to keep hope, enthusiasm, motivation, and confidence alive during a daunting job search. This is extremely important since employers are seeking confident potential employees who can generate impactful and profitable results.

For the past 37 weeks, via JobRadioUSA's online talk radio shows, job seekers have acquired actionable and impactful executive job search tips that have moved their job search forward. Since these BlogTalkRadio career shows focus on the “how to" in a structured format, several job seekers consistently participate on Tuesday nights at 9PM EST.

Just recently Dr. Mark Goulston, bestselling author of several books including the international best seller "Get Out of Your Own Way", shared strategies of how job seekers can avoid self-defeating behavior and get through to anyone. Also Debra Benton, “CEO Whisperer" and NYT bestselling author of “How to Think Like a CEO," explained how individuals could take charge of their job search.

For the upcoming shows: Dr. Paul Powers, management psychologist and original answer man for job seekers on Monster.com, will explain how job seekers can acquire and ace interviews. Also Connie Dieken, Radio & TV Broadcasters Hall of Fame Inductee, will share communication strategies job seekers can use to achieve success.

Finally, the wisdom of a crowd depends on both job seekers and career experts sharing information that results in impactful job searches. The larger the community, the more online careers and executive job search knowledge job seekers can tap into. As a result, share these free career community resources with job seekers and entice them to do so as well.

Go to http://www.kenrickchatman.com/ for media requests and/or to learn more about these free career options and job search resources.

Download Free Wordpress themes to Make the Website Look Decent

Wordpress is a blogging platform which can be used to create blogs or websites. The free wordpress themes are known for its pleasing presentation. They are also known for usability. Due to this reason wordpress has become the largest publishing platform on the internet. The software can be downloaded very easily.

Free Wordpress themes helps the users manage the website. It makes it very easy for any internet savvy person. It is not a compulsion that the person should know programming language. Anyone with basic computer skills can easily create a blog or website by applying free Wordpress themes. People just have to download the theme once it is selected. They can explore the different features and options of the theme. The wordpress has the feature called “Post”. This helps in adding the blogs to the website. Once the blog is posted, it can be read by anyone who visits the website. Other people can leave comments for the blogs as well.

Wordpress is very easy to learn. But still if people find it difficult to use it, there are free tutorials available on the internet in order to learn to use wordpress. They will take you through step by step procedure to learn to implement free Wordpress themes and use wordpress. There are videos also available for learning wordpress. The videos are available on Meta Cafe, Expert Village and YouTube.

If you are new to the Internet and are having trouble with WordPress, there are literally hundreds of free tutorials that will take you through the process step-by-step. You can find them on popular video sharing websites like Meta Cafe, Expert Village and YouTube. When free Wordpress themes are selected the website also is search engine optimized, and they are rated well. This is because wordpress is search engine friendly. People definitely want their website to rank well. People searching for something should easily be able to locate the website easily. This would bring in more traffic to the website. In case if people want to sell a particular product, then free Wordpress themes will help in getting more revenue.

Free Wordpress themes also help in making the website look very decent. These can be applying easily and instantly. People can easily implement new web designs using these themes. One does not have to copy and send the whole content in order to apply the theme.

For more information visit: http://www.wpmart.net/wordpress-marketplace/free-wordpress-themes

A Free E-Course Reveals How To Make Quick Money From The Internet

P4 Publishing has created a new free e-course that proves that it truly is possible to find how to make quick money on the web in a totally free and straightforward way. This exciting training will work in any market and niche, is 100% legal, honest and fraud cost-free and can support those left frustrated make their very first dollars on-line.

Tony Hetherington, Owner of P4 Publishing and the ThisisHowYouSucceedOnline.com web site says "This is no get fast rich scheme but instead is really a step-by-step guide that will guide you succeed that has been launched to promote the relaunch of the http://www.thisishowyousucceedonline.com/".

The thee component course strips away all the hype, complexities and price of making dollars on-line and breaks it down to just three simple actions. Stage 1 is usually to uncover a item that persons will want, Phase 2 is always to produce a no cost web page and Step three is always to discover traffic.

"Too quite a few persons are selling complex Guru systems and courses that leave a sense of confusion as big as the hole they cause inside the bank balance. I wanted to take a various approach and guide folks get real results without it costing them a penny, cent or dime".

It is estimated that it would only take a few hours to complete all 3 actions and get everything set up and then only a couple of minutes a day before the cash starts coming in.

"Nothing is guaranteed in life but should you follow the uncomplicated step-by-step instructions at http://www.ThisIsHowYouSucceedOnline.com/123 then I am confident you'll make your first dollars online as I demonstrate how to really discover how to make quick money on the web " says Hetherington, "One thing that is 100% guaranteed that it's totally free!"

P4 Publishing publishes a range of courses including the 7 Day Site visitors Plan and 7 Day Site Strategy as well as the ThisIsHowYouSucceedOnline.com blog that delivers free traffic, search engine, social networking, listing building and money making tips.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

6 Key Tips to Maximizing Testimonials on Your Website by Tricia Andreassen

Many of us know that testimonials are important to our business, but imagine using your testimonials in creative ways throughout your website to help you with niche marketing and lead generation. Below are six tips to maximize your testimonials in your overall Web presence that will guarantee a return on investment.

1. Change your page name from "Testimonials" to "Raving Fans." This creates a synergy that you have a connection with your buyers and sellers way beyond the average testimonial letter. Show that you go the extra mile for them! Add that button to your homepage so that people can get to it fast. Remember your potential buyers and sellers are interviewing you online well before you even know it.

2. Take your testimonials to a new level with video. Bring your clients' experience to life by adding them creatively to your website.

Take a look at http://kathytoth.com/raving_fans and see how engaged you feel about the agent.

3. Create a YouTube Channel with your name where you can feature your testimonials. The benefit of featuring your videos on YouTube is that video has outstanding results for ranking on the search engines.

4. Ask for testimonials that relate to the experience or the farm area you work. If you have helped a homeowner sell their home in a specific neighborhood, have them mention the name of the neighborhood in their actual testimonial. On the neighborhood page of your website, have that specific testimonial on that specific page. What's another benefit to this strategy? This allows for well-positioned keywords to be on your site for search engine purposes.

5. Sprinkle unique testimonials on different pages throughout. Imagine having a testimonial about how you sold your clients' house after they had it listed with another agent? Instead of having this buried in a long list of testimonials, add that testimonial in your home-selling section or your CMA response form. Check out http://lindahall.com/home_market_appraisal as an example. This is a powerful strategy that relates to what they are thinking about.

6. Leverage your testimonials by adding a "Raving Fans" category to your real estate blog. If you have the video, link to that as well for maximum effect!

Tricia Andreassen is the CEO/Founder of Pro Step Marketing, a leader in brand and Web strategy for the real estate industry. As an industry expert, speaker and author, she has over 19 years' experience in helping Realtors grow their business. For more information, please visit http://www.prostepmarketing.com/.

Professional Blogger Reaches Out To Fellow Entrepreneurs By Offering Free Report

Even though Terez Howard freelances as a professional blogger, she realizes that she cannot fulfill the needs of every business owner. So she released the free report "Where To Find A Professional Blogger" on http://www.thewritebloggers.com/.

The 8-page report summarizes three ways business owners can find professional bloggers.  The report delves into the time and money a business owner can expect to spend on a search, a blogger's general rates and the writing quality bloggers provide within a search method.

Howard, a small business owner herself, released this report to assist fellow small business owners who want to outsource blogging to a high quality writer but don't know how to go about their search. She believes small business owners thrive when reliable vendors collaborate and share hidden potential.

Howard admits she feeds off of other small business owners' willing support. "Without the knowledge and time-tested experience of business professionals, I would have no direction and no reason to believe I can succeed. I'm grateful that busy business owners take the time to give me guidance."

Her free report is her way of giving back to those who have given advice to her. "I want to help small business owners flourish because they have helped me," Howard says.

The free report currently is available under the Freebies section at thewritebloggers.com.

SEO Copywriting Technique is Not Mere Advertising but Much More

Copywriters should realize the SEO copywriting technique is not simply advertising but it is much more than that. Experience and insight are two essential elements for becoming an expert or at least for putting in place a feasible set of techniques. In fact the contents have to be good enough so that it is able to attract the spiders for search engine optimization process.

An important aspect of SEO copywriting technique is key words and key phrase management. One should refrain from keyword stuffing. Basic objective of writing articles or web contents is to catch the imagination of the readers. Contents that score well with the viewers and readers and thus enhance the process of search engine optimization as well as traffic generation. Ultimate gain from the process is higher revenue generation.

Just putting the keywords here and there won’t help. To be ideal for enhancing the search engine optimization process the keywords have to be better than low or medium in terms of competitive facilities. It could be a little expensive but for devising proper SEO copywriting technique it would be worth the expense.

In fact the SEO copywriting technique aims basically at educating and informing the customers. Apart from that it will also optimize descriptions, keyword tags, and also the headlines with page titles. When these elements are optimized, they will consequentially able to optimize the website promoting the products or services generating huge interests among the viewers and readers who will be coming back to the website at regular intervals.

Reasons that cause such search engine optimization due to effective website optimization are that when effective SEO copywriting technique is applied, it enhances the visibility of the site to a great extent. Moreover when the contents are relevant and qualitative as well as updated regularly, viewers will like to read them come back to your website time and again. You will be able to retain the interest of the loyal viewers and at the same time get the attention of new viewers, many of whom would ultimately become your client.

Author Resource:

Tyson is here to give you his own facts about Internet Advertising Company. You’re probably thinking, everyone says that, so, what’s different here. It’s the assurance of quality, genuineness, and a guarantee that values your time and interest.

For More Information Please Visit:

http://www.worldwebexperts.com/seo-experts.html
http://www.worldwebexperts.com/