Creative Freelancing

Eight Tips For A Productive Freelance Writing Career

2011-08-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

by Lisa Abellera

Organization and time management are a freelance writer's best friends. Freelance writers who are new to its lifestyle will love the freedom and independence. Rather than cubicle walls, freelancers can work in the outdoors, a Starbucks, library or even the beach. However supporting this lifestyle requires discipline not unlike working in the corporate world. Although you tossed that suit for sweats, you may be struggling with productivity and finding it difficult to take on more assignments. In the freelance writing world, the faster you can complete an assignment, the more money you can earn. Try these tips to create a more productive freelance writing career:

1) keep a daily notebook specifically for your freelance writing work, which may feel odd at first, especially in an age where information can be stored electronically, but studies have shown the hand and finger movements of writing activates the areas in the brain which engage in thinking, language and working memory. Write the date on the top of a page in notebook and list out tasks or "to-do's" in bullet points. Check off each task as it is completed. Add new assignments or tasks to this list throughout the day.The next morning, date a new page, write out the "to-do's" still left from the day before, and repeat the process.

2) Organize your home office workspace by eliminating clutter of scratch paper and sticky notes. Hang a white board on the wall and write on it your current and upcoming freelance writing assignments or project and their deadlines, and use your daily notebook to write down anything normally jotted down on a sticky note. A notebook with tabs works well for those freelance writers who prefer to separate their daily "to-do" list from notes on research, client discussions, appointments and other freelance writing activities.

3) Keep track of your time each day working as a freelance writer, whether your activities involve marketing your skills, corresponding with clients or actual writing. Make note of the actual time of the day you started and ended work.This seems counter to the principle of freedom in freelance writing, but it is essential to see how much of the day is spent truly working, since you are your only employee.Tracking work hours helps in gauging time spent on an assignment. If you are spending more time on a project than originally anticipated, this is telling of either project or client, and can help in calculating the hourly rate for similar writing projects or in determining whether or not to take assignments from this client in the future.

4) Work according to your natural mental state. Some freelance writers are more mentally alert in the morning and run out of steam in the afternoon, while others are barely functioning by their second cup of morning coffee and hit their stride in the afternoon. The best time to write or do tasks which require mental focus or critical thinking is when you are most mentally alert. More routine activities like reading emails, bidding on projects, researching, and invoicing should then be done when you find it difficult to dedicate your attention to filling the screen in front of you with compelling, intelligent words.

5) Plan to work while you work. Use the time after you "clock out" as a freelance writer for personal activities.When mixing work with paying house bills, walking the dog, going grocery shopping or other personal errands, it is more difficult to assess how much time is actually spent on freelance writing jobs. Also when you congregate work hours in 3-4 hour blocks, you tend to be far more productive than when having to pick up where you left off several times during the day.

6) Get out of the slippers and pajamas and get dressed. It's important to see yourself as no different than your counterparts working in cubicles under artificial light. It doesn't necessarily have to mean putting on a tie or wearing heels, but maintaining the ritual of dressing for work helps to promote a sense of value and self-respect for your freelance writing career.

7) Turn off the television and program the DVR. Television just creates another distraction for your brain to have to sort out in order to concentrate on the task at hand. For freelance writers who like having sound of the television in the background while they work, consider playing music on speakers rather than picking up that remote.

8) Get out of the house. If you don't have a separate office at home in which you can close the door from outside, non-freelance writing diversions, try working a few hours outside of the house. Do a little research and test out the different Starbucks, Peets or other local coffeehouses to determine which ones provide the best working environment for you. Besides convenience and comfort, look for Wi-Fi availability, customer density and noise levels during the hours you'll be there working.

For the freelance writer, time truly does translate into money.The more efficient use of your time and the more organized your home office is, the more productive you can be, which means a greater earning potential and better success for your freelance writing career.

Lisa Abellera is a freelance writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from University of San Francisco. Her poetry and short fiction has been published or is forthcoming in several literary journals and in an anthology of creative travel writing. She is the cofounder of a graduate-level writers workshop group and is hard at work on her collection of short fiction. For more about the writing process and the craft of writing fiction, visit http://www.lisaabellera.wordpress.com

In addition to creative writing, Lisa enjoys her work as a freelance commercial writer, where she specializing in research-based custom SEO article writing, article rewriting and quality content development for websites and blogs.

Writing Fanfiction Can Help Start Your Freelance Writing Career

2011-07-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

By Michelle Carlbert

If you're anything like me, you've been writing fanfiction for years, enjoying the freedom it allows you to create stories involving your favorite characters and taking part in a community with other writers who give helpful feedback.

But did you know that writing fanfiction can also help you start a new career? By writing fanfiction, you are honing valuable skills that you can use as a freelance writer.

Here are some things that writing fanfiction can teach you about becoming a freelance writer.

Deadlines.

Maybe you don't think of it this way but every time you've promised your rabid fans that the next chapter of your WIP (work in progress) was coming "in one week, I promise!" you were setting yourself a deadline. Making that deadline no matter what real life throws your way means that you've just learned one of the most important part of being a freelance writer - hitting your deadline.

Handling criticism.

When you post your fanfiction out there for the world to see, you also open yourself up to criticism. We've all had it happen - you post a story that you worked tirelessly on and suddenly someone comes up and (gasp!) dislikes it. Well guess what? Freelance writers have to deal with people like that all the time, they're called editors, and the faster you learn to deal with them the easier your freelance writing career will be. If you genuinely listen to the people who comment on your fanfiction, honestly look at what suggestions they made or why they didn't like your story and reply politely, well then you're ready to deal with an editor.

Dealing with writer's block.

Writer's block is something every writer has to deal with, whether they write fanfiction or anything else. If you've managed to complete even a single fanfiction story then I'm sure you've figured out a way to deal with your own writer's block. Busting through that invisible barrier isn't easy and by doing it with fanfiction, you've shown yourself that you can write, even when the words don't come easily. Once again, this is an invaluable skill for a freelance writer.

These are just a few ways that writing fanfiction can turn from a fun hobby into a career. Take your talent and all those skills you've learned and use them!

Michelle (also known by her pen name "Mokibobolink") is a freelance writer, editor and blogger with a love for fanfiction and how it can help new writers. She started a blog ("Moki's Fanfiction Blog") as a forum for fanfiction readers and writers to discuss their favorite hobby, provide helpful tips to new writers, give lists of her favorite stories and sites to find great fanfiction.

http://mokisfanfictionblog.com

How to Build a Successful Freelance Writing Career

2011-07-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

By N Williamson

A freelance writing career is one that allows you to have the flexibility to work at home on a schedule that you set for yourself. However, while it may seem simple, it actually takes work and time to build this kind of career. If you want a career in freelance writing that is lucrative and successful, here are a few important steps that you can follow.

Keep Your Day Job

When you are starting out in your freelance writing career, it's important that you keep your day job in the beginning. It's a good idea to begin developing your skills while you are still working at least part-time. While you can earn enough money in this career to support yourself, it will take some time before you begin making that much money and there is also a bit of a learning curve. Until you get to the point that you think you can support yourself solely with your writing, you'll want to keep another job.

Take Time to Diversify

As you are working to build a freelance writing career, you need to take some time to diversify the companies that you write for. There are a variety of companies out there that pay up front for writing. Others may offer you some residual income as well. While many people like to be paid up front, there are also benefits to residual income. Starting out with various projects and various websites is a great idea in case writing for one gets a bit slow. If you diversify your writing, you'll be able to make sure you can make enough money to support yourself.

Don't Forget About Taxes

Many people who get started in a freelance writing career never think about taxes. Most companies that hire freelancers will not take out the taxes. This means that you should be saving money out of your paychecks to make sure that you can pay the taxes when tax time comes around. This way you won't be hit with a huge amount of tax debt on April 15th.

Realize You May Not Always Be Able to Choose Topics

While it is always great to write about topics you like, when you first get started in your freelance writing career, you need to realize that you may not always be able to choose the topics that you want to write about. You will probably have to start out writing about a variety of different things.

Be Ready to Work

There are some people who have the idea that a freelance writing career is easy. However, it does really to take a lot of work. You'll need to do your research, there is time spent writing, and you'll have to edit your own work as well. There are plenty of benefits you can enjoy and so long as you work hard and stay disciplined, you will increase your chances of being successful.

A Roadmap For Your Fiction Writing Career

2011-07-06T17:09:00.000-07:00

By Randall Ingermanson

What's the dirtiest word in a writer's lexicon? Think about that for a minute before you read on. What's the worst thing you can call a fellow writer?

Here's what many writers would say: "Unpublished."

I've met a ton of writers at writing conferences. To break the ice, I usually ask them what they're working on. They'll spend ten minutes telling me all about their novel. Then, if they've not sold a book yet, they'll hang their heads like they're admitting to being a drug dealer or a congress-critter and mutter, "But I'm (shudder) unpublished."

Let's just dump that word. I've got a better one. When I was in college, I knew a lot of students who were hoping to get into med school. Some of them eventually made it. Some didn't. But here's the thing: I never heard any of them saying they were "unmedical" students. They said they were "pre-med."

I wish all writers would quit calling themselves "unpublished." I think it would be a whole lot smarter to use the word "pre-published."

Why is this important? Because the way you think about yourself influences whether you succeed or not. And how long it takes you to succeed.

I spent about 16 years pre-published (counting from the day I decided I was gonna write me a novel till the day I saw one of my novels on the bookstore shelf.) That's not at all uncommon. I've got friends who took longer. I've got friends who did it much quicker. I took way too long, and I suspect my own attitude had a lot to do with it.

I believe it should take about four years to get to publishable quality in your fiction. Some writers will be quicker, some slower, but four years is reasonable. I've got a longish article on my web site that explains the whole theory behind this: http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/art/freshman.php

The bottom line is that I classify pre-published writers into four categories, Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors. At each stage, there are specific tasks you need to accomplish to advance to the next stage.

You may be a Freshman, a Sophomore, a Junior, a Senior, or even a Graduate. If you aren't happy with how your career is going, then here are five steps you can take to get back on the road to where you want to go.

1) Take inventory of yourself. What level of writer are you? Do your writing friends agree? Do published authors agree? If you think you're a Senior and everybody else thinks you're a Sophomore, then there's a problem. Being a Sophomore doesn't mean you're a bad writer. It means you're not fully trained yet. There's a difference. Figure out where you are.

2) Make a long-term goal for yourself. If you've figured out that you're a Freshman, then a reasonable long-term goal is to graduate in about four years. Whereas if you're a Senior, then a reasonable goal is to graduate THIS year! Please note that you need to realistically think about whether this writing game is for you. You may wind up spending the next four or five years training to write fiction, and then end up NEVER getting published. Does that make you chuck your cheeseburgers? If so, then go find another career. Pick a safer one, like wing-walking or cliff diving or lion taming.

3) Make a short-term goal for yourself. Rome wasn't built in a nanosecond, and you won't learn neurosurgery or tennis or fiction in a few days or weeks or months. Can't be done. What can you reasonably do in the next three months? In the next year? For my short-term goals, I ask myself what I'm weakest at and what I'm strongest at. Then I work on improving just those two areas of my writing.

4) Get yourself some advisor's. You are the average of the five people you hang out with most. Change your hang-out group, and you just might change your behavior! Find some advisor's who are at a similar stage in their careers, writers who are positive thinkers and are dedicated to advancing. (If you're a Sophomore, hang out mostly with other Sophomores, and maybe a few Freshmen or Juniors). Your advisor's won't be in this just for you. They'll be in it for them too. They'll advise you, and you'll advise each of them. This is often called a Mastermind Group or a Dream Team or whatever. Get yours. No less than five. No more than six. This is NOT the same as a critique group. These are career advisor's, not craft polishers.

5) Map out a plan to meet your short-term goal. If you're not sure what to do, ask your advisor's. That's what they're there for. If they don't know, figure out who does. Share what you learn with your advisor's. Do everything you possibly can to help them succeed. They'll return the favor in spades.

6) I promised five steps, but you get a bonus sixth: Go do it. Put your plan into practice. Meet regularly with your advisory group. Keep each other accountable. If your plan isn't working, figure out why. If you don't know why, figure out whom to ask. Get help! Give help! Work your plan until you reach your short-term goal. Then set a new one.

That's all! It's pretty simple, but don't kid yourself -- it isn't easy. Learning to write fiction is hard work, and if you don't like that, then quit. Quitting IS easy and you'll get to watch more TV and probably have a better love life. You just won't ever get published, but you won't really care, or you'd be willing to do what it takes.

But the fact is, you can't quit and you won't. Because writing is in your blood. When writing is in your blood, you're going to do what it takes to succeed. You're going to assess where you are. You're going to make a plan. You're going to execute that plan.

That's what writers do.

Randy Ingermanson is the award-winning author of six novels and one nonfiction book. He is known around the world as "the Snowflake Guy" - a tribute to his invention of the widely used "Snowflake method" of designing a novel. Randy has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics and is the publisher of the world's largest electronic magazine on writing fiction, the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, with over 8000 readers. Visit his web site today: http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com

What If My Whole Writing Career Has Been Wrong?

2011-07-06T17:05:00.000-07:00

By Beth Erickson

I've been writing professionally for nearly 15 years. I've seen a lot of ups and downs, triumphs and disasters.

As an industry, freelancing has transformed more times than I can count, the big-wigs of yesteryear have been replaced and today's big-wigs will invariably be a fond memory someday.

Overall, freelancing has been good, helped me achieve many of the objectives I set out to achieve.

One thing I didn't expect, however, is how easy it is to fall off track. I share this story with you in the hopes that you don't fall into the same trap(s) I did.

Back when I was working with my Creative Mindset Group, I always emphasized the importance of Polaris. If you're unaware with this concept, here's a quick explanation: Sailors worldwide could navigate earth's vast oceans (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) because they fixed their heading based on the position of Polaris, our North Star.

Polaris is positioned directly above the North Pole. This means that despite the earth's continual rotation, Polaris is the only star that doesn't appear to move across the night sky. Instead, it remains fixed in its position, allowing reliable ship navigation.

So, theoretically speaking, no matter where you are (in the Northern Hemisphere), if you can't find your way, all you need to do is look up, find Polaris, and you'll be able to navigate your way back on track. Cool, eh?

Now, time for my quick story.

I begin my writing career with a message in my soul and a song in my heart. Along the way, I discovered that making a living as a freelancer was a little more challenging than I expected. Turns out, I'm not only expected to know how to write, I must spin a great yarn, I must persevere in a tough profession, and most horrifying of all, I must learn to sell my writing.

It's a tall order.

So, setting my ultimate dream (my Polaris) aside, I embarked on the long process of perfecting my craft (still have a ways to go on that count, I'm sure), keeping my mindset strong, and mastering various components of the persuasive process, i.e. marketing, just to name a few challenges.

That's about the time things started going a bit amok for me.

While I rather enjoy exploring these techniques, they are mere tools to propel me towards my ultimate goal... my Polaris. However, none of them are my "official" Polaris.

Sadly, for far too many years, my life rotated around these exact activities. I studied writing, I immersed myself in mindset issues, I lived, breathed, and ate everything I could get my hands on when it came to mastering marketing techniques. In fact, I even became a professional copywriter for a time.

Ah, the incredible detours we take.

Bad part was that my ultimate dream, my Polaris,languished, patiently waiting for me to come to my senses.

And here's where it gets really interesting.

I firmly believe that we're born with in in-born navigation system, a way we can instantly know when we're on a path contrary to our Polaris. Whenever I'm working on a project that is in harmony, something that is leading me closer to my ultimate goal, I feel great. I'm in the creative zone. I love it. Challenges hardly feel like challenges because I find the whole process so invigorating.

When I'm working on a project that isn't in harmony with my Polaris, I feel a resistance, an annoying niggling feeling that makes it hard to write. I have to force myself to the computer to get moving. The whole process has a dark pallor about it.

When I experience these negative sensations, I know I need to reevaluate the project and examine whether it will enhance my ultimate goal, or whether I should pass the project on to another writer who may find joy working on it.

I know. Easier said than done.

It's hard to turn down projects. It's only the daring who have courage to run after their own dreams, especially when you've got a few dollars at stake.

My theory is that talented people are capable of a lot. However, just because you have the ability to do something doesn't mean you should. We have a finite amount of time per day. How will you spend that time; writing something truly heart felt and empowering, or slaving over a project you took on for the sole purpose of earning a few bucks. The old adage is true: You earn every cent when you take on a project solely for the money.

Somewhere along the line, you'll have to decide whether you'll follow your personal Polaris, your life purpose, or allow yourself to be side tracked by the myriad of possibilities that could, in essence, be valuable, but may leave you wondering at the end of your career, "What if my whole writing career has been wrong?"

Beth Ann Erickson is a compulsive writer, author of seven titles, and editor of Writing Etc., the free zine for writers. Get her first novel when you sign up as a VIP member of new newsletter. It's free, fabulous, and fun. http://BethAnnErickson.com

Turbo-Charging Your Writing Career - 6 High-Yield Strategies

2011-06-19T04:51:00.000-07:00

by Marg McAlister -

Hands up all those who'd like to have a successful writing career.

(What's that you say? What do I mean by 'successful'?)

All right, I know all writers are individuals. To some, 'successful' might mean just getting one article published. Others want a string of best-selling novels, recognition in the supermarket and megabucks in the bank account. So, for the purposes of this article, we'll define 'successful' as "achieving regular or ongoing publication credits in tandem with a growing income". That income should increase as you become more recognized and popular as a writer.

Now for the crunch. How do you achieve success? How do you win a growing readership? And the biggie: how do you make sure you get paid for your efforts?

There's a simple answer. You need to INVEST in your career. Think of your writing as a fledgling business. Wise investment will help it to grow - and help you to get the results you want.

You need to spend a buck to make two (or more) bucks
You need to prioritize your spending
You need to invest time as well as money
You need to invest energy
You need to surround yourself with wise advisors and positive people
You need to plan, review, and plan again

1. You Need To Spend A Buck To Make A Buck

Every craftsperson needs to have good tools to get the best results. A writer is no different.

You can make do with a typewriter - but a computer is better. (Why? It's easier to edit your work; you can connect to the wider writing community via the Internet, and editors are increasingly asking for manuscripts and proofs to be emailed to them.)
You can make do with looking up publishers in the Yellow Pages - but the latest edition of a Writer's Marketplace is better. (Why? It gives you much more industry-specific information - and it's a darn sight more convenient.)
You can make do with business cards and postcards to promote yourself - but an email address/website address is better. (Why? The take-up rate of Internet users is phenomenal - people can reach you or read about you easily and conveniently.)

It's easy to talk yourself into "making do". And it's true that writers can spend almost nothing on tools of the trade. However, successful businesses know that in the end, you have to spend money to make money. That doesn't mean waste money - it means you carefully plan your spending.

2. You Need to Prioritise Your Spending

There are three main things you need to think about when you're prioritising your spending on your writing career.

What will help me improve my skills?
What will help me to do my job more effectively?
What will help me to become better known and to market my work?

Look realistically at your income and expenditure, and decide what you can spend on your writing career in the next 12 months. Don't make this the least possible you can manage. Think of it as ongoing costs in building an effective business. (And remember that many start-up businesses don't expect to make a profit for the first 3 years!)

Here are a few ideas:

(a) What will help me improve my skills?

Books on writing for your professional library - a writing course - a writing workshop or program - a writers' seminar or conference - membership of a writers' centre - writing software - a critique service

(b) What will help me do my job more effectively?

An up to date computer - a good-quality desk and chair - an internet connection - a directory of writers' markets - a separate room for writing - a reduction in working hours in my outside job - a fax and/or good printer - a better word processing program

(c) What will help me to get known and to market my work?

Attendance at writing talks/seminars/workshops/groups - local functions and social groups - internet discussion lists - my own website - submission of articles to industry magazines/ezines - run my own seminars and workshops - business cards - regular column for local paper - radio chat show appearances

These are just a few ideas. Brainstorm a list of your own, then rank the items on each list in order of importance to you. What is the wisest use of your money at this point in your career?

3. You Need To Invest Time As Well As Money

You have probably already noticed that many of the career-boosting strategies that involve investment of cash also require an investment of your time. The importance of giving time to your career cannot be overestimated.

It takes time to read up on markets and draw up a submission list.
It takes time to keep records about where your work has been and where it needs to go next.
It takes time to go to seminars, workshops and regular group meetings.
It takes time to read up on techniques to build your writing skills, to use them, and to get feedback on how well they worked.
And of course - it takes time to actually sit down and write!

In writing, as in any field of endeavour, there are far more 'gunnas' than achievers. "I was gunna write for an hour every day, BUT..."; "I was gunna do a chapter this week, BUT..."; "I was gunna go to that seminar, BUT..."

It's far easier to find excuses for not doing something than to get out there and do it. With every excuse, your writing career stalls again. Sure, we all have times when everything that could go wrong does go wrong - but we need to be careful that this enforced 'time out' doesn't stretch from weeks to months, or from months to years.

4. You Need To Invest Energy

An energetic approach to achieving success in your writing career is just as important as spending time and money. You can spend thousands of dollars and you can sit down at the computer for four hours a day seven days a week - but if you don't invest energy then you are diluting the effects of both.

Example #1: You can go to a seminar and sit by yourself the whole time (or nod off because you're bored/tired)... or you can make an effort to talk to other writers; ask questions of the panel; introduce yourself to an agent.
Example #2: You can skim through the posts on an internet discussion list... or you can join in and toss around a few ideas (and get to know the others on the list).
Example #3: You can sit at your desk for 2 hours and write a page, play 10 games of Solitaire, answer your email and chat on the phone to a friend for twenty minutes... or you can write a scene, print it out, read it out loud for pacing, analyse the dialogue, then rewrite it - in short: be proactive about using your writing time.

5. You Need To Surround Yourself With Wise Advisers and Positive People

It has often been said that writing is a lonely occupation. It certainly can be, if all you do is sit in front of the computer for hours on end, lost in your writing world. It's even lonelier if you seem to be the only one who believes that you've got a chance of making something of 'this writing caper'.

Am I saying that it's a bad thing to become really involved in your writing? Not at all - but you do need balance. You also need to surround yourself with the right kind of people to help you move forward - (1) the right advisers and (2) positive people.

Who are the 'right advisers'? People who know something of the world of writing. Usually, these will be other writers or professionals connected with writing: agents, editors, writing centre personnel, and experienced members of writing groups (online and offline).

What about 'positive people'? This is easy. Getting published is hard enough without the doomsayers undermining your confidence. If your family is not supportive, look for others who are. Talk about writing with people who care. Beware of published writers who launch savage attacks on the publishing industry without offering any constructive advice (sometimes they have a hidden agenda).

You love to write. You want to make a living at it. You want to know how to make this a reality - not be told how awful and impossible it all is.

Naturally, you shouldn't close your ears to sage advice. If there's an editor everyone hates dealing with, you want to know about it. If there's a publisher who takes ten months to respond to a manuscript, doesn't take calls and is slow paying contracted authors - you want to know about that too. But overall, mix with positive people. Your enthusiasm and effectiveness will soar.

6. You Need To Plan, Review, and Plan Again

A well-run business reviews its performance regularly. As you invest time, money and energy in your career, stop periodically to review the effectiveness of your strategies.

What did you learn from that conference/workshop?
How much return will you get from your investment in that book on technique or that directory of writers' markets?
How much difference has your investment in an internet connection made to your knowledge and contacts?
What is the next step in your career?
What do you need to invest to take you to the next step?

Plan, review, then plan again. This should be an ongoing process in your campaign to establish yourself as a successful writer!

By employing these 6 high-yield strategies to investing in your career, you'll notice a definite change in your attitude and your results.

Does this approach work?

Well, for over a decade now I've had a career based solely on writing and writing-related activities. It pays well in both satisfaction and dollars. I've always invested time, money and energy in my career. I've tried to surround myself with good advisers and positive people. And yes, I do plan, review then plan again! I'm constantly updating my knowledge, tools and contacts.

These 6 high-yield strategies have worked for countless other writers. They're based on (1) common sense and (2) good business sense.

Give them a try, and watch them work wonders for you.

(c) copyright Marg McAlister

Marg McAlister has published magazine articles, short stories, books for children, ezines, promotional material, sales letters and web content. She has written 5 distance education courses on writing, and her online help for writers is popular all over the world. Sign up for her regular writers' tipsheet at http://www.writing4success.com/

How to Create a Professional Writing or Artistic Portfolio

2011-04-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

by Eric Engel -

Up for a job interview? Trying to win over a prospect? Want to show potential clients that you have what it takes as a freelancer?

Pages stapled together (or pieces taped into a leather bound book) won't cut it. Your portfolio says everything about you as an artist. You can't afford to let it look like a hack's job. And the binding says just as much about you as the work itself.

Your Portfolio Should Tell the Story of You

A portfolio should speak for itself. You won't always be there to comment on the work. You may have to leave your portfolio with someone so they can spend more time examining it. In some cases (such as with out-of-town prospects), you may have to mail it to them before they'll even see you.

How to Organize Your Portfolio

Organize your portfolio in some sort of categorical sequence...and each category should have a title page. Most writers and artists prefer to start with 'College Work'. If you have no college work to show, then jump right into the industry or type of creative work. But make sure to include the title for that industry.

You can separate the title page for each category, by trimming a quarter of inch off the rest of the pages. Then (if you have a printer that will print on the edges) print the title on the edge of each title page in your portfolio.

With so many technological advances, there's no reason to glue pieces of your work to the pages. If it's an electronic publication, simply cut and paste into whatever software you're using to print it out (more about software later). If you want to show the printed work, scan it and paste it in as a graphic.

The printed pages from your computer are easier to manage, won't fall out, and easier for your prospects to page through. The last thing you want your prospects to worry about is losing scraps of paper that fall out while they're trying to get a good look at your work. If you don't have a color printer, save everything to a file and find a local print shop that will do the work for you. It's an added expense, but it's well worth the money.

What Kind of Software to Use

The software you use largely depends on what kind of software you can afford (and your ability to learn software). If you're a computer graphic designer, then you probably already know what to use. For writers, Microsoft Word will work...but it would be easier to make a really outstanding portfolio with Microsoft Publisher. Publisher would make it easier to use graphics, colors, and text windows.

Adobe InDesign is great for a multi-page document, and you can easily import work from other programs. It also gives you more control over the sizes of what you import. So your portfolio can have extended pages for the titles. Adobe products are generally more expensive and harder to learn. Corel has several more affordable options.

The Final Portfolio Touches

Whether you're a writer or an artist, the little details will mean a lot to your prospects. Again, using a standard 8 ½ x 11 booklet will make it easier for the prospects to look through your portfolio. It also makes it easier to mail your portfolio to and from prospects.

It's permissible to include an electronic version of your portfolio (either online or by CD), but prospects still need a hard copy to look at. Even for animated graphics, using screen shots arranged in a timeline will impress them more than directing them to a website.

Sports Writing As a Career Job by Charles Nocis

2011-02-28T09:39:00.000-08:00

Being a sports writer is a lucrative job for many people. Sports journalism is there in forms of many things. The media is teeming with sports channels. Be it the magazines, sports newspapers, news, dedicated sports channels, and in today's world, the traditional forms of old media is overtaken and supplemented by new media channels like websites and other forms of net based applications and software. For e.g., the there are groups dedicated to sports in Facebook where people can post their reviews and critiques. The sports writing scenario is the new career option in town. Annually, sports aficionados are boosted by ambition and dreams of success and competence to take up sports writing as their career tenure plan. In today's age of intense competition, you have to excel in everything to survive; therefore, in order to really make it out there, you have to be good in what you do. The question we ask ourselves is: so what does it take to take up sports writing as a job and career? Do you just need a good knowledge in English or a better knowledge in sports? If you are thinking about taking your sports knowledge and writing capabilities to the next level, but you are uncertain then there are a few pointers that can help you.

As said earlier, in today's age, you have to excel at what you do to make it big and in order to excel at being a sports writer, you have to be a passionate lover of sports. This fact has been tested proven by many writers and critics alike. Only through loving what you do can you truly give it your best to do the best. Having a general knowledge about sports is a must. Most sports writers may face difficulties in the beginning as they may be entitled to cover a story in which they have no idea about. In these kinds of situations, the sport writer must conduct extensive research and immerse himself in what he does. In order to cover a game, the final day is not the only day in your interest but every day till the finals as well. You must even attend the practice sessions to understand the game, the players, the chemistry and the focal points truly in depth. You must be capable of being critical and always open to possibilities of learning new things.

You may have the talent and motivation of passion, but if you truly want to reach the sky, building up your sources and contacts is the best way to take thing up a notch. In order to furnish people with interesting stories, you need to have the sources of the stories. The sources you build up must range from a wide variety. You need to have a different thread for each type of story. Thus to sum up, taking up a sports writing job is good as long as you excel and love what you do with the properly built contacts.

A professional copywriter is one that can provide you with the best copywriting, content writing and creative writing services. You need to ensure that your website can have content that would grab the attention of your users. Through such content writing, you can be sure that your website would have its desired content made available. I have been a professional content writer for many years and today I wish to share some of my information with others. The fact that such knowledge is extremely vital to share means that you have to completely certain of your wordings and just what exactly you wish to speak out. Contact me if you wish to have any further information on effective content writing services.

Technical Writing Career Training Opportunities

2011-02-21T13:09:00.001-08:00

Students can enroll in a number of accredited vocational training programs in order to gain an education in technical writing. Professionals in this field are trained to translate technical and scientific languages into a simple language that people can understand. Students can work for a variety of companies once they have obtained an accredited degree in the field. Students have the opportunity to train for an exciting career in technical writing by enrolling in a bachelor's degree program.

Training can include obtaining a certificate or bachelors degree in technical writing. Students can choose to complete anywhere from six months to four years of educational training. With an accredited education in technical writing students can learn a number of skills needed to enter into the workforce.

Learn to write assembly instructions for various products.
Train in writing user manuals for electronics and more.
Gain knowledge in writing internet content for various websites.
Learn to write training manuals for employers and companies.
Train for careers producing reports for various companies.
Learn to write policies and procedures to be used by organizations.
With an education in this field students will gain the knowledge and skills they need to seek employment in a variety of areas. Accredited vocational schools allow students to train for the career they desire.

Coursework will vary by program, desired career area, and vocational school of attendance. Students can study a variety of subjects that relate to technical writing including subjects of study such as:

Print Production
Web Site Design
Content Management
Computer Programming
Scientific Writing
Technical Communication
...and many other related courses. Depending on the level of education and career desired studies can also include:
Web Site Publishing
Math
Technical Editing
Scientific Communication
Visual Media
User Interface Lay-Out
...and much more. Students who choose to train in this field will gain the skills and knowledge needed to enter into their desired career in technical writing.
Career training will allow students to pursue a variety of positions with a number of companies. Accredited training can provide students with the opportunity to enter into careers working with:

Newspapers
Broadcasters
Book Publishers
Radio
Magazines
Television
...and much more. Students who earn a certificate or degree in this field can seek out employment in:

Manufacturing
Aerospace
Software
Telecommunications
Electronics
Computer
...and many other areas. Accredited vocational schools prepare students for entrance into the career of their dreams in technical writing.

By enrolling in an accredited technical training program students can gain the training needed to pursue the career of their dreams. Accrediting agencies like the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (www.acics.org) are approved to fully accredit qualifying vocational training programs. Students can learn more about the education of their choice by requesting more information about available programs. Start the path to an exciting career by enrolling in a technical writing program today.

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERIC OUTLINE and may or may not depict precise methods, courses and/or focuses related to ANY ONE specific school(s) that may or may not be advertised at PETAP.org.

Copyright 2010 - All rights reserved by PETAP.org.

Renata McGee is a staff writer for PETAP.org. Locate Technical Writing Schools and Colleges as well as Online Technical Writing Schools at PETAP.org, your Partners in Education and Tuition Assistance Programs.

How to Begin a Career in Freelance Writing by Contel Bradford

2011-02-07T08:39:00.000-08:00

While freelancing is not a new market by any means, it has grown immensely due in large part to the popularity of the internet. Thanks to its partner in crime the web, the internet is able to offer golden opportunities for writers, photographers, designers, and just about anyone with the desire to indulge in freelancing from the comfort of their own home. Since writing is the focus here, this article will explain what you need to do in order to begin a career as a freelance writer.

Create Your Portfolio

No matter how skilled you are as a writer, few clients will feel comfortable hiring you without some credentials to back you up. Don't worry, acquiring the credentials you need for potential clients to take you serious is as simple as building a good portfolio. Write up a few good articles, and publish them on free content sites such as Yahoo's Associated Content, Helium, and Hub Pages. Not only are these sites great for building a portfolio, but they also receive a lot of traffic, which could draw more eyes to your work, and possibly attract some clients as well.

Start Looking for Writing Gigs

Once you have a good portfolio, it is time to go out and find yourself some freelance writing gigs. This part can be a bit intimating at first, but trust me, it is much easier than you think. So where do you go to look for gigs? Your friendly search engine of course. Remember, this is the internet - the virtual land of opportunity. A simple search for "freelance writing jobs" will yield tons of relevant results that can point you in the direction of your first gig. The most important aspect of the job seeking process is your application. In order to beat out the dozens to hundreds of potential candidates, you must be clear and concise on why you are the man (or woman) for the job.

Build Your Website

Although a portfolio on the aforementioned content publishing sites is enough to get you started, you will eventually need your own website to make an impact as a freelance writer. Trust me, this is for the best. Having your own site makes you look more credible, professional, and will cause potential clients to take you more seriously. More than likely, you will need a web hosting service provider to deliver all the tools and technology to actually create your site. This is another process in itself, but for now, I recommend going with either HostGator or LunarPages. These are two dependable companies that will take care of you and provide everything you need to create a professional website for your new freelance business.

Good Luck!

You need the skill as a writer of course, but with that intact, this is all it takes to start a career in freelancing writing. The internet and its infinite resources makes it a heck of a lot easier than in past times. So what are you waiting for? Get out there, and start building your freelance writing business!

Contel Bradford is a seasoned freelance writer, journalist, and author of multiple books, including The iPod & iTunes Handbook. Though he specializes in numerous areas, Contel truly excels in the field of technology, well versed in topics that range from cloud computing and virtualization to email marketing and digital advertising.

During his tenor, he has produced content for some of the top internet brands in their respective fields. Some of his clients include Associated Content From Yahoo!, Benchmark Email, and Digital Media Buzz to name a few.

To learn more about Contel's professional services, please visit his website at http://ContelBradford.com

Are You Sabotaging Your Writing Career Goals? by Sharon Hurley Hall

2011-02-07T08:37:00.000-08:00

It's often easier to state your planned goals for your freelance writing career than to actually achieve them. Sometimes we spend so much time worrying about results that we forget to actually do something. You may have set yourself the goal of earning more money from freelance writing this year, but how many of the things you do with your time actually help you achieve those goals? Are you bogged down in the day to day activities you need to earn a living, while the activities that will help you meet longer term goals go undone?

Many people look for balance in their lives and what that means may be different for everyone. For writers, it may mean having time for themselves, their children and their family, having well paid writing work and having enough spare time to work on those pet writing projects that don't actually pay the bills - not yet, anyway. So how do you get to a point where you achieve what you want and stop sabotaging yourself?

First of all, be clear about what those goals are. You're the only one who knows what balance looks like for you and what your dream future will be. Dream big - and who knows what you will achieve?

Next, think about how to make these goals a reality. For many writers, it might mean carving out some time once a week to work on those pet projects. For others, it might be a question of having time to think and plan - time when you are not working on something else. For still others, it might mean setting aside time to chase higher paying work. Only you will know what you can do.

Once you make your decision, break each of these goals into little steps that you can achieve and set aside some time to do them. For example, you might commit to sending an extra query every day for a job that pays double your standard rate. You don't have to go for all the goals at once. It's probably less stressful to try to achieve balance gradually.

Finally, be positive about what you can achieve. Think back to when you started your writing career. Haven't you come a long way since then? We all progress, though sometimes we forget to take note of it, so in another year, you'll have achieved some of your goals and will be working on the next ones.

Kick start your writing career with straight talk about freelance writing and FREE resources from Get Paid To Write Online.

Is Fear Keeping You From Writing Career Success? by Sharon Hurley Hall

2011-01-31T07:46:00.000-08:00

So you want to have a successful writing career. It can be a tough decision to make. Some people start writing, stop, then come back to it because they suddenly realize how much they love it. Others skirt around it doing other things and leaving it as something they do part time. It's not so easy to make the decision to become a freelance writer. There are lots of reasons why you might be afraid to take the plunge. If you've been writing in your spare time and have never shown your writing to anyone, you might lack confidence. That's normal, especially for fiction and poetry writers.

Fear Of Being Unable To Write

Many people think that they can't write. They think that no-one would actually pay them because their writing is no good. Ironically, some of these people make the best writers. Writing skills can be learned, and willingness to learn will take you a long way. A good way to address this fear is to take a writing course - you'll soon find out whether your skills are up to the mark.

Income Fears

For others, the barrier is the fear of being broke. If you're making an essential contribution to your household income, then this is a very real fear. The answer to this is to sacrifice some of your spare time and start doing paid writing work on evenings and weekends. Many successful writers have started this way. There will come a time when you have so much work that you begin to think about freelancing full time. However, since freelance writing is seasonal, there's no guarantee that you will earn the same amount every month, so that stops some people from taking the plunge.

Moving Beyond The Fear

In the end, you will become a full time writer when the fear of not doing it outweighs your fears about being broke or being a poor writer. As you submit more and more work and win more and more gigs, you will build confidence and you will soon find out that you can write. More importantly, you will find out what your writing strengths are, and build on them so that you can attract the paying clients that you need. This is a sensible time to take the plunge into a freelance writing career.

This is the only way to find out if you have what it takes to build a successful writing career. Take a gamble on yourself. If you're right, you will soon have more work than you can handle and you won't be afraid to call yourself a writer.

Kick start your writing career with straight talk about freelance writing and FREE resources from Get Paid To Write Online.

Enrollment Options for Technical Writing Career Training by Renata McGee

2011-01-24T07:25:00.001-08:00

Many industries like law and medical research present readers with hard to understand subject matter. In order to convey documents in a simplified form professionals are used. Students have several higher education enrollment options to choose from in technical writing.

The goal is to take different writings such as reports, manuals, research briefs, and more and make it understandable to the consumer. Typically, consumers are employees or individuals that need information on a particular subject for a variety of reasons. Translating complex topics into readable documents takes a certain level of understanding on how to manipulate words and edit at a high level of proficiency. Programs are available at the certificate and associate's degree level, which are offered by vocational colleges.

The techniques used to convey technological and scientific information in a simple format are learned inside certificate programs. Students learn to utilize research and editing techniques to create understandable products. Computer programs and web skills are focused on because technical writers use technology consistently inside their career. Training prepares students to take intricate facts and rewrite them in an interesting and readable way to create assembly instructions, user guides, pamphlets, and more. Common course subjects include:

*Technical Concepts

Training develops the technical knowledge and skills of students by having them examine database interfaces, programming languages, network protocols, and more. Through the study of these areas students become highly comfortable using desktop publishing tools and graphic user interface procedures.

*Technical Editing

Programs explore the necessary rules and guidelines used when rewriting documents by teaching students proper editing techniques. Training focuses on writing for companies online and in print. The mechanics of writing and editing is explored through several topics like style guides.

Continuing education or beginning training at the associate's degree level gives students a wide skill set and more time to develop their writing style. Coursework dives right into teaching students about designing materials and editing practices. Course topics train students to make written material understandable to its intended audience. Students learn to create documents such as press releases, memos, websites, and much more by working on multiple writing assignments throughout their time spent in school. Common courses that develop these skills could include:

*Writing for the Web

The style and audience online is different than those that read traditional forms of media. Students learn to incorporate techniques that make their writing more Internet savvy. This type of course also focuses on reading and critiquing online writing.

*Usability Principles

User-centered design is studied to develop technical writing skills. Students learn to make decisions based on the objective, mission, and environment that their writing will be read in.

Students that want to pursue further education can enter bachelor's and master's degree programs. These program levels train students to enter specific areas of the industry such as government, technology, and business. Education focuses on building the skills needed to succeed. Students should complete accredited technical writing training programs and enter the industry prepared. Agencies like the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools ( http://www.acics.org/ ) can accredit programs that offer the best quality career training.

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERIC OUTLINE and may or may not depict precise methods, courses and/or focuses related to ANY ONE specific school(s) that may or may not be advertised at PETAP.org.

Copyright 2010 - All rights reserved by PETAP.org.

Renata McGee is a staff writer for PETAP.org. Locate Technical Writing Schools and Colleges as well as Online Technical Writing Schools and Colleges at PETAP.org, your Partners in Education and Tuition Assistance Programs.

A Writing Freelance Career - Amateurs Be Forewarned! by Mark Drest

2011-01-24T07:22:00.000-08:00

Your writing freelance career has begun, and you are excited to start spinning the myriad of words inside you in order to get that lovely pay-check. If you are an amateur, however, there are several aspects of this job of which you should be fore-warned. A writing freelance career can be a fantastic life, but it can also be incredibly aggravating. Here is what you should know.

Not all job listing sites are run by "the good guys". Unfortunately, like in most other businesses, there are scammers out there. Do your homework prior to accepting a job assignment. Take a peek around writers forums and see if there are complaints about payments or response times from that particular site. Your freelance writing career can not afford to take a hit such as a website simply "disappearing" once your work has been submitted.

Bidding for "blind ads" is a big risk. If the person posting the ad gives no information about him/herself, they may be hiding something.

Don't feel you need to limit your writing to novels or articles. Sure, these are popular avenues for your writing freelance career, but there are SO many more ways you can earn money with your writing! Poetry, copy-writing, editing, technical writing, copy-writing... and more!

Winning any job bid will help your writing freelance career. Amateurs tend to believe this. The truth, however, is that you can do a lot of damage to your "name" if you submit poor quality work due to your lack of knowledge about the particular topic. Bad reviews stick around a long time! It is better to stick to subjects you with which you are very familiar, and submit excellent work.

Like anything worth working for, it helps to be intentional in the steps you take to build your freelance writing career. Follow the advice above, and start writing! Your exciting and potentially lucrative job awaits! IF you know the secrets of finding those high paying writing assignments, you will do well.

If you are content to write for under minimum wage, then your writing freelance career will be quite a challenge. But if you know that you are worth more than that, what you'll find at http://www.writerincome.info will kick your writing freelance career to the next level!

Whether making money with freelance writing is a full time career for you or simply a way to bring in some extra, much-needed cash, learning about how the to find the high-paying gigs will be well worth the time spent. Check out Writing Jobs Online and start to your freelance writing career on the right foot!

How to Start Your Freelance Writing Career by Charlene Sampilo

2011-01-17T10:27:00.002-08:00

Just like every facet in life, you need hard work, determination and patience to become successful in anything you do. This goes the same if you want to be a freelance writer. The word "freelance" in itself connotes independence. It means you are in control of your career especially in the field of writing. One typical myth most people believed when it comes to freelance writing is that it is a very "easy" job. The hard core truth is there is no easy money. Everyone has to work really hard to achieve the income they wish to have. In fact, the underlying concept of freelance job is the more you work, the higher you are paid. More people are now turning to freelance work because of the many benefits it brings especially if the skill involves writing; yet, it also means investing time, effort and the right attitude to become successful.

Here are some of the steps you need to take if you want to become a freelance writer.

Enhance your Skills

Before you get your first job, you first have to enhance your God-given skills. You need to have the passion to write. Along with this, there are so many other things to learn when it comes to the art of writing. Correct grammar and punctuations, as well as, great command in English are a must. An effective way to enhance your writing is to practice every day. This is the reason why it is commended that you should maintain a blog site where you can continually write as this will hone your abilities.

Write Articles Regularly

Websites in the Internet like Helium, EzineArticles, and eHow are just some venues where you can be a regular contributor. Through these sites you get the exposure you need as a writer. Each site has guidelines and trainings that aim to help in improving your writing skills-grab them. They also have wonderful ways of generating traffic to your articles that will surely benefit you as the author.

Resume, Qualification and Outsourcing Job Websites

Now that you are ready, you can start by making your resume with more emphasis on your qualifications as a writer. You can register for free at the many different outsourcing job websites available in the Internet that can market you as a writer. In these sites are several tests available that you need to pass so that your skills will be promoted effectively. As a novice in this field, it can be quite overwhelming (and sometimes frustrating) seeing so many much experienced writers vying for jobs. Always remember though, everyone started like you-a beginner. There is someone out there who will certainly give you the break you need that will land you on your first job. You just have to be patient and determined.

With your first writing job you need to always keep in mind that even if you don't see your client, it is vitally important to show sincerity, honesty and hard work. Work online is so vast the moment your clients are satisfied with your performance, they will always come back for more. One of the greatest benefit as a freelance writer is the chance to continually improve your skills. The more work you get, the more you learn the secret of the trade. Sometimes it takes years to become a successful freelance writer but the job satisfaction is worth all the hard work.

Charlene is a freelance writer who writes on various niches especially in regards to health, food/cooking, family and relationships, self help and self improvement. To avail of her writing services, you can contact her at lynne.sampilo@hotmail.ph. To know more about the writer, you can visit her personal website: http://lynnesampilo.wordpress.com

The Benefits of A Writing Career

2011-01-17T10:27:00.000-08:00

Writing is a career and a profession. Writing is not as difficult as it seems to many people.Anyone can write no matter his level of qualification,specialization or educational background. As long as one can write a letter,that person can write and convert his writing skills to a money making activity if he can set his mind and energies to it.

However,writing requires focus and determination. To be able to write,you must endeavor to write everyday no matter how little and the ideas will continue to flow like a burst water pipe. You need to carry a pen and notepad around and write down ideas that pop up.

The qualifications of a writer

What qualifies a person to write will depend on his possession of one or more of the following:

-Training in a particular field of endeavor
-Valuable experience in a particular field of endeavor
-A hobby about which ideas can be shared
-Having a special interest
-Having an uncommon passion or interest about something eg to impact upon lives through writing
-Having an extra-ordinary skill,insight or revelation which can be shared.

Everyone has some knowledge that can be released to benefit others but much of the time,the information lies dormant in our minds. People are willing to pay for what the writer knows so long as it solves their problems. The purpose for writing is to be able to solve problems for people.

The benefits of a writing career

-Writing gives the writer instant public recognition by bringing him and his works into limelight.
-Writing places the writer in the minds of the public as an authority in the area of expertise written about. Though there may be others who are more knowledgeable in that area,the public will prefer to deal with the author who has written on that subject because he has placed himself as an authority.

-Through writing,an author records his achievements and contributions to an endeavor for posterity and to add to the body of knowledge which generations coming behind can benefit from.
-Writing can create multiple streams of residual income and will continue to generate money for the author without further effort.
-Writing enables an author to leave behind a legacy which many generations can tap into to benefit.
-It immortalizes an author as people will continue to research his works long after he may have departed into eternity.For example, John Bunyan and William Shakespeare who lived and died about 400 years ago, and who wrote The Pilgrim's Progress and Hamlet respectively are remembered for their works.

The author, Ayodele Adegbulugbe, is a freelance writer who owns http://www.maritalsuccessresource.com

Several Freelancing And Self-employment Opportunities That Are Wide Open

2011-01-10T10:53:00.001-08:00

By Scott Bannon

One of the questions I have been asked a lot is what real money making opportunities exist online for someone willing to work hard for honest pay? So, I've spent the past few days talking with some peers who all earn honest livings from their homes to compile this list of opportunities that we all agree are relatively easy to launch and also have high potentials in the current market.

Keep in mind that when I say easy to launch I don't mean any monkey can do it. Each of these requires some minimal skill sets, a willingness to hustle and like any business, a commitment to providing services of value if you want to succeed. What I mean by easy to start is that they require little or no initial financial investment, and little to no special equipment or hardware to get up and running. Basically, opportunities that you can begin from your home quickly.

1) Programming

This is a field that continues to grow. There are many out there who'll say that it's saturated, but my friends and I agree that for anyone who can hustle freelancing jobs and stays current with the trends and needs of potential clients as the web and software needs evolve there is huge rewards available.

Obviously, this requires programming knowledge. The best programmers often tend to master a single programming language and style/type of development.

One risk with this field that a lot of new or young programmers fail to recognize is low end market places. Avoid bidding for jobs in these large flea-market environments at all costs. You'll waste tons of time competing on price points, and ultimately under-value yourself. There are better options, with more realistic pay scales out there, you just have to invest the time in finding them.

Another idea that's worked well for quite a few programmers, is to develop software (either for the web or for PC based application) as Open Source that has a mass appeal and need in the market, and then provide support services and add-on modules or programs for pay.

It's a myth that Open Source means completely free. If you create a good program, you can provide the core of it as Open Source and build a viable commercial business around supporting it.

2) Data Conversion

Here's an area that seems to be opening up by the day online. Old web sites which often began using plain text, flat-file databasing are everywhere. Many who own and run them have begun to realize the benefits in converting their outdated databases into MySQL or other platforms, however lack the knowledge or time to do it themselves.

For aggressive go-getters with the ability to perform such conversions there is a wealth of business available right now, and it only looks to increase for the near future.

If you're also a talented programmer, you can combine this service with assisting clients in updating their web pages to utilize the newer database model as well for additional revenue. Plus, being able to provide the "full service" to potential clients will likely land you more jobs.

3) Blog Transcription Service

Here's a neat idea that came up in our conversations this week and still has me thinking I'd love to use a service like this myself.

There are a zillion (give or take) bloggers online now, and many of them do it for fun. However, many use their blogs for professional reasons and view it as a work chore that pulls them from other duties rather than an exciting way to spend time each day.

For these people, a service that allowed them to phone in their daily postings, which would then be typed out and sent by email to the accepting address of their blog for email-posting (which most blog software provides for) while they are on the go or between meetings could be very popular.

With the low-costs of setting up a toll-free phone number, and many of these services offer free voice-mail with the number as well, you could easily charge on a per post, weekly or monthly basis and make a nice income transcribing client's voice messages into blog postings for them.

I'm not advocating on behalf of any specific service, but some like Kall8 offer toll-free numbers with voice mail for under $5 per month (at the time of this writing). When someone calls and leaves a message, it gets sent to you by email as an audio file, making it perfect for use in this kind of service. As I said, I'm not endorsing Kall8, there are others who offer the same type of service, I only named them as an example of how little the overhead could be to start something like this.

4) Web Development

While this one may seem obvious and saturated, where my friends and I agreed that there is still a large market available is in assisting small and medium size businesses in your area to expand their brick-n-mortar operations online.

Depending on the business, this can be anything from a single page site that explains the business and provides contact information to full-scale ecommerce applications.

The opportunities for someone doing this are everywhere. One example that came up was from my friend Mike who recently had car trouble. He was stuck on the shoulder of a busy highway and couldn't get cell service when a tow-truck passing by pulled over to offer him assistance.

The guy offered to tow him free to a gas station at the next exit, or for a fee to anywhere else. My friend paid to have his car towed home, and during the ride discussed business with the driver.

By the time they got to Mike's house, Mike had convinced the guy to have a single page web site created, that was optimized for his coverage area. Mike charged the driver $85 to create the optimized page, and a $25 monthly fee to host and maintain it for him. This service includes submitting it to the search engines and various directories, and updating those submissions on a regular basis.

This was several months ago, but Mike says the last time he spoke with the driver he was getting at least 1 additional job call per day thanks to that single page web site, so I'm sure he's happy to have pulled over that day to help Mike out.

In any given area, there are hundreds, or even thousands of small and medium size businesses which aren't online. If you have the technical skills to build a web site, and the marketing skills to go find these opportunities in your area this is a viable business to begin.

...

I hope some of this helps you. One common element that all of these opportunities has is that they require a desire to work and a commitment to providing a valuable service to your clients.

None of these are "get rich quick" ideas. I don't believe in those and will never endorse them on my site. I believe in an honest day's pay for an honest day's work, and so should you if you intend to build a business of your own.

About the author: Scott Bannon earned his first online revenue in 1995 and has made a full time living online since 2000. Get valuable advice and tips from Scott's free blog for webmasters, O`Bannon's Leap, where he chronicles the ongoing leap of becoming a webpreneur.

Choose Your Platform Carefully Before Launching a Social Media Campaign

2011-01-10T10:51:00.000-08:00

Despite the numerous benefits that businesses can get from social media marketing, such as increased referrals, low-cost lead generation and valuable feedback, social media agency Punch is warning companies not to jump onto the bandwagon without first considering which social media platform is right for them.

Rather than joining Twitter or Facebook for the simple reason that everyone else is, Punch recommends that companies first discover exactly where their target customers congregate online, and then develop a strategy for communicating with them through utilising social media.

To emphasize the fact that there is more to social media than Facebook and Twitter, the Social Media Agency has highlighted three other social media platforms that might help companies to achieve their goals more effectively:

B2B Networks -- popular B2B social networking sites like LinkedIn and Ecademy might prove to be far more effective than Twitter or Facebook for some companies. Such sites offer a more business-focused style of networking, allowing a user to make useful connections with key players in their industry and focus on developing relationships in a more professional environment.

Forums -- by providing a constructive and valuable contribution to forums through offering expert advice and information, a company can quickly boost its reputation online and become a go-to resource whenever potential customers have a query.

Blogging -- one of the best ways to develop a strong online community and build up a brand's reputation as an authority resource is to launch a corporate blog. The good thing about a blog is that it can work perfectly well on its own as well as alongside other social media channels.

Pete Goold, the Managing Director of SEO Agency Punch Communications, highlighted the fact that social media is never a one-size-fits-all solution:

"Whereas some companies choose to focus on one social media platform, others use a number of them together and then integrate them through cross promotion, such as by highlighting their new blog posts in their social networks. The important thing is that companies take the time to work out where they should be focusing their efforts instead of just following the crowd because the ideal solution will vary from company to company."

Freelance Writing Career - Everyone Wants a Specialist Writer

2011-01-05T09:47:00.000-08:00

By Angela Booth

Want an easy way to build your freelance writing career? Here it is. Specialize. When you become known as an expert writer in a topic or an area, editors come to you and give you commissions. The areas you can specialize in are unlimited.

In this article we'll discuss areas you could specialize in, but here's the big tip: specialize in an area you're passionate about. Your own deep interest makes research easy, because you're "researching" anyway. It also means that your enthusiasm comes through in your tone, which makes your writing highly readable.

I started writing for computer magazines some 20 years ago, and I'm still writing for them today. Once you become known for specializing in an area, you'll get writing jobs, and will keep them for a long time. This cuts down on the biggest time waster of a freelance writer's career - job hunting.

So let's look at three ways you can find areas in which to specialize.

1. Write about your life-stage or lifestyle

Whatever life stage you're in, or lifestyle you have, you can write about it.

For example, if you're in college, write about it. On the other end of the time line, if you're a retiree, write about that. Every life stage has unique challenges and concerns which provide rich material for a writer who's experiencing them.

Writing about lifestyles will never go out of fashion either. Lifestyle writing includes not only "home" and real estate writing, but also milestone writing - weddings, and so on.

Lifestyle writing also includes health issues: dieting, and health challenges like arthritis and cancer.

If you're a new parent, or are home schooling children, those are prime areas for specialization - until your children grow older of course.

This is the thing about life stage and lifestyle writing: write about them when you can. You've got rich material all around you. Once this period of your life is over, you won't have the interest in writing about it.

2. Write about your job's industry

Your job is part of an industry. It may be the health or the financial services industry. Whatever industry it is, you can write about it. (Always remembering not to reveal proprietary information.)

Make the most of the contacts and the information your day job brings you, and write about your industry.

Keep a notebook to help you to find ideas for article topics.

3. Write and make fun profitable

You can make your fun activities profitable. You can write about travel, wine, antiques - anything fun-related, which other people are interested in too.

How to Specialize: Just Write About the Area

Specializing is easy. Just start writing about an area, and keep writing about it. You'll soon discover whether specializing in an area is for you, or not.

Many writers hit their specialist topic by accident. An editor asks them to write about a topic, and then asks for more material. Before you know it, you're a specialist.

The benefits of specialization are many: writing jobs come to you, you can charge more because of your expert status, you may find book publishers approaching you with ideas - everyone loves a specialist.

Start thinking about the areas in which you could specialize today - your writing income will improve, and so will your status as a writer.

Discover how easy it is to make money freelance writing with Angela Booth's "Sell Your Writing Online NOW" Training Program at http://sellwritingnow.com/Home/training.html The program is fun and profitable too. There's a full year of lessons and assignments:"Sell Your Writing Online NOW" helps you to earn while you learn, even as a brand new writer.

For free weekly writing information sent to your Inbox, subscribe to Angela's Fab Freelance Writing Ezine at [http://fabfreelancewriting.com/ezine/fab-freelance-writing-ezine.html] and receive "Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report" immediately.

How to Make Money Online by Freelancing by Mika Hamilton

2010-12-27T08:15:00.001-08:00

Money is always welcome. No matter how much we earn, our income always falls short of our expenditure. The rising cost of living and materialistic approach towards life can be attributed to this human tendency. People are continuously on the lookout of finding ways of making more money. The internet has to some extent solved this problem by opening up various options of money making. It has to offer something to everyone irrespective of their age, gender, or locality. It is possible to work online for companies which may be situated thousands of miles away from us.

Every day, thousands of companies are being launched. Most of these companies have an official website. There is lot to be done online to keep the websites updated and to attract the customers. They need people to work for them online. Although, they have a salaried staff to work for them, but at times their requirements are so huge that they need extra manpower. Moreover, the payment and maintenance of in-house employees is quite high. Hence, the companies are now keener on outsourcing the jobs. They float their advertisements online to hire freelancers. These freelancers are paid per project. This works well with the employers as the cost involved here is far less than what they would have to incur if they officially employed the staff. It also serves as a good opportunity for freelancers who want to supplement their existing incomes.

Freelancers are required to write articles for various websites. There is also a great demand for web designers, graphic designers, and banner makers etc. There is no paucity of work; if one wants to take up a freelancing job. There are many well-known websites which help you to obtain freelancing assignments. You can register free in these websites. There are many freelancing jobs listed here. You can choose jobs which suit your expertise best. You will have to bid on these jobs. If you are selected by the provider then you will have to complete the assignment in the given time period. The website may charge you a small commission for using its services. If the provider is happy with your work then he may hire you for further projects as well.

Freelancing is a very good online tool for making money. If you have the patience and are ready to put in a few hours of hard work; then you are bound to make some good money through it.

If you are ready to learn how to make money on the internet, visit our website at http://www.101waystomakemoney.com

9 Things Your Website Is Doing to Drive Visitors Away - And How You Can Bring Them Back

2010-12-27T08:08:00.000-08:00

Precision Marketing Group, a small business marketing firm focused on creating marketing that makes money for entrepreneurial organizations, has published a white paper that outlines some of the most common website mistakes and how companies can avoid them.

The paper, "9 Things Your Website Is Doing to Drive Visitors Away," outlines the typical problems that plague websites and supplies solutions aimed at attracting, engaging and converting visitors. Grounded in the years of hands-on experience that PMG has had with helping its clients create, optimize and market their websites successfully, this valuable resource is designed to help businesses to reduce clutter and confusion on their websites while increasing site traffic and enhancing lead generation. Download the white paper here: http://bit.ly/fketZp.

"Our tips, columns, articles, and resources are always created with the customer in mind, and this white paper is no exception," says Maureen Condon, principal, Precision Marketing Group. "Readers who choose to implement the changes suggested in this paper should see real results in their website's effectiveness."

Five Strategies to Save Money, Reduce Taxes, and Take Charge of Your Financial Future

2010-12-27T08:06:00.000-08:00

As the year comes to a close, small business owners and entrepreneurs are reviewing their financial reports and thinking about taxes. Many tax deductions and benefits that expire at the end of the year can be incredibly helpful to small businesses and entrepreneurs. BizFilings, a leader in online incorporation services, urges small businesses to be aware of these strategies to save money and reduce taxes, and to take advantage of them before they're gone for good.

Five Savings Strategies for 2010:

1. Take stock of your home office. If part of your home is designated solely for business, you may be eligible to claim a tax deduction for some of your expenses. Be careful what you claim, however. The part of your home that you are claiming must be the principal place of business and must be used for that sole purpose. To determine what you can and cannot deduct, explore the Home Office Deduction calculator on Toolkit.com.

2. Think about retirement. If you're looking to minimize your taxes for 2010, you may consider maximizing your retirement account contributions. Contributing to a 401 (k) or IRA can reduce your 2010 taxable income. Contributing can also spare you from paying taxes on that money until you retire and deduct from that account. Alternatively, you can save for the future by putting money for retirement in a Roth account. Using a Roth means that you won't be able to get an immediate tax break, but it typically allows money in your account to grow tax-free.

3. Accelerate your income. The largest tax hike in American history is scheduled for 2011, and it will affect every taxpayer--unless Congress acts before the end of the year. Income taxes and numerous credits and deductions, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, and even estate taxes are all scheduled to increase, barring one more major piece of legislation from Washington DC in 2010. For example, if legislation is not passed and you are currently in the highest tax bracket of 35 percent, this bracket will increase to 39.6 percent if the tax cuts expire. This means it would benefit you to move income into the current year when it will be taxed at a lower rate. If you are self-employed, you have somewhat more flexibility over when you receive income than other workers do. As the year comes to a close, make sure you bill your customers and clients promptly and follow-up on past due accounts. If you are negotiating for new business or a new project, attempt to receive payment in advance.

4. Invest in stock. If you purchase capital gains stock between September 27, 2010, and the end of the year, you can exempt all of that stock from your taxes. Making the decision to purchase stock can be useful as a personal or business investment, offering you maximum benefits when you take action before the end of the year.

5. Consider incorporation. Incorporating has many benefits, and depending on your situation, may have certain tax advantages. Once your business is incorporated, business costs such as medical expenses, entertainment expenses and vehicle costs may be tax deductible. Incorporation also typically keeps your personal assets, like a home, vehicle and savings, separate from your business.

"Incorporating your business can help put you in charge of your financial future," says Karen Kobelski, general manager of BizFilings. "There are tax benefits that are often available to incorporated businesses, and more importantly, incorporation gives businesses a layer of protection and limits personal liability."

Be Your Own Boss: Top 5 Freelancing Jobs by Emily Sismour

2010-12-06T07:39:00.000-08:00

In this tough economic climate, some people are turning to consulting and freelancing when full-time positions at companies aren't readily available. In fact, freelancers and consultants who aren't committed to long-term employment at a particular organization have the ability to network widely, develop their portfolio and enjoy a variety of different projects and assignments. The key to successful freelancing is catering your specific skill set to the appropriate industry and offering services that will benefit that client or company. Freelancers must be extremely self-disciplined, have well-honed entrepreneurial skills and be able to work in a number of different settings.

Let's take a look at five of the most "freelance-friendly jobs."

Web Developer: As technology continues to expand throughout the global workforce, building websites or improving company's existing sites is a sure-fire way to obtain stable freelance work. Web development and programming knowledge is one of the most useful skills to have in today's digitally driven market. Freelance web developers are typically tasked with the design, implementation, and modification of company or personal websites.
Graphic Designer: Graphic design is another occupation popularized by the expansion of the Internet. Traditionally, graphic designers have worked in the print medium, but current graphic designers work just as much, if not more, on the internet. Graphic designers who freelance are usually tasked with the visual development and creation of a company's messages and brand design.
IT Consultant: IT consulting is one of the most in-demand freelancing jobs. As companies across the globe continue to implement technology to help their businesses run more effectively and to more efficiently meet company objectives, IT consultants are employed to advise and instruct businesses about this technology. IT consultants also help businesses stay ahead of the curve by keeping software and IT systems up to date and implementing new versions when applicable.
Copy writer: Freelance copy writers enjoy versatile kinds of employment. Qualified writers are needed in all types of businesses and because of this copy writers can be employed in almost every business sector. Copy writers are tasked with the enormous responsibility of writing copy to promote a business or person. In doing so, they must articulately persuade readers and consumers of the value of a product or company. Copy writers who freelance often enjoy a variety of different projects and assignments.
Photographer: More than half of professional photographers are self-employed making photography an extremely freelance-reliant field. Photographers often specialize in a specific type of photography like wedding, commercial, or scientific photography and through specialization can differentiate themselves.

These five examples of popular "freelance-friendly" jobs are five of many. Other popular freelance work can be found in writing, interior design, translating, and recruiting fields, among others. Can't find a job at a business or corporation, but have a valuable set of skills coupled with experience? Freelancing or consulting may be the best way to showcase these skills, earn a stable income, and participate in exciting and diverse projects.

Top 5 Freelance Sites by Nell Taliercio

2010-12-06T07:38:00.001-08:00

Freelancing is a great way to work from home. Freelancers do anything from writing to graphic design to computer programming. They are often hired by businesses (small and large) for a particular project. It's a win- win situation.

The small business owner gets his website up and running, or his press release written without having to create a new position in his company to get the job done.

The Freelancer gets to do what he or she loves to do from home. The big question is how do the business owner and freelancer find each other? They do it through one of the freelance sites below.

On all five of these sites projects are posted and freelancers bid on how much they would charge for the work. It is up to the company / person posting the job to choose which freelancer they would like to work with.

1 )Guru.com

Guru is the largest freelance site out there. According to their site they connect over 520,000 freelancers with over 30,000 businesses and employers. Guru is organized into several categories and subcategories from Web and Graphic Design to Programming to Business Consulting.

2) Elance.com

Elance is the other big player when it comes to freelance sites that cover a wide variety of freelance work. Like Guru.com you can find projects from creative work like graphics and writing to computer programming.

3) Rentacoder.com

This freelance site caters primarily to programmers, coders, software engineers and IT professionals in general. You will find projects ranging from simple html pages to programming jobs that could last for several months.

4) Allfreelancework.com

In addition to finding projects posted on a variety of subjects, you will also find an extensive library of articles of interested to freelancers as well services and products, a forum and a newsletter.

5) Programmingbids.com

As the name suggest this site focuses mostly on freelance work for programmers. You will find projects from web and graphic design to flash to software development. They even have a new section that will allow you to sell scripts you have written.

Freelancing is a great way to get started working from home. You can easily take on a few small projects while keeping your day job. You can start gaining experience, add to your résumé and build a client base. This will make the transition to working from home exclusively much smoother. It is also a great way to test the water and see if you would like to work on projects from home in the long run.

Nell Taliercio is the owner and founder of [http://www.telecommutingmoms.com] – which is a leading resource website with work at home jobs and everything a telecommuting mom would need. Come visit us today!

Freelancing Work Tips - Use These Tricks to Get More Freelance Jobs by Gerard Mohamed

2010-12-06T07:37:00.001-08:00

So you are just beginning to look for freelancing work and you don't know exactly where to start? That is okay because by the time you are done reading this article you will know how to get plenty of freelance jobs and clients. We will be talking about how to find clients, how to contact clients, and how to take action in full detail.

It does not matter if you have been doing freelancing work for a while or if you are looking for your first set of freelance jobs. The same question will always come up and that is "how do I get more clients?" Some freelancers lose lots of sleep over this very question, but I want to set you up for success.

The truth is very simple, if you want to have tons of freelancing work you will have to be able to move out of your comfort box. You will need to be able to present yourself in front of your audience. You may even need to resort to cold calling or cold emailing your clients. Either way, moving away from the fear of talking to strangers will greatly help you with getting freelance jobs.

A big myth within the freelancing work community is that finding clients is difficult. It may be so, if you are waiting at your computer for people to come and seek you out. The reality of it is simply this; if you do not ask for referrals from previous clients, or you are not marketing your business you will not make money. Believe me, there is a vast sea of people out there who want you to solve their problems by completing their freelance jobs. You just need to position yourself in front of them.

If you truly want freelancing work then you absolutely must start taking action. Put yourself in front of your prospective clients. Start out by emailing firms and clients that you are interested in working with. In a short email, tell them who you are, what service you provide and give them a fair price. The worst thing that can happen is you get turned down right? Even so, practice makes perfect in this business so you might as well get started now.

Don't be afraid to send out cold emails or cold call your prospective clients. These people/corporations are constantly looking for people to fulfill their freelance jobs. Who knows, they just may need an extra person to fill in that spot when you email them. If not they might put your contact information in their index.

So now you know exactly how to get plenty of freelancing work by cold calling and emailing prospective clients. Remember to put yourself in front of these people, as well as ask existing clients if they know anyone how may be in need of your services. Do this and there is no reason for you to not have lots of freelance jobs.

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Free Report on the Best Ways to Get Free Network Marketing Leads

2010-11-29T07:01:00.000-08:00

Many web businesses end up feeling completely frustrated when they are trying lead generation. No matter what they do, the traffic just doesn’t seem to come. Search engine optimization seems a difficult haul. Pay Per Click or PPC seems extremely costly for online marketing beginners who are not ready to spend the money yet. Does this situation sound familiar? If it does, you can turn to PremierLeadGeneration.com. This is a blog that is showing people like you how to become successful at lead generation and get enough web traffic to make a killing on the Internet. This blog from Norway is publishing free information and reviews of various online courses, ebooks and programs that are helping web entrepreneurs at lead generation.

And now PremierLeadGeneration.com has published a free report that is titled -- Top 5 Hidden Secrets That You Must Know to Get Free Network Marketing Leads. According to the report, the top 5 ways of doing this are through blogs, through social media websites, through an effective lead capture page, by article marketing and through writing and publishing press releases.

The blog is advising website owners and webmaster or those keen on lead generation not to pay for their leads. There are many who are doing this, and this is simply because they either do not know that the leads can be generated free, or because they are not aware about how to get the leads free. If you can get them free, you will of course be able to save a lot of money. And this is very good news for a small business. So by publishing this report, PremierLeadGeneration.com is also helping these businesses with free lead generation.

Here are the 5 hidden secrets of lead generation.

1. Through blogs -- Blogs or web logs have evolved a lot from their initial days. They are today much more than a personal account of a holiday experience, a day at the office, or just a place where people could upload their pictures of birthday celebrations. Blogs have become a marketing tool that can promote products and services, and make a business some serious money. This is because blogs can be extremely effective mediums of lead generation.

All you have to do is just start a blog and keep posting 2-3 times every week. With regular postings, traffic is almost a guarantee because the search engine robots will keep spidering it. Just add quality content and you will be successful in lead generation.

2. Lead generation through social networking websites -- There are a lot of social networking websites out there and the most popular ones include Facebook, Twitter, Ibibo, StumbleUpon, MySpace, Technorati, del.icio.us and Digg. If you are interested in lead generation, then you should join up a few of these websites.

Using these websites, you can quickly join up a network, start your own community or page or invite others to become your friends. Your profile will of course carry a link to your website. So when you have friends visiting your profile page, you can be confident that they will see your website and end up clicking to visit it. Lead generation is also possible from the friends of your friends who might also visit.

3. Lead generation from your landing page -- Getting traffic is one thing, but converting them is another. In other words, you will never be successful at lead generation if you do not have an effective landing page. So make it look appealing and interesting. Get a catchy headline. Make sure that there are no glitches in the page. Make it easy to navigate. You can be successful at lead generation by giving away freebies too.

4. Lead generation through article marketing -- Write and publish as many articles as you can at the various article directories. These articles can be extremely important as you can catch your reader’s attention and interest very effectively. These articles too rank well at the search engine, and can thus help you in lead generation.

5. Lead generation through press releases -- Press releases are great tools for those into network marketing. You can easily announce your latest products or services -- just keep them updated about the latest news. You can discuss some trends or a new observation too. Once your press release link is there, you can expect visitors, and thus be successful at lead generation.

Article Writing Career by Sev Cabrera

2010-11-09T07:49:00.001-08:00

When you want to make money online, a good starting place would be by being an article writer. Online article writers don not need any diploma to start off their career, all they need is to have the passion to write and the knack of connecting to their target audience. You actually don't need to have any previous experience on this type of career, as long as you're good at writing, you enjoy writing and you don't run out of ideas to write, then this is the right job for you.

In doing online article writing you must first know what articles are good and is selling. You can't just go write about anything, you must have a target audience and you must choose, are you a free content writer or a dollar content writer? Both have their very own advantages and disadvantages, you just have to know what is right for your skills and abilities, still, the big bucks is said to be in the dollar content writing so that's your best bet.

Now as we know, the amount of people that will notice your article will depend on the choice of keyword you choose. If you use a crappy keyword then most probably you will end up wasting your articles, even if their good quality ones. Same as true if you use a keyword that has a lot of competition (used by big companies or overused keywords), your articles may be ignored or you are likely to never get up to those much needed first two pages (where the money customers are).

Also, if you want your articles to be noticed by a lot of people, you have to know and learn about search engine optimization. Optimizing your website writings to various search engines is the key to a high traffic website. Along with your good keywords, optimization skills will bring in more visitors to your site and will put you to that much needed top rank you desire.

These skills are a must have if you want to earn money through article writing, it is an in demand career right now so you have to expect some competition. Still, those competitors of yours are probably new to the job as well and if they do not know what to do then you have an edge over them. Learn the trade before you jump into the wagon, that is the trick, and for your part, you just learned some of them.

If you are looking to dramatically increase your online business with a fresh new influx of buyers then visit my site and get your hands on your free video series unlocking web traffic secrets. Visit us today for your very own web traffic videos and dominate the SEO market business now.

How To Make Freelancing Worth It by

2010-11-09T07:48:00.001-08:00

Many people think freelancing is a glamorous job -- working at home, in your pajamas, in full control of your time. Sure. But you MUST plan your freelancing career as carefully as you'd plan a new business, or else it's going to be a nightmare! Here's how to make freelancing worth the move.

First, Choose Your Projects Wisely.

Freelancing becomes fun when you're doing something you love. So look for projects you KNOW you want to work on. Don't be tempted to accept a project simply because "it's there" or "the money is too good to turn down" -- you'll pay for it in stress. Trust me.

Second, Work With Clients Who Think Like You.

Try to avoid clients who pay too low for your tastes, or those who demand unreasonable deadlines. These clients tend to NOT treat freelancers well, so only look for clients who are willing to do things on YOUR terms.

Otherwise, you might find yourself keeping Skype logged off simply because you don't want to catch a toxic client online!

Third, Decide Your Preferred Income.

Let's face it -- freelancing isn't easy. And to make it worth it, you'll have to receive a good enough income to keep you happy. Check how much your corporate-hired counterparts get paid, and start there. No sense freelancing when you could get a better pay with a job!

And Lastly, Plan Your Lifestyle.

Want to keep your weekends clear? Want to have breakfasts at your favorite cafe? Want to take quarterly vacations with your family?

Decide! The "lifestyle" part of freelancing is precisely what makes freelancing worth it. Remember, the most successful of today's freelancers left their jobs for greener pastures. And it's up to you how "green" you want your freelancing career to be.

So plan your lifestyle -- your freelancing career depends on it!

Mike Madrazo is a young freelance writer who believes in freelancing as the gateway to financial security. Subscribe to his blog to receive free daily freelancing advice and tips, as well as a sprinkle of spiritual nutrition to make the journey worthwhile.

The Importance of Networking to Freelancers by Alex Simmonds

2010-10-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

People who are thinking about making the change to freelancing, or those who have just started, often see all of the advantages of freelancing and contracting, but forget the work that needs to go into it. All of the advantages, from being their own boss to choosing the jobs they take on, and from flexible working hours to the increased financial rewards; all of these advantages normally come at a price. That price is the possibility of no work at all for long periods. Inevitably there will be times when work is low on the ground and this is where it pays to be proactive, and get yourself into both your community and the wider job market, sniffing out clients and jobs.

Networking then, is crucial to successful freelancing / contracting. And one of the advantages of networking is that unlike marketing or advertising it has very few costs or financial overheads, whilst still being an incredibly important tool to get your business known. More importantly, it is hard to overestimate the importance of personal contact and developing relationships with people.

That is not to say that online networking isn't important, because it is. Joining forums, organizations, work providers, associations and particularly social networking sites from MySpace and Facebook to the more business orientated LinkedIn; all are crucial tools for the freelance worker.

However, networking in the real world is of much more importance to your business and is all about developing relationships with people in your community. How should you go about properly networking then? Firstly look into national organizations such as the Institute of Directors or the PCG (the Professional Contractors Group). The PCG, for example, has over 20,000 members and is useful not only for its support of freelancers on tax and legal issues but also its organization of events for members to network. Tuesday 23rd November is their main event, National Freelancers Day where freelancers get together across the country to celebrate the tremendous impact of freelancers on the UK economy and to allow companies to come and meet freelancers.

Just as important, however, are local organizations such as the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) and hundreds of local regional business enterprises. These are great for organizing brunches, lunches and networking get-togethers.

Finally, once you're at these meetings it is important to remember to play the long game. Don't go into these gatherings and oversell yourself, annoying people or looking desperate. Aim to simply meet people, develop relationships and to meet regularly. This is a marketing slow burner, and the aim is building a network of clients and contacts.

Secondly, show interest in other people's needs and business. Listen, take interest. Cultivate contacts with people even if they are unlikely to be 'of use' to you. Get to know people in similar but not identical fields. For example if you're a copy writer, get to know designers you might be able to work with and vice versa. Also, have business cards ready and collect other peoples. Finally, be rigorous in following up. It is very important to get in touch quickly - if you leave it too long, people forget you. So send that follow up email or make that call, even if it's a brief hello.

Most importantly, sell yourself and your skills. As mentioned above, be low key and subtle, but be bold, speak to strangers and get your contracting skills out there!

The Bedouin Group offers Contractors Umbrella Company alternatives and a place for contractors and freelancers to keep up to date.

Freelancing: Choosing The Right Business To Start by Mike Madrazo

2010-10-31T08:07:00.000-07:00

These days, no one can survive on one job alone. That's why starting a small business is one of the best ways to ensure your long-term financial security (and happiness). And the easiest way to start your own business is by freelancing. Here's how to choose the right freelancing business to start.

Question #1 - What are you good at?

What are your core competencies? I believe every single one of us has a special "gift" within us which, when used to the hilt, can actually make the community (and in freelancing, the WORLD) a better place. And it's this gift that should form the foundation of your freelancing business.

What's your gift? Is it writing? Web design? Coding? Graphic arts? Clerical or accounting work?

Remember that any business is meant to create VALUE for its customers. And the better you are at your skill, the more value your new freelancing business will create, and the better off you, your clients, and their customers will be.

Question #2 - What do you like doing?

Confucius once said "Wherever you go, go with all your heart." So if you're going into freelancing anyway, you might as well be doing something your heart is fully into!

Of all the "gifts" I mentioned above (and any other skills that may have come to your mind), which one is your favorite? What's that one thing you'd LOVE to do every single day, even if the pay wasn't spectacular?

Remember -- it's always best to choose ONLY one gift to center your freelancing business around, so it might as well be something you absolutely love. After all, it's not only hard work that makes a business thrive, but also the PASSION behind that hard work!

Question #3 - Are you ready?

Freelancing is a challenge that many rise up to, but few ultimately conquer. Are you ready for it? The world today is in desperate need of effective, skilled freelancers. And I'll be glad to help you get started!

Mike Madrazo is a young freelance writer who believes in freelancing as the gateway to financial security. Subscribe to his blog to receive free daily freelancing advice and tips, as well as a sprinkle of spiritual nutrition to make the journey worthwhile.

Top 52 Advertising Techniques

2010-10-31T08:04:00.000-07:00

AdCracker.com has released a compendium of the 52 most popular advertising techniques worldwide.

This comprehensive collection of advertising techniques will inspire new ways for marketing and advertising professionals to create effective communications.

The collection features hundreds of contemporary print, TV, digital and social media examples. And the techniques themselves range from the traditional - such as Problem / Solution and Metaphors - to cutting-edge techniques such as Dramatic Conflict.

"We started with a review of thousands of ads from Asia, the Americas, and Europe - along with feedback from over 300 copywriters and art directors," said Steve McNamara, creative director at AdCracker.com.

"This collection gives ad agencies and advertisers a clear picture of 'what works' in advertising, at least from the creative perspective."

According to McNamara, "Advertising techniques have persuasive energy. They are the elements in ads that engage and persuade, that get people to click or call, to remember or to react emotionally."

McNamara says that advertising techniques are culturally neutral, and can be expressed in any medium, from newspaper ads to social platforms such as Facebook.

"To see ad techniques in action look at any ad from Apple Computers," says McNamara. "Whether it's branding or direct response, in TV or digital media, Apple stands apart for its creative and effective use of ad techniques."

That's fine for big companies like Apple. But how can the small advertiser, small ad agency or freelancer benefit?

"Every copywriter, business owner, and graphic designer has a set of advertising techniques in their bag of tricks," says McNamara. "But even the best creatives get stuck in a rut. This collection of ad techniques will help creatives explore new ways to make the cash register sing."

An introductory video along with dozens of the most popular advertising techniques are now available for viewing at AdCracker.com. All 52 techniques are included on AdCracker's Creative Director and Creative Manager multimedia CD Sets.

Benefits of Freelancing: Time by Trixie Torralba

2010-10-24T07:58:00.001-07:00

If you are searching for reasons why you should go freelance instead of working in a job you don't really enjoy, there are a lot of benefits that you can get. One of the best things about being a freelancer is that you get to become a results driven person. The reason for this is largely due to the fact that you cannot achieve anything if you sit on you're ass the whole day and watch TV. If you want to get money, you have to work. By doing so, this practice has taught me to maximize my time working. And indeed, the benefits of freelancing have been mega fruitful.

Among the biggest factors which are affected by a freelancer is their time. The usual reaction of people who have never been a freelancer is that these people spend their day watching TV.

But this does not apply to a lot of persons. In fact, I happen to know a number of people who don't even have time to check what's going on in the outside world. Time can either be a freelancer's greatest ally or foe. Here are some benefits you can get when as a freelancer:

You hold your time
Once you hold your time, you are more likely to give good results as opposed to sitting inside an office cubicle for 8 hours straight. And because your time is precious, you opt to get more and more projects even before your task is finished.

You can work anywhere
As a freelancer, you can easily get your work done anywhere. All you need is to have your laptop along with you, a stable internet connection and your set to go. You can even keep going on out-of-town trips and still be able to get your work done on time.

"Me time" is optional
Before I became a freelancer, I was always going out with friends and spending money I didn't have. But when I joined the industry, I traded loud party night outs with simple and quiet nights in a caf with my trusted laptop. I do this in the hopes of earning enough money so I can celebrate later on.

Meetings are optional
If you are working in a full time position, your boss can easily call you to come in any time of the day for a meeting. Even if it is your day off, you are needed to attend a meeting that you have no part of. But when you become a freelancer, meetings with clients are the only ones that you need to attend to. And even these are a whole lot easier to manage since you are actually putting input in the event.

Avoid crowded malls
By becoming a freelancer, you can easily pay your bills and do some shopping done without having to deal with the crazy after work crowds that frequent malls.

Commuting is not necessary
On an average rate, getting to work in Manila can reach up to an hour. This does not include rush hour and traffic when this number gets worse. Sure, a couple of hours a day may not harm your time but if you add those up in a work week, that's already a day's worth of work and income for you. When you turn freelance, you will be able to realize that time means money.

You can work when you feel most productive
If you are in an office, there are some instances where you can feel tired and sleepy. But you cannot do anything because everyone is watching you. On the other hand, if you decide to go freelance, you can easily take a short nap and wake up feeling relived to get another set of tasks done. This way, you can take your time being tired and turn it into your rest hours.

There are still a lot of other benefits of freelancing that you can get. By trying out the task, nothing wrong will befall on you. You only get so much to gain since you are making a huge change in your career. Check out my other freelance benefits so you can decide whether or not you want to try out the industry.

Trixie Torralba has been a freelance writer for the past year. Throughout this time, she has worked with several clients who gave her the opportunity to earn money and work well. This is why she has decided to share her tips with people who want to become a freelancer through FreelancerSociety. Make sure you follow her blog to get more tips!

She is also behind the blog Chronicles of a Gypsy where she shares app reviews, recipes, new restaurants, and anything you can find throughout the Philippines.

Working From Home - A Realizable Dream After All by Deepa Govind

2010-10-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

Some dreams are meant to be dreamt, some are meant to be worked upon, some are meant to be chanced upon, while some just hit you between the eyes, and leaves sparks flying all over the place.

In my case, it was purely a chanced upon opportunity. Never even dreamt in my wildest dreams that I would work from home, and yet make a decent amount of money out of this venture. Today, 3 years after my first paid freelancing gig, I have a domain name to call my own, the design, development, and associated costs all paid out my freelancing income over this time. I will not disclose how much, but it is "pretty much".

May be starting this topic from the monetary aspect is not the right way to start after all. But, it is for those, who ask me "Do you earn enough?", whilst trying to be polite by not asking "How much do you earn?"

We have been witness to the changes around us over the past couple of decades. Especially, those coming from the typical Indian middle class family would agree that, for working women and the perspective around them have evolved at a remarkable pace during this time. This was the period wherein, the gender discrimination was beginning to fade away at home, and "higher education" for the daughter of the family was approached with reverence (.. and not worry about finding a groom for over-educated daughter...)We saw girls getting into "professional courses" ( read, Medical, Engineering.... still private tuition for IIT's was reserved for male child). The girl had to secure a seat truly out of her own merit.... "As parents, we will enroll and pay the school/college fees, you are expected to prove that you are worth it".. was the underlying message to the daughter from the family. Today, we KNOW, she is indeed worth every penny that was spent on her education. We now have females in almost all aspects of life, ranging from our neighborhood lady-auto-driver - ISRO - UN - and many more to come.

The point I am trying to make is, there is no substitute to hard work, persistence and perseverance. If not for the efforts put in by those women ( who lived by every word in the previous paragraph), I will not be in a position to write/ comprehend this, you wouldn't be here either reading this. We are born with the gene that drives us to "prove beyond what we are endowed with". So, anthropologically, that gives an added advantage for females, don't you think so?

Miracles do not happen overnight, and earning a decent income via work from home is definitely nothing less than a miracle. So, establishing yourself in the freelancing market is going to take all the perseverance you can muster. Though, this is holds true irrespective of gender, non-freelancing-regular job as well, the stakes are high for males for whom freelancing is the only source of income for the family. For this, and for this reason alone, I would recommend this to females. Especially to those, who have had the fortune of "good education", but forced to "be at home", due to family constraints.... could be children, out in the foreign soil, aging/ailing members in the family... etc.

My English teacher used to say "Well begun is half done". Today, I understand the true meaning of these words of wisdom. Freelancing is not a "walk-in" interview that one would do, with a couple of copies of CV. It really doesn't matter what degree one holds, or how many high profile companies one had worked with in the past. These details will add credibility, but will definitely NOT land you at the first paid freelancing job.

If you have had the experience of giving seminars as a part of your college curriculum, you would understand the role of research that goes before you sit to write the title on a piece of paper. That is an over simplified version of what is to come on your freelancing future. Research - research - research. Then, its consolidate and present yourself to potential clients.

I want to become a successful freelancer. What should I do?

* Conventional CV's do not hold water in freelancing. So don't get your hopes high about that very impressive CV.

* Freelancing is all about the details. (... the devil is indeed in the details...)

* Think hard, about those aspects in your CV, where you can break down those degrees into workable-detail-oriented-solutions.

* This is the hardest part, and this is where you should be investing your time, intelligence, and analytical skills.

* Insider tip: Document every thought that crosses your mind, while you are at it. This might seem unimportant now, but will miss for not having done this when you re-visit the thought after 3 months flat.

I can confidently outline the specific details oriented projects I am capable of handling, Now what?

* Admit shamelessly that you (we) are slaves to Google.

* Try to identify " work from home with no skills needed" type jobs from genuine ones. Focus on the jobs that match the details you have come up in the first phase.

* Research on freelancing sites. What works for me, may not be the best for you. I have found oDesk, Elance, Scriptance, iFreelance, to offer genuine jobs. They too have their share of "con." So for every job that remotely matches your-type, double check, triple check, or even quadruple check if needed.

* Insider Tip: It is okay to go ahead and create profiles in freelancing sites. But be sure not to give you personal email / phone number/ photograph in them until you are totally convinced. When in doubt, visit the community forum at these sites, and observe, inquire, and continue to ask until the responses are reasonably satisfactory.

I have found a job that I am capable of doing. How much should I charge for my services.

* Ah!, the all important (million $$) question.

* First timers, visit various community portals to get an idea about remuneration for "this kind" of projects.... Thanks to Google.

* Try to bid around the average, to start with.

* Insider tip: The focus should be on proving your expertise on doing the job, stick to delivery schedule, and match the standards expected by the client. The more you are picky about nickels and dimes, you give the impression that money drives your attitude, and gives an impression that you are susceptible to drop an ongoing project, when you have a more-paying-offer.

Whatever freelancing site you choose, whatever job you choose to do,

1. Follow the Terms and Conditions of the site.
2. Be truthful about performing at the project.
3. Provide realistic delivery dates, and adhere to it all costs.

Insider tip: It is always better to overestimate the delivery date, and deliver the product at least 24 hrs before the proposed date.

Deepa Govind freelance Virtual Assistant from Bangalore. She is proficient in developing customised database application using Zoho Creator. She also takes up projects on ghostwriting for blogs, ebooks, newsletters etc. She blogs at http://homepreneur-online.com/ While you are there, use the contact form to get in touch with her.

Tips On Free Tools To Use For Freelancing by C Ceil

2010-10-24T07:55:00.001-07:00

Introduction

Freelancing isn't an easy job as the competition is fierce and cut-throat. Whether you are a writer or a web designer or a programmer, there are thousands like you out there who are also looking for freelancing jobs so you need to have special skills or tools to stand apart from them and get noticed.

Online Jobs

To assist the freelancers in finding the right kind of jobs, several freelancer websites have sprung up which allow employers to post jobs for a fee and obtain skilled labor in return. Getting yourself registered at these websites would be the first step to ensure that you get a steady flow of freelancing jobs. Varied jobs such as web designing, web programming, article writing and editing, photo editing and graphic designing are available online. One has to simply choose the right kind of job that suits their set of skills.

Tools For Web Developers

For web developers there are a number of tools available that can help them in testing and optimizing the websites that they create. LoadStorm is one such tool that can be used by web developers to check the loading time of websites that they have created. This free tool can be used to create as many test plans and scenarios required to test the website. VisualVM is another free tool that helps freelancers in testing the Java applications that they have created. This tool helps in monitoring application's performance and memory consumption by remotely running the Java applications. Google's Website Optimizer is another device which helps developers in analyzing user actions and traffic to create error free websites.

Tools For Writers

For freelance writers the tools available are also multiple and varied. Keynote is one such free software that allows content writers to arrange research notes by adding and multiplying various notes and compiling them together. White Smoke is another such application that enables writers to proof read their documents and helps in improving the sentence structures for more innovative and grammatically correct sentences.

Tools for Photo Editors

Photo editors can use Picnik to crop, resize, rotate and give final touches to their edited photos.

All the above mentioned free tools can be used by freelancers to enhance and improve their job performance. If you are a freelancer and you are looking for jobs then you must try to learn the above techniques for achieving greater success in your field of work.

For any kind of article writing, SEO, blog writing, creative writing, eBooks or fictional writing, you can check me out at: http://www.wix.com/create2connect/cc

My blog id: http://create2connect.blogspot.com

Is Your Service Business Listed on Booktime.me Free Freelance Directory Yet?

2010-10-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

More service-oriented businesses and freelance professionals are turning to Booktime.me for their newest feature, a FREE business profile listing on Booktime.me Freelance Directory. A free profile listing in addition to the very popular FREE client appointment scheduling tool? Booktime.me is THE solution for service businesses and freelancers with its popular, free and user friendly online calendar system located at www.booktime.me which also allows its users to list their independent service business profiles on the new Freelance Directory. Future enhancements will include a mobile phone application, Google & Outlook integration, Google Checkout and ability to send a user's directory profile link thru email or social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

How does Booktime.me work and how it can benefit you? With a growing subscriber base and already showing constant innovation. For their free client appointment online calendar, Booktime.me allows the user to be paid by the client for their scheduled time in advance at the booking stage of the actual appointment; particularly important in case the client is an unannounced last minute 'no show'. Only prepayment to the user by the client for the allocated time on the user's online public calendar confirms a scheduled appointment.

Users are required to have a PayPal account established in order to be paid and scheduled by clients. This assures secured payment to the user for the scheduled appointment on their online calendar, which automatically emails appointment details to both parties.

For job seekers and those looking to promote their service businesses, Booktime.me benefits those users with a great new feature, the site's FREE Freelance Directory. Users post their business profile listing, areas of expertise and logos/pictures (ie. 'advertise' their services). Because of its global reach, Booktime.me helps connect its users with clients anywhere. Any service business looking to increase their professional visibility will find the free directory listing benefit extremely useful. Current web search results have shown Booktime.me as providing more benefits and free services than its nearest competitors, which provide only free short trial periods, expensive subscription fees and no free directory listings.

Become a Freelance Writer - Skilled Writers Can Earn a Living Working at Home

2010-10-10T14:43:00.000-07:00

Just stop and consider the number of individual pages on the World Wide Web. The Internet has millions of pages and hundreds of thousands of individual web sites. Most of these pages contain text that was probably written by a freelance writer.

The fact is that text is very important to any given web page. It's also a fact that a majority of website and web-business owners are not natural writers, and/or don't have the time to write for their own websites. Most hire freelance writers to do this work.

To become a freelance writer and realize success, you need to possess skills such as:

1) The ability to write skillfully. You must be able to write text that is compelling and enjoyable to read. It should be easy to understand without sounding overly-simplistic.

2) A good grasp of English (or whatever language you are planning to write in). You shouldn't try to write in a language that isn't your native language, or that you aren't 100 percent fluent in.

3) A thorough knowledge of the basic rules of grammar and spelling. To become a freelance writer, you must have good grammar. Excellent grammar and spelling is crucial when you write professionally, whether it's for the Internet or another type of media. Poor grammar makes your client appear unprofessional and isn't good for their bottom line profitability. Ditto for spelling. (And by the way, you can't assume that your computer's spell and grammar check program will correct all of your mistakes.)

If this sounds like you, you can become a freelance writer by joining an online freelancer's network. There are a number of good ones on the Web. Many are free, and some offer additional benefits with a small annual subscription fee.

Joining one of these networks allows you to bid on writing jobs. These jobs are posted from all over, and include article, website copy and sales copy writing, as well as other types of freelance writing (books, poems, e-books) and editing work.

It's best if you can provide some samples of your work to prospective bidders. You may be able to post these samples right to your profile, depending on the particular network. Otherwise, be prepared to email samples to prospective employers (they want to make sure you really know how to write before they accept your bid).

All of your work can be done at home. Correspondence between you and your employer typically takes place through email or live computer chat or by phone. Finished projects are then delivered via email.

Anyone who has ever wanted to become a freelance writer will find a wide range of opportunities in this kind of forum. Those who are skilled writers and dedicated to freelancing can often find steady work this way. This kind of freelancing sometimes leads to other types of writing opportunities and bigger ventures. It's one of the best ways to break into the freelance writing business.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. Learn how to Make A Business Website in minutes at HighPowerSites.com. Do you want to Work From Home? Access thousands of Legitimate Work From Home Jobs in one convenient location at WAHCheck.com.

Freelance Writing Jobs - How Much to Charge by Robert Leichter

2010-10-10T14:42:00.001-07:00

No matter your field of writing, as a freelance writer you have a great deal of control over your earnings. You don't have to query, pitch, bid on or accept any project that doesn't meet your minimum rates. Of course, the more you want to make with your freelance writing jobs, the better you must compete and the more carefully you must choose where to compete.

Knowing what you need to earn will help you to know if a particular freelance writing job pays enough and will help you keep on track with your time budget.

To figure the amount you need to earn from your writing in a year, begin by calculating expenses. Be sure to include everything:

Mortgage or rent. Groceries Transportation. Household expenses. Personal expenses. Health insurance. Retirement savings. Credit card bills Professional development (organization membership fees, courses, conferences, books, etc.). Office supplies, Internet, a new computer, utilities, etc. Marketing costs you anticipate (nominal or significant, depending on your approach; this book will give you a clearer idea). Other expenses, such as "sick days," vacations, special family needs, etc.

Add these up, calculating the total for 12 months. Then divide by 1,000 hours. This will tell you how much you need to make during approximately 21 billable hours per week.

"Billable hours" refers to the time spent performing the tasks required of your writing assignments. These could be research, writing, conceptualizing (you might appear to be just staring out the window, but you are coming up with a tag line for a business), editing and proofreading.

The rest of a freelancer's work time consists of non-billable hours, that is administrative tasks. You can expect to spend around 50% of your work time on these.

Some spend more time, some less on administrative tasks, but Writer's Market (a comprehensive, annually updated database and book detailed in the next chapter) reports the average freelancer works 21 billable hours per week, which if working 40 hours a week, works out to just about 20 hours spent on administrative tasks.

These administrative tasks may include querying magazines, bidding on projects, promoting your website, keeping track of your expenses and payments, etc.

Communicating with clients and editors might be considered billable, depending on the topics being discussed. For example, payment negotiations would not be billable, but providing consulting could be, depending on your agreement.

Part Time Freelancing Budgets

If you will be freelancing part time, adjust the figures above. For example, if you will be keeping a job while wading into freelance, adjust the figures to reflect any benefits and income you get from the job and lower the billable hours to reflect the time you have for freelancing. As your skills and portfolio grow, you may want to just work part time at your freelancing business, job or no job.

There are many reasons one might only freelance part time - a mom with young children and a spouse's income, might not want to work 40 hours per week. By earning more per hour, you can work part time and make "full time pay."

Your Time Budget and Earnings

When you start considering where to market your work or apply for freelance writing jobs it will help to have a good idea first of how long it takes you to create a given type of writing.

For example, say you can write and polish an article of 800 words in three hours, and it takes you around two hours to complete the research/reporting in two hours. This works out to five billable hours per 800 words.

So if you see a magazine publisher that pays .50 cents per word and uses 1,600 word features, then you can figure on 10 hours of work for $1600. This works out to $160 per hour for you. Publishers don't pay freelancers by the hour, but you would do the math for your own time budgeting purposes.

If your annual earnings goal is $40,000 and you are freelancing full time, you need only make $40 per billable hour. So if you land this assignment you will be making 4 times your minimum rate. Some assignments will bring more or less than others. As long as it balances out, you're set.

And remember this isn't set it stone. As your portfolio and references skills increase you can raise the bar on your earnings from your freelance writing jobs and have more fun!

Robert Leichter is the author of The Freelance Writer's GPS: Explore freelance opportunities, chart your course, and navigate a successful writing career. To learn how to become a freelance writer - where to find freelance writing opportunities that are right for you and how to land them, how to manage a prosperous writing business and more, visit FreelanceWritingforProfit.com

Web 2 Mobile Design Launches iPad Screenwriting Application

2010-10-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Screenwriting is an application that lets you write your screenplay masterpiece on your iPad. This easy to use app will allow you to write your screenplay on the couch, in the bathroom, or on your commute to work.

Never has writing been so fun and productive. The beautiful and intuitive interface makes it easy to create your cover page, organize your characters, take script notes, and write your masterpiece from anywhere.

"Screenwriting for the iPad is the first Screenwriting application built specifically for the iPad to take advantage of this unique mobile platform. The ability to import pictures directly from your iPad's photo album to your character list helps to see your script come to life," said Nik Manning, Co-Founder of Web 2 Mobile Design.

Want to import your script from another writing program? No problem. With Screenwriting you can import any script into the app directly from your computer's web browser using the industry standard .fdx format.

If you want to backup your screenplay you can email your Project with all of the script info including Cover Page, Character List, and Project Notes. If you have finished your screenplay and want to make the final changes, you can easily export it from the application. Your exported script will be saved in the .fdx file format so you can easily open your screenplay in any popular desktop screenwriting applications.

For more information please visit http://www.screenwritingapp.com/

Social Media Tip - Top Ten Pitfalls to Avoid When Going Social in the Business World

2010-10-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

If you were to make a list of up-and-coming business trends, social media strategies would probably be near the top. Actually, scratch that "up-and-coming" part--social media is already here. However, thousands of companies are rushing headlong into the profile-creating, news-tweeting, blog-posting frenzy...only to find that their valiant efforts are not getting the results they had hoped. If you're looking for fans, followers, and friends to build a Social Nation around your business, don't panic, says Barry Libert. There is simple advice that will help businesses avoid the pitfalls and make a strong online impact.

"It's true: there are countless benefits to joining what I call the Social Nation revolution--but just like any strategy for growth, social media isn't foolproof," points out Libert, author of the new book Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow Your Business (Wiley, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-470-59926-6, $24.95, www.socialnationbook.com). "If you don't want your company's social strategy to fall flat, there are some guidelines you'll need to follow."

Libert knows what he's talking about. After all, he's the Chairman and CEO of Mzinga, a company that provides social software to businesses. Quite literally, it's his job to be social media savvy. And he's adamant that before you start building your own Social Nation, you need to have a well-researched game plan.

"When it comes to building a successful social network for your company, you need to understand that there's a lot of prep work to be done," he explains. "You can't just set up a Facebook profile for your company, tweet once or twice a day, and expect public interest in your company to shoot through the roof. Far from it, actually."

Think about it this way: if you were in charge of your company's booth at a trade show or conference, you wouldn't just slap your company's logo onto a piece of poster board, place your business cards on the table, and hope for the best, would you? Of course not. Yet that's exactly how some companies approach social media--and that's why so many of these initiatives fail.

"If you want to become a meaningful part of social conversations and interactions," explains Libert, "you've got to know who your target 'fan base' is, where they spend their time online, and what sorts of content and programming is valuable and relevant to them, and will foster their continued interest and participation. You also need to make sure you have the wherewithal to commit to growing and sustaining your Social Nation, and you've got to make sure that you have buy-in from within your company. And that's just for starters."

Sure, it may sound intimidating, but don't give up yet. Half the battle is knowing which mistakes not to make, and Libert, in the book Social Nation, is eager to share the top 10 social media pitfalls he's seen organizations fall victim to in the past. Read on to discover what they are:

Pitfall #1: Running a Social Nation like a traditional business. If you want to run a social company, you first need to understand that almost everything you do is a two-way street. That is to say, you're not going to prosper if your products and services are designed solely by folks on the inside. You need to embrace the perspectives and contributions of your employees, as well as those of customers and partners.

Pitfall #2: Underinvesting in social initiatives and abandoning them too soon. Understand that a Social Nation is organic--it won't materialize with a proverbial snap of the fingers. Early on, you'll need to invest a good deal of time, thought, and money in attracting fans and followers--and your efforts will need to be sustained. Only after you've built a firm foundation will your social network begin to sustain itself through participant contribution and recommendation.

In general, successful strategies include posting quality content that people want to consume, letting customers tell their stories and post their grievances, and then responding to their criticisms. Also, make sure that prospects are able to learn about your business through customer and employee testimonials. Lastly, remember that using multiple approaches--for example, a blog, Facebook profile, and interactive website--will reach more people.

Pitfall #3: Neglecting to find ways to encourage and inspire your Social Nation's followers and fans. When you stop to think about it, you'll realize that your fans and followers are essentially volunteering their time and energy to serve as developers, sounding boards, and advertisements for your company. So for goodness' sake, respect what they have to say and take their input to heart!

Pitfall #4: Relying on a "build-it-and-they-will-come" mentality. Ummm...you don't really think that launching a new website and firing off posts at various online networking hotspots will bring fans and followers flocking, do you? Of course not! To some extent--usually a large one--you'll need to purposefully reach out to potential community members and make it worth their while to accept your invitation.

"Rolling out a community and just expecting people to join as friends or followers is a flawed philosophy," confirms Libert. "Marketing 101 principles still apply. That means you need compelling incentives to have people join your community. You also need an aggressive programming strategy, one that includes defining your key audiences and targeting them through all available channels, to ensure that they know that you want to build a relationship with them."

Pitfall #5: Delaying the process of going social. Contrary to what you may wish, your company doesn't have the luxury of waiting until it's "convenient" to go social. Why? Well, you have competitors, right? And if you don't start gathering loyal followers and fans now, there's a good chance that some other company will woo them first.

One of the best strategies for going social as quickly and effectively as possible is to designate employees and subject matter experts to act as community success managers focused on fostering community growth and member satisfaction. Separate from your sales and support teams, these community leaders should have the ability to advise members of the community on how to best participate with the company and with each other. If you do things well, you'll find that they'll generally serve as internal and external advocates for others in your organization--be it employees, partners, or customers.

Pitfall #6: Underestimating the power of a Social Nation. If you believe that social networking is just a window dressing that your company "needs" (but not really), then think again. Social media and community collaboration bring many benefits, including brand-building, customer loyalty and retention, cost reductions, improved productivity, and revenue growth.

Pitfall #7: Neglecting employees, partners, investors, or customers when building your Social Nation. Yes, set up a "focus group" of employees to serve as community leaders who will shepherd your company into the social networking world, but don't put all of the power in their hands. Social Nations are organic organizations, so the more people who are empowered to influence yours, the better.

"You'll find that leaders will emerge from your community population--whether they are employees, partners, customers, or prospects," promises Libert. "Future leaders will come from places you never expected. Empower every member of your community with the resources they need, then listen and be responsive to their insights, needs, and ideas. Oh, and here's a bonus: by doing this, you'll reduce support costs since community members can help each other!"

Pitfall #8: Relying on traditional approaches when designing your Social Nation. A decade ago, you probably would have been horrified at the thought of releasing ideas and products into the hands of your customers before they were as complete as you could get them. With social networking, that monolithic approach is now becoming obsolete.

Pitfall #9: Developing your own social software and analytics solutions. You wouldn't dream of placing "remodeling the office" or "handling legal issues" in the Do It Yourself category, would you? Not too many would. Instead, you'd hire someone skilled in those areas. Do yourself a favor and use the same strategy when it comes to building your own Social Nation.

"Do what you do best and outsource the software and community building to the experts," advises Libert. "Various vendors provide ready-made, complete solutions to help you build your fans, followers, and friends. Remember, Facebook and Twitter encourage fans and friends to advance their businesses, not yours. Consequently, although you should leverage the communities they have built, you need to create your own community to ensure your long-term success."

Pitfall #10: Getting caught without partners to help you succeed. Libert has alluded to this one before, but it bears specific emphasis: make sure that you truly treat your community members as partners, not just as fans or numbers. Yes, integrating into the social web (Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks) is key to your company's future success, but being connected to the social web is only a part of what you need to do. Shifting your business strategically, culturally, and operationally are key components to the equation.

Essentially, that means creating a community for the people who matter most in making your business thrive--a place that is all theirs and that is connected to your brand. Remember, your constituents want to connect with like-minded peers, and they want to feel as though they are contributing to a purpose that's bigger than themselves. Given that they are buying products and services from you, investing in your company, and working for your organization, providing them with a community they can call their own is the least you can do for them.

"We are on the cusp of a new business era," concludes Libert. "Building a new Social Nation isn't just about a paradigm shift in technology. It also requires a business and cultural shift in how your company is organized and run. Now is the time for leaders, their organizations, and you to find a way to connect to individuals--be they coworkers, investors, customers, or partners--on personal and social levels. Do all of this with an appropriate amount of forethought and planning, and you'll succeed in creating enduring social and emotional value for your organization."

About the Author

Barry Libert is the author of Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow Your Business (Wiley, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-470-59926-6, $24.95, http://www.socialnationbook.com/). He is Chairman and CEO of Mzinga®, the leading provider of social software, services, and analytics that improve business performance. Through a combination of enterprise-class technology, strategy and online moderation services, Mzinga social solutions enable businesses to increase revenue and lower costs by improving brand visibility, workplace satisfaction, and customer loyalty. Headquartered in Waltham, MA, Mzinga supports more than 15,000 communities and 1 billion monthly page requests from 40 million unique visitors in 160 countries worldwide.

Libert has published five books on the value of social and information networks. He is a regularly featured keynote speaker at industry associations and for leading companies on the power of social media. He has been published in Newsweek, Smart Money, Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, and he has appeared on CNN, CNBC, and NPR.

Mr. Libert currently serves on the Board of Directors at Innocentive and The SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

About the Book

Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow Your Business (Wiley, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-470-59926-6, $24.95, www.socialnationbook.com) is available at bookstores nationwide, major online booksellers, or directly from the publisher by calling 800-225-5945. In Canada, call 800-567-4797.
See http://www.socialnationbook.com/

Internet Marketing, How To Make A Stable Online Income

2010-10-03T08:29:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing is one of the most popular search terms on Google today. Millions of people around the world are looking for ways to make money with internet marketing. This is probably the biggest obstacle in deciding what the best and most profitable way to make money online is.

Of course you need to do your research if you're just starting out, but there are many ways to make money online.
Even though the first thing I'm going to talk about is the quickest way to get started I must stress that there is no quick and easy way to make money online. Internet marketing is a science, which when learned and applies in a step by step manner can bring rich rewards.

Stay very clear of Get Rich Quick schemes.

It is like any other business, for example, an offline business takes time to set up. If you are going to open a shop you need to find property, maybe redecorate, buy the stock / inventory, employ staff, advertise and launch, etc.

If you are building a house it is likely to take months, or perhaps years to finish the project before you can even think of turning it into cash, not to mention the investment during the project.

Internet marketing is the same; it takes time to build an internet business that gives you a decent stable income. However, as I mentioned earlier, you're able to get started very quickly, you can start earning money almost immediately.

The best way to start is in affiliate marketing, there are thousands of companies that have affiliate programs where you can register for free and start selling their products immediately for a commission, these commissions vary according to the affiliate program and product.

For instance, if you sell golf balls as an affiliate you would need to sell a lot of golf balls to make a decent return. However, if you were selling an eBook as an affiliate you could get a huge commission of up to 75%.

You can create your own products, such as e-books (electronic books) that offer information on how to help people get the most out of their niche.

You can build your own website and sell affiliate products that fit the niche of your site.

You can create a list of email marketing; there are legitimate ways you can do that without spamming people, I hate spammers, so I never endorse it. You can do this by setting up a simple squeeze page.

You can also use PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising from Google, Yahoo and other search engines to promote your products which is by far the fastest easiest way to get targeted traffic to your site, this does costs money, and can sometimes be quite expensive, but you can set your own budget for as little as 0.50 cents per day.

The key to getting started is to take action, there is a lot to learn, I've been doing it for three years now and I'm still learning new things.

I love internet marketing and I love making money online but as I said it takes time. Take the time to build your Internet marketing company, so that in future, you have more time on your own to do the things you enjoy most. Mine is soccer, thanks for reading my article.

My name is Leo McMackin and I'm and Internet Marketer. You can visit my website, which offers free information on how you can start making money online today at http://www.undergroundincomes.com

New Free EBook Teaches You 50 Ways to Build an Email Marketing List

2010-09-27T05:22:00.000-07:00

Want to get some email marketing campaigns off the ground but aren't sure where to start? Got an email marketing program in place but it’s not growing as fast as desired? Blue Sky Factory has published 50 Ways to Build Your Email Marketing List, a new free eBook that will help marketers grow their lists at a phenomenal rate.

What's in the book? It's full of tips for building an email list, broken out into 6 categories:

Social media
Web and website
Email campaigns
Offline
Mobile
Email marketing strategy

Each section is filled with bite-size tips that marketers can try out in their own programs. Some will be just right for any organization, while others may be ideas to put on the shelf until a later date. Try them out and see what works! Plus, there’s a printable “cheat sheet” that includes all 50 tips so they can be hung up at a desk.

The eBook is available in PDF format and can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

Freelancing & Working From Home - The Benefits and Disadvantages

2010-09-21T05:03:00.001-07:00

So, you want to make a career change, but you don't want to go and work for a stuffy corporate organisation again. You're not suited to the cubicle life and being bossed around. But at the same time you don't want to set up your own business and take on all of the responsibility that that brings.

So what do you do?

Have you considered freelancing? This is a good option for someone who doesn't enjoy working in a structured environment with a boss constantly looking over their shoulder.

Freelancing means that you will self-employed, your own boss, but still get your work flow from organisations - you could say it offers the best of both worlds. This is true, but only for someone who can actually work well on their own and keep motivated that way.

Below are some of the benefits and disadvantages of being a freelancer and working from home. Consider all of these before you decide to make the leap.

Benefits

You can be your own boss

There's no one to boss you around and tell you what to do except yourself.

You can take holidays without having to negotiate with the whole department

Your time is your own - you decide if and when you take time off. You can work hard one week so that you can ease off on another. It's flexible and up to you.

You can earn good money when working on short term projects

If you work on a contractual basis, take on temporary roles or work solely on specific projects you will find it is a much more lucrative way to work.

You decide on your working environment and how it's going to operate

You can work from home: in your nice comfy home office, on the sofa, even in a funky caravan in the garden if you like. You can wear what you like, start when you like, take breaks when you like. Joy!

And following on from this: No more office politics!

No more walking on egg-shells around that moody manager from finance, no more office gossip, back-stabbing or sucking up. You can just relax, be yourself and get on with it.

The Disadvantages

You can be your own boss

Hang on, that's a good thing, isn't it? Well, yes it is, but only if you are good at being your own boss and keeping yourself motivated, disciplined and free from distraction.

And following on from this: It's all your responsibility now

You can't hide within an organisation anymore - you are the salesperson, the marketing department, customer service, everything. Success or failure - the buck stops with you. You must be able to deal with that and have the confidence to take on all of the aspects involved in being a successful freelancer. The best advice I can give here is when you are deciding what work to do, do something that you really believe in, and something you know you can do well, that way things like sales and marketing yourself will feel authentic and come naturally.

You need to be good at time-management

Just because you are at home, you must be careful not to stay in 'home' mode when you are working. For this reason some people actually prefer to dress smartly and have a proper desk at home. You don't have to do this, but just be careful you don't get sucked into doing household chores to avoid a boring project, for instance. Have a clear agenda of what needs to be achieved every day, how long it will take and then stick to it. It's also wise to inform people that just because you are at home doesn't mean you are available for tea, coffee, chats all day long - unless you want to and you have the time of course!

Lack of work

You may earn good money when you are working, but freelancing inevitably means that work will be up and down - sometimes you will be busy and sometimes things will be quiet. You must be good at budgeting to see yourself through the quiet times. And almost more importantly, you must be able to handle it mentally - it can be tough when you don't know where your next pay cheque is coming from.

So, do you still think freelancing is the route for you? Whatever you decide is fine, just make sure whatever you do, you do it with your eyes wide open. Good luck!

If you are struggling to figure out where to go next with your career, perhaps working with a life coach would help you? It's a great way of clarifying what you really want to do, and then keep you motivated to achieve it.

Bebhinn O'Loingsigh is a Life Coach at Hightail Coaching Solutions. She works with professionals who feel unfulfilled, stuck in a rut, or burnt out and want to make some big life changes.

Whether you want to take a career break to get a fresh perspective, change your career, start your own business or completely overhaul your life, Bebhinn can coach you through the process and out the other side.

Visit her website now for lots more articles and information on how she can help you - http://www.hightailcoaching.co.uk

Moonlighting and Freelancing, Great Ways to Make More Money by Christopher Mendetta

2010-09-21T05:02:00.001-07:00

If you are looking for ways to make more money for yourself to make ends meet, you may consider using your expertise, as well as your specialized equipment, to do side jobs and weekend work on your own. There are many ways to freelance your skills to those looking for a one-time gig, and finding your own personal clients away from your nine to five day job could bring you big rewards. While not putting yourself in situations that may be illegal, or be considered a conflict of interest by your company, you could still make a good chunk of cash by simply using your skills during your off time.

For example, maybe you are a photographer that works for a company that does portrait work or family photos in a studio. If you took on some weekend work doing weddings and birthday parties it could help you make more money and still not be in direct conflict with the company you work for. This type of circumstance would most likely not anger your employer nor be considered illegal in any way.

Beyond photography, there are other freelancing jobs you could take on if you have the skills. Writers often sell their work individually as well as all sorts of other artists. You can make more money through these means once you begin to establish yourself with different clients who like your work and trust you can meet deadlines.

With the technology we are dealing with today, you can find all kinds of freelance opportunities as well as one time jobs doing everything from music gigs to modeling, and even specific trades like carpentry and plumbing jobs. Unlike many years ago, these jobs where often found through someone you knew, or by just pure luck. All kinds of different opportunities could make more money for you if you merely seek them out.

Ultimately, if you want to make more money and potentially turn a one time job into something more, try out different avenues to get you where you want to be and do a good job when the actual job comes available to you. Be willing to prove your worth, and you may establish a long-standing relationship with a client or two that could keep you making money in the future. This relationship could eventually parlay itself into bigger and better things and can also be something to have on a resume as well.

Christopher Mendetta is an experienced internet marketer who have built businesses and are new teaching others how to achieve the same success. For more information on how to make money at home visit: http://www.home-based-profit.com

5 Tips For Brand New Freelancers by Angela Chavez

2010-09-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

Times are tough and many people are looking for alternative ways to earn additional income or to cut back spending. Every day more individuals are turning to freelancing as a solution to the challenges of our current economy.

Many project managers, CEOs and entrepreneurs are delegating some of their workload to professional freelancers. If your thinking about jumping into the outsourcing community and earn your living freelancing, then you will want to keep reading. I will reveal to you (5) helpful tips to get you started off right.

Have Money On Hand Before You Start

Not everyone has the luxury of starting out with money tucked away but it would be very helpful to you if you can save money up before you plunge into freelancing. Even if your currently employed and only doing freelancing as a side job, your creative powers will flow alot better without the pressure that comes when you are short on cash.

Set Your Fees Carefully

It is important to carefully consider different factors such as your skills and experience and what the market will bear when deciding what prices to charge for your services. Many new freelancers eager to gain as much work as they can start out setting their prices too low. While it may be helpful to get started by charging a bit less than others, be sure to first do research on what prices are currently being offered for your field. You don't want to sell yourself too short. Remember that you reflect those in your industry. If you accept too low a fee this will affect how others are able to price their projects.

Take Full Advantage of the Internet

There are many excellent tools you can use online that will make your freelancing career more productive. Using time management tools will save you alot of money and time.

Choose Where You Will Spend Your Time

Working Decide where you will work. Do you have a home office free of distractions from others where you can close the door or perhaps you "office" is in a more central location like the family room. You may even consider renting a desk space in small office. I saw an ad in the local paper last week for such an offer. A small computer company was renting out a desk space for a web designer with the promise of a bit of work on the side. Wouldn't that be just perfect if your a web designer?

Network With Other Outsourcers Get out there and mingle!

There are lots of great places both online and offline where you can connect with others. Websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MeetUp are excellent online resources for networking.

Following the above steps will help you build a strong foundation for freelance business. One more thing to remember... when your a freelancer it is often feast or famine. While it is true that you want to be careful not to line up more work that you can handle, you do want to be sure to always keep marketing. You never know when a project your about to do becomes cancelled.

Angela Chavez earns her living working online as a fulltime freelancer. You can read more about freelancing by visiting her blog at: http://wahmfreelancer.blogspot.com/ or Search For Freelance Projects now at http://www.freelancer.com

10 Great Reasons to have a Facebook Page

2010-09-13T06:52:00.000-07:00

1. Search Engine Optimisation

Facebook Pages have great SEO benefits because they show up very high in search results for your business. This is because Facebook lists Pages on individual users' public search listings, thus every user who ‘likes' your Page is instantly adding another link back to your Facebook Page, improving your Page's search engine ranking dramatically. On top of this a Facebook Page also provides numerous additional links back to various areas of your website, improving the search ranking of your site.

2. Consumer interaction

This is the most exciting prospect of a Facebook Page. Facebook Pages can facilitate all kinds of 2-way communication between you and your market. In the simplest form this can be done by updating the Page's status to let your customers know about a particular product or service; and then the members of your group can comment on this and so starts a direct conversation with your customers. Likewise, this can be used to update your members about any changes to your business, any promotions or even to facilitate a competition. However there are also far more creative ways of engaging your customers. Facebook Pages allow for customised applications on your Page and these can range from “join our mailing list" data capture boxes (which increases the reach of your email marketing) to special features, games and competitions.

3. Creates a Brand community

There's more than just your communication with consumers, there's the communication between the members of your Page themselves. A Facebook Page is a great platform for people who like your company to talk to each other about their experiences of your business, and why they like your brand. They may even recommend your products and services to each other. This is a brand community and it can be very beneficial as it facilitates and cultivates enthusiasm for your brand.

In this way brand communities can strengthen members' identification with your brand, helping to boost brand image as members pass their message on to others.

And the great thing is that because it's on a Facebook Page it's easy to track and influence, so it's really easy to build brand loyalty among your members.

4. Gain product and service feedback

Having such personal communication available through your Facebook Page is undoubtedly going to have numerous benefits, one of which is that you can see directly what your customers are saying about your brand, products and service. This of course can enable you to resolve any customer issues or queries, and gain much more product and service feedback than you might otherwise receive. This kind of information can also prove vital in market research scenarios as communication from or between your Facebook Page members provides you with important consumer insights, which might lead to helping you to improve your product or service offerings.

5. Drive traffic to your website

A Facebook page is a great additional presence for your business online and greatly compliments you existing website. Your Facebook page can essentially be an extension of your website, and serves to drive increased traffic to your site. With numerous links back to your site, your Facebook Page becomes yet another route through which potential customers can find and reach your website.

6. Share with your community

Because Facebook Page members choose to become so, they open up the way for you to keep in constant contact with your market through uploading content whenever you want. This content will then show up on your members' news feeds, giving them information about your business in a non-intrusive manner. Members might even look forward to new content being added. You can upload news, pictures, videos… virtually any form of content, so the opportunity for creativity to entice your market is ever present. For example, the Australian Working Holiday Facebook Page (below) has uploaded videos advertising various experiences and adventures in Australia.

You may wonder just how much exposure this actually is; well, considering the average Facebook user is signed in for over 6 hours a month, that's a lot of potential time in direct contact with your market. This is also measurable and can be seen with Facebook insights, discussed next.

7. Advanced insights into customers

Having a Facebook Page means you have access to key information about your members. These advanced insights include graphs and stats on the type of users on your Page including male/female split, ages, locations, and other demographic data, the number of active users on your Page, details of their activity and interactivity with your content, and more. This information is not only useful for improving the Facebook Page itself but also gives useful insights into your market as a whole. You can also invite your members to vote in a poll of your creation (yet another consumer interaction possibility), generating more useful data about your market.

8. High potential reach

Ever heard of the 6 degrees of separation theory? Well Facebook is where you really see it work. An average Facebook user has 130 friends in their network, and if one of them “likes" your Facebook Page, potentially all of their 130 friends could see on their news feed that they have “liked" you. Which, in turn, might cause them to investigate, and see your Facebook Page for themselves. Perhaps they'll also “like" your Facebook Page. Now imagine this process several times over. The potential reach of your Facebook Page is huge. There are approximately 27 million active users of Facebook in the UK – that's approximately 45% of the population.

9. Increase brand awareness & promote your business

A recent study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies, found that 60% of Facebook Page members are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a member. And an impressive 51% of Facebook members are more likely to buy the brands who's Facebook Page they are a member of.

As mentioned Facebook has a phenomenal potential reach, hence Facebook Pages are a great way of spreading the word to new customers and getting your brand known.

Also quite apart from the huge reach, a Facebook Page can be completely customized and branded, thus it can become almost as powerful a marketing tool as your website itself.

10. It's free!

The Page itself on Facebook is completely free - so you're contacting and engaging with your market, and achieving all these benefits completely free.

Source: http://www.clickymedia.co.uk/social-media-marketing/facebook-pages/

The Pros and Cons of Freelancing in the UK by Clive Goodhead

2010-09-07T08:22:00.000-07:00

The recent UK recession has resulted in more and more people turning, either voluntarily or by necessity following redundancy, to freelancing. Not all business sectors use freelancers to the same extent, so if you are not a computer consultant, web designer, graphic designer, copywriter, illustrator, photographer or journalist you may find it quite hard to get work. However, the use of freelancers is becoming more common and, ironically, many people freelance for a former employer even after being made redundant.

Freelancing involves working under contract for a customer; you will either be self-employed or an employee of a service company. In legal, tax and practical terms, freelancing is very different from being an employee. In the UK, there is a mid-way category, the agency worker. Such workers gained rights similar to employees recently, but most true freelancers will not fall into this category.

There are pros and cons to being a freelancer; weighing the two against each other is difficult and the outcome varies from person to person.

The pros (advantages) of being a freelancer are: more money; flexibility; variety; less tax; and better "work-life balance".

Freelancers, in general, earn more than an employed person doing the same job. Of course, there are good reasons for this (see cons below) but it does mean that you do not have to work full-time.

As a freelancer, you can choose who you work for and frequently when, where and how you work. You have more control over your working life. However, when times are hard you may have to take whatever work and working conditions you can get. Of course, there is a limit to your flexibility - you will probably have to fit your holidays in between contracts.

Good freelancers can choose to work on a range of projects for a variety of customers, giving opportunities to utilise and build upon their skills.

The general perception is that UK self-employed people (including freelancers) pay less tax than employed people do. Although, this is largely true, there are legitimate reasons for it, including the fact that the tax rules for "deductable" expenses are more generous for the self-employed than for the employed.

However, "work-life balance" is frequently given as the most important advantage of being a freelancer. Many argue that in this day and age the freedom to distribute your time between work and leisure however you wish is priceless.

The cons (disadvantages) of being a freelancer are: lack of job security; continuous change; you have to run all aspects of your business; isolation; and new tax legislation.

Freelancers have very little job security. They are not guaranteed continuous work and do not receive benefits such as sick pay and maternity or paternity pay from their customers. Some state benefits may be receivable, however, if the freelancer is an employee of their own, or a shared, service company.

Freelancers may move from contract to contract frequently. Many find this quite disruptive. To be successful you need to be able to adapt to new situations rapidly.

Being a freelancer means setting up and running a business and all that that involves. There are a number of possible business structures in the UK that a freelancer might consider, including: sole trader, partnership, limited company, limited liability partnership (LLP) and umbrella company. The legislation that applies to the governance, statutory returns, tax rules, tax returns and financing differs for each structure and sound professional advice is essential.

If you work from your home as a freelancer, you have to work without the support of colleagues. You will not have access to, for example, the company library and technical department.

Recently, the UK tax authority, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), has attempted to clamp down on perceived abuses in the UK tax system. The self-employed, and particularly freelancers, have borne the brunt of this attack, witness the 'IR35' and 'Managed Service Companies' legislation and the 'Arctic Systems' case (that HMRC took all the way to the House of Lords, and lost). Further clampdowns are expected, despite the Government's promise to reduce "red tape" for business.

From the above, it may seem that the balance is tilted firmly in the direction of the 'cons'. However, you can outsource much of the legal, accounting, tax and administration to a management company or firm of accountants and you can even employ an agent to assist in your search for freelance work. If you do this, you will probably find that the decision is obvious to you; you are either a freelancer or you are not.

Copyright 2009-2010 Clive Goodhead

Clive Goodhead writes about various business and internet related subjects from his base in west Cornwall, United Kingdom.

Clive also manages 'Marazion Guide', your online guide to the ancient charter town of Marazion, situated on the shore of Mount's Bay in the far west of Cornwall in the United Kingdom. As well as being one of the most popular holiday destinations in the United Kingdom, Marazion is the "gateway" to the world famous St Michael's Mount. To read more about Cornwall and, in particular, Marazion and St. Michael's Mount visit Marazion Guide.

The Art of Freelancing - How to Make Money Fast by Christopher Mendetta

2010-09-07T08:20:00.001-07:00

If you have the right skills to be a freelancer of a certain art form, you could have a way to make money fast as you ply your wares to those who are looking for what you have. Freelance writers, photographers, actors, and painters all make money with their skills. There are even independent reporters who sell their stories, and we all know about paparazzi who continually are harassing famous people at restaurants and grocery stores all over the world. All of these people work hard at giving their prospective clients what they need in order to make their money.

Freelance writers sell their work to prospective newspapers, magazines, and even traditional publishing houses that may be looking to put together compilations of poetry or short stories. Even more common now are those who sell their work for the Internet in the form of blogs or online news agencies.

Photographers can sell their photos to magazines and newspapers as well as organizations that are looking for specific photos. These photos can range from the ultra-artsy to scientific or natural science photos. Many photographers make money fast once they start developing clientele that they continue to feed great photos to.

Painters and artists of all kinds could do freelance work such as mural painting or supplying sculptures to cities or states that support their work. Artwork can be sold to businesses or hotels, which helps out both parties by having nice décor in the hotel and supporting the artist's work on the other side.

Independent reporters are always seeking out the latest news stories and trying to sell them to news agencies or even television stations. These reporters often work with photographers to establish their stories quickly and with compelling photos to back up their stories.

All in all, many freelance professionals make money fast with their work, and can always be asked to do things with more specific terms than some employees of big companies can do. If a company wanted to get a good picture of an erupting volcano, they may not send their own people to the location to do the dangerous work, but merely put a price on the perfect photo and see who comes back with the best shot. This type of work is always available to those who can handle the uncertainty of it all, but the rewards could be quite good in the end.

Christopher Mendetta is an experienced internet marketer who have built businesses and are now teaching others how to achieve the same success. For more information on how to make money at home visit: http://www.home-based-profit.com

5 Tips For Launching a Successful Freelance Copywriting Career Patty A. Harder

2010-08-29T10:37:00.001-07:00

Nearly five years ago, I walked away from a well-paying marketing job to launch a freelance B2B copywriting career. Within two months, my freelance income was paying the bills. During my first year of copywriting self-employment, I learned many things that improved my business savvy and monthly income. Here are 5 tips I wish someone had given me before I launched my freelance copywriting business.

1. Expect to Succeed

When I quit my day job, freelance failure was not an option. My monthly financial needs had to be met and my family life was too challenging to continue working a standard eight-to-five shift. From the moment I made the decision to start my business, I expected to succeed.

Why this is important: I met many potential roadblocks during my first year of freelancing. Attitude from friends and family that, as a work-from-home mom, I was really a stay-at-home mom is one example. It would have been easy to put aside my work to assume the stay-at-home mom role, but my business would probably have failed. My driven expectation to succeed kept me on track.

2. Request Half Now, Half Later

I typically invoice clients for half of the approximate project cost before getting started. This provides a steady cash inflow, especially during longer jobs, and ensures that my clients have a financial investment in project completion.

Why this is important: During my first months of freelancing, I accepted an assignment and negotiated a fee to be paid upon final approval. Although I delivered first draft copy within a week, the document sat in my client's email inbox for weeks. When he finally got around to reviewing the copy, he requested minor revisions. I made the changes and returned the document. Then, I heard nothing.

I finally invoiced this client with a note to let me know if he needed additional modifications. Two weeks later I had a check. But the length of time between project start and project payment taught me to request half now, half later.

3. Get It in Writing

For most new clients, I create a quote that outlines the project scope, deliverable(s), estimated cost, what isn't included and the payment terms. The client must sign this quote and return by fax or email before I begin work.

Why this is important: I once took on a sales letter project without outlining the scope. After all, how much work could it be to write a sales letter? As it turns out, much more work than I had anticipated!

My idea of a one-page sales letter was this client's idea of a four-page direct mail piece. Because I hadn't outlined a project scope, I felt obligated to deliver his "letter" as requested. I ended up earning less than minimum wage for this job. Now, I get project details in writing.

4. Ask Clarifying Questions

In the example above, I made assumptions about the sales "letter" assignment based on my own experiences. I didn't bother to ask clarifying questions.
Why this is important: If I had asked more questions to clarify my clientís expectations and use for his sales letter, I would have had a clearer picture of his actual needs and I could have quoted a higher price.

5. Trust Your Instinct

You have an internal guide that, when heeded, will help you make wise decisions around your freelance writing business.

Why this is important: I was working on a project for a client based on a detailed discussion with written objectives. But the writing direction just didn't feel right. Acting on instinct, I veered from the original scope and created an entirely different document, knowing I might never get paid for this work. However, my client loved the end result and hired me to do additional work. Trusting my instinct paid off!

If you are considering a foray into freelance writing or have recently launched your own business, I invite you to learn from my experience. Heeding these 5 tips could pave the way to greater prosperity!

Liked these 5 freelance writing tips? Get 5 more (plus insider secrets for thriving in the world of B2B marketing copywriting) at Copywriter Confessions.

Freelance Writers: How to Develop a Niche with No Experience & Make it Profitable for Years to Come by Yuwanda Black

2010-08-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

One of the things I've learned in my 19+ years as a freelancer and recruiter in the editorial industry is that freelancers should develop a niche.

"BUT," you may wonder, "how do you develop a niche with no experience?" It's actually relatively easy and can be done in three easy steps.

1. Make a list of your experiences, likes, hobbies, etc. Why? Because the first step in developing a niche is to go with your strengths. Even if you have no professional experience in an area, if you like it, chances are you will work to become proficient in it.

For example, in my professional life, I've been a real estate agent, a loan officer, a credit counselor, a recruiter and a legal copy editor (among a few other things -- but we'll just stop here). Remember, this is just professionally.

My hobbies are running, real estate investing, reading historical romances, sewing, interior decorating and designing ethnic pottery, among a barrage of other things (I have a very active mind and a hint of ADD!).

Now that you have this list, what do you do with it?

2. Target lucrative markets: Not every interest you have will make a viable niche market. This may be because they are not willing to pay for your services, don't need your services and/or there aren't enough of their type to market to.

With your list in hand, choose markets where: a) your services are needed on a continual basis; b) your asking price can be met with relative ease; and c) there are sufficient numbers to market to.

Also, you might want to consider competition; as in, how much/little do you have? While there is always room for one more company to offer a product/service, my thought process is why fish in a crowded pond.

Go after a market that not many others are targeting. Sometimes this market will reveal itself in your list of professional experiences and/or hobbies. Other times, you may have to work harder to find it. Just make sure that however you choose your market, you keep in mind the points mentioned above.

Now that you know who you want to market to, how do you get those all important first few jobs which lead to samples, references, etc.? Simple.

3. Do low-cost/no-cost work: Always try to get paid for any work you do. You can target local charities; do work for friends with businesses; contact start-up companies, etc. Your mission starting out is to get those first 4 or 5 jobs under your belt.

If you're not having any luck landing paid work, try this. Target a company and do the work without asking them (eg, rewrite their badly worded brochure you received in the mail; rework their ineffective web copy; design their logo; etc.). Then, contact them with their original and your NEW, improved version. Not many businesses will turn down improved work they don't have to pay for. Just like that, a legitimate credit!

Even if a company refuses, you can still use it in your portfolio. Just change the name of the company to something that obviously reflects that it's a fictitious company with the caveat that the name has been changed, but the revisions made were to original copy.

Now, you're on your way!

Yuwanda Black is the publisher of InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. First-hand freelance success stories, e-courses, job postings, resume tips, advice on the business of freelancing, and more! Launch a writing career in 30 days or less -- guaranteed! Log on to learn how.

Freelancing and the Internet by Alex Simmonds

2010-08-23T08:00:00.001-07:00

In recent years the advantages of freelance or contract work have become more and more obvious as the 'jobs for life' culture has disappeared and people have become less trusting of office life and fixed employment. People now see freelancing as a way to adjust the trajectory of their career - they can choose the jobs that suit them, the hours that they work and how long they want to go on holiday, as well as the clients they want to work with.

Moreover, freelance jobs and contracts have grown and grown in recent years, so the opportunities are now endless. At the heart of this growth has been the internet and the global nature of online employment. Freelance contract work is now only a mouse click away.

The question though, is how best to grasp this online opportunity. The good news is that the scope and range of online jobs is increasing every day. Working online is now no longer the domain of computer programmers and graphic designers. Freelance websites offer work on everything from writing to accountancy and from engineering to law.

It is important to choose reputable sites. Some of the larger ones with decent reputations, are guru.com, Sologig, Odesk, VirtualAssisstants and Elance. These all have a massive choice of jobs. Elance, for example have the following broad job categories: Web & Programming, Design & Multimedia, Writing & Translation, Admin Support, Sales & Marketing, Finance & Mgt., Legal and Engineering and Mfg.

The bad news however, is that more and more people are now working on these sites. So how do you compete successfully? Firstly, and obviously, you need your own website. This needs to be well designed, well written, and include a portfolio of your work. It also needs to be search engine optimized to make sure you are not buried in the millions of similar sites on the internet. This site is your calling card, your online business card and you should not underestimate just how important it is to get this right.

Secondly, you need to build a good reputation on these online employment sites. Your supply of freelance and contract work depends on every single review you get from clients. This means you may have to work for lower rates and longer hours at first, so that you can build a good reputation and decent reviews to get you going. Be prepared to take lower pay because the client may be taking you on trust at first. Then, make sure that any work you do is absolutely top notch, because the better the review you get, the more likely you are to attract more clients to utilize your services the next time.

Finally, be aware of some of the pitfalls of online work. Many clients and employers will try and pay a pittance for work just because it is online. Some will ask for free samples of work as part of the process. Some want to pick your brains for free. Others will try and get you to deal with them away from the security of the employment site. All of these should be avoided at all costs.

Naturally, there are other downsides, from no health care or pension, no paid time off and with everything online - very little interaction with human beings! But if you can deal with these factors you will find that working freelance, both in the real world and online, is the best decision you ever made!

The Bedouin Group offers Freelancers Umbrella Company alternatives so they can increase their take home pay.

The Advantages of Freelancing As a Career Choice by Greg Dixon

2010-08-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

When people think about changing careers they often consider changing not because they dislike the kind of work they are doing, but rather the environment in which they are doing it. It is often simply that they dislike office life or the relationship between employer and employee, or the pressures involved in fixed salaried employment.

This is often the reason that people decide on freelancing as a way to change the direction of their career. They get to stay working in the field of their choice, doing whatever it is that they love; but they also get to dictate for themselves how they approach their job and career, how often they work or go on holiday, or how much time they get to spend with their kids, and most particularly, they can choose the direction that their career takes. Moreover, freelance opportunities have massively increased over the past few years with the end of 'jobs for life' culture and the immediate, global nature of the internet and online employment. As such freelance and contract work is now more sought after and viable than ever before.

And whether you choose to freelance on site or in an office, or like many people, work from home, there are a number of advantages to the freelance lifestyle. Firstly there are the flexible working hours - freelance workers or contractors are often able to choose when they work, particularly if they work from home. Indeed working from home also cuts out the massive amount of time often wasted on commuting. As well as this, contractors and freelancers are able to choose when they take their holidays, and if they have been lucky enough to have had a good few months of contracts they can then choose to holiday for weeks on end!

Secondly, freelancers and contractors get to choose the jobs they take on. Once you are established as a freelancer you will hopefully be able to pick and choose the projects you are interested in and go for the work you enjoy doing the most. As well as this you can choose jobs which allow you to develop new skills sets and gain new experiences to broaden both your career and your cv. Alternatively you can specialize in one area and become an expert or 'go-to-guy' who companies know they can trust.

Thirdly, you are your own boss. You work for no one but yourself. Aside from the great feeling this gives you, you'll quickly see that the relationship between yourself and your clients is far more equal than that between an employer and employee.

Finally, if managed well freelancing can be extremely rewarding financially. The average freelancer rate is normally at least double that of the salaried fixed worker. Moreover because the freelancer runs their own business there are often significant advantages built into the tax system for them to use, from umbrella companies to employee benefit trusts.

With careful planning and research, freelancing or contracting can change your career, or life, for the better.

The Bedouin Group offers Contractors Umbrella Company alternatives so you increase you take home pay.

The Disadvantages of Freelancing As a Career Choice by Greg Dixon

2010-08-15T08:05:00.001-07:00

When people look to make a career change, often it is not what they do for a living, but all the pressures around it. As such, many people choose to go freelance rather than stay working in full-time salaried employment.

They see the advantages that make freelancing or contracting such a successful change of direction for many - working in their field, doing what they love and all the while dictating how their working lives are shaped. They also see the incredible array of freelance opportunities in the employment market and available through the internet (which also sometimes allows even more freedom through working from home); and the advantages of flexible working hours, choosing your own assignments and career path, being your own boss and finally, exceptional financial rewards.

All of these exciting prospects are no doubt true for many, but it is worth stopping for a minute and considering some of the downsides of freelancing as well. Firstly, although flexible hours mean you can choose when you work and when you go on holiday, it is also the case that you might go through periods of no work at all. Can you be sure you will secure enough contracts or freelance work to keep you financially secure? Are you certain there are enough clients out there that need your skills? Freelancers, particularly when starting out, need to be prepared for long periods where they are searching for the next job. This can often be a test for your confidence in your abilities and your new career path as a freelancer! Indeed it pays to always keep some savings just in case this happens, and to be extremely pro-active in searching out new work.

Indeed, this leads to the second issue for freelancers. Whilst it feels like a massive advantage to be your own boss, there are also pitfalls. Work is not going to come to you. You need to be proactive in getting yourself out there, networking, sniffing out jobs and clients. You are also the only one liable for the job. The buck stops with you. You live and die by your reputation, and you alone have to deal with annoying or annoyed clients.

You also need to be disciplined. With no one to look over your shoulder and with kids / internet / TV / spouse in the next room if you work from home, you have to be certain you can make time and space for your career and your clients. If you are easily distracted you should think long and hard about freelancing.

Finally, although freelancers can earn double the rates of the salaried worker and can gain significant advantages in the tax system because they run their own business, the nature of freelancing means that freelancers need to take care of their own taxes, NI contributions and Limited Company admin. This can be tedious and time consuming and get in the way of all the advantages of contracting - so much so that a number of companies have come up with innovative ways of managing this admin for contractors and freelancers. These are known as umbrella companies, but even they require expenses forms and time-sheets. A more recent innovation for freelancers is an Employee Benefit Trust, which manages all the admin and tax issues and allows freelancers or contractors a massive return on their earnings compared to umbrella companies. Nevertheless, all these issues require careful consideration before embarking on a freelance career.

If you are able to handle all these possible disadvantages, and are aware of the pitfalls, contracting or freelancing for a living can still be an incredibly rewarding way to work.

The Bedouin Group offers Contractors Umbrella Company alternatives and increased earnings retention.

Place Your Bet on Freelancing in a Bad Economy - A Gamble Paid Off by Lee Su Jung

2010-08-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

Now that the economy has turned south and massive job cuts, lay offs, salary freeze and pink slips have drilled cold fear into the bosoms of most professionals, most people are of the opinion that one of the hardest hit sectors will be the freelancing sector. But this is a rather false assumption and as far from the truth as possible.

The real and breaking news is that freelance jobs online and freelance projects and freelance employment opportunities will not get affected by downsizing. When faced with the prospects of financial losses and decreasing revenues, most companies take the route of downsizing and lay offs and salary cuts to meet the expenses or as a cost cutting measure.

The companies usually take recourse to job cuts because they can then get rid of high overhead costs such as salaries, perks, gratuity, pension, insurance, medical allowance and other such employee benefits.

Now, there will be job cuts but the volume of work will remain the same. Who will do this extra work? This is where freelance jobs online, freelance employment and freelance projects come in. All these extra work loads will be handed over to freelancers who are not bound to any employer on any kind of long term commitment.

Freelancers will work for any company independently on a short term basis, at a rate lower than a full time worker, and yet will have to produce outstanding work quality within the stipulated deadline. There are no needs of overhead costs for either retaining or hiring or training freelancers, there are no set up costs, there is no issue of perks and benefits or salary hikes and that is why freelancers are so much in demand in all the fields, be it freelance programming or freelance web developer jobs or freelance web designers jobs etc. The only expense that the company has to face is the work related expense.

The tougher and more troubled the times, more will the demand be for well qualified and experienced freelancers who can produce high quality work and submit them within stipulated deadlines. The good news is that because of near zero expenses behind freelancers, most companies retain or hire freelancers to tide over the economic crisis.

Full time workers may be shown the door, but there is need for skilled workers who can promote websites or build links or design websites or know internet and computer languages. The vacuum that is created through the lay offs is filled in by the service of freelancers so that the company may survive and continue to operate.

In other words the jobs like freelance programming or freelance web developer jobs or freelance web designers' jobs or other types of freelance jobs online are mainly outsourcing jobs and the only solution in the hands of the companies now.

So freelancers are actually benefited by a troubled economy and if you are intelligent and know how to cash in on opportunities and if you have the requisite skills in any of the fields described above, you can make a great killing, that's for sure.

Find my FREE REPORT at [http://freelancejobsreviewed.com] and get the facts about Freelancing and how it can bring you a nice income without a lot of hassle.

Freelancing - 8 Things That No One Has Told You About Some of Your Clients by Danny Wareham

2010-08-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

I've been freelancing on and off for over 5 years now and I've had the fortune (and sometimes misfortune) of working with a variety of unusual clients. Whilst all clients are unique individuals, there are several traits and behaviours that have appeared from one customer to another.

Most requests for my work is for web design by small business owners predominately outside of the UK. It would seem that these unfortunate beliefs and behaviours cross boundaries of country, race and language, and I've witnessed many of these traits in completely polar industries too.

With this in mind, you never know when you might come across a client that has one of these behaviours.

I hope that this article might help some aspiring freelancers out there to be more prepared for any occasion when they find themselves in situations similar to those listen below.

1. Aren't you a mind-reader?

You're the designer. They're a director of a packaging company. They have no idea how they want their web layout to look, but tell you, "If you knock something up, I'll know if I like it."

Great. So, on the off-chance that I manage to read your mind and deliver something that meets your unpublished expectations, we will continue to work together? Plus, if I do manage to pull this off, there will be no recognition of my clairvoyant powers.

This type of design is called "concept design" and is very different to standard design; and should be handled and biled very differently too.

Design is a two-way street. As a designer, you'll need to impress upon the client that they play an active role in the success of the project as well.

I normally ask for examples of their existing branding that they wish to retain. For example an existing logo, colour pallete or any other stationary. If this is not available (for example, if it's a new start-up company), then questions about their target customers, demographic and any culture or message that they wish to convey to their clients often helps me to at least determine whether a comic, corporate, web 2.0 or other style is needed.

2. I don't really have much money or I tell you that I don't really have much money

These two are not the same.

Some clients genuinely have tiny budgets for their projects. Others have a larger availability of funds, but want to give the impression that they don't in order to secure a bargain price.

I've encountered customers in the past that have claimed that the work is for a charitable organisation and, once the project was in flow, it became quite clear that the work was for a commercial company with 10 UK offices and 4 overseas branches!

As the freelancer, it's your responsibility to identify which of these your client actually is.

Personally, I've found that the best way of doing this is to discuss the rough project requirements over the phone or via email before you meet with them. If your work is 100% online, ask for details of their current site or business and check it out. I wish I'd done this with my "charity" case above...

3. Free advice and wasting time is just the price of being in business

If you're thinking that potential clients will come right out and tell you that they're not going to hire you the moment the thought pops into their head, think again.

This of course might be the moral thing to do, but many clients are of the opinion, "Hey, designers are paid to provide free information and advice. Sometimes they get paid and sometimes they don't. It's just the cost of doing business."

Some potential clients do this in order to fill their own knowledge gaps about the process or price, and test the water before proceeding with a project. Whilst I'm sure we can all understand and even appreciate the importance of this kind of leg work, the impact on your workload can be immense.

I offer a completely free of charge mock-up service for web design, which many would say is a potential waste of time and risk - actually inviting clients to eat into my availability.

In fact, I've found that many clients will want to see some form of work prior to bringing you on board, so I would probably be providing this service anyway.

By offering the service openly, I reduce the pressure for my clients and, if they decide not to proceed with the design, I provide the design as a tutorial or add to my store for other customers to benefit from.

4. I hired you 3-years ago and you're still on retainer

One of the biggest peeves that I have is when clients believe that, because you have completed and delivered a project to them, you are their new "go to guy" whenever they have any technical issue - in some cases even if it's not related to the project you completed.

I took a holiday for 10 days last year. No computer. No emails. Complete IT blackout whilst I enjoyed some well-earned time away from the monitor. When I returned, I had over 20 emails from a customer for whom I built a site in 2005 - over 4 years ago.

Apparently, they had moved server hosts and their PHP contact form now longer worked. They weren't receiving emails and, as the site was for a holiday villa, felt that they were losing bookings and money because of this.

Although the tone of the unanswered emails progressively became more aggressive, the initial contact email wasn't exactly overflowing with praise:

"Your programming has stopped working and you need to fix it for us ASAP"

Seriously!

After I replied, apologising that I had been on holiday, I asked if they had changed anything on the site. They replied that they had moved hosts, and I told them that their new host had caused the issue and they may not have PHP support with their new host. They upgraded their host and continued to bombard me with emails asking me to take a look at the code.

Eventually, I gave in and took a look. After about 15-minutes, I ascertained that they had also changed their email address when they changed hosts.

There was no offer of payment for the service - there wasn't even a thank you email. In fact, I received only one more response which simply said that they would "test and get back to me with any problems".

In hindsight, I could have avoided this if I had just explained that this was a separate project and treated it as such; provided a quote and a time that I could fit it into my work schedule. Oh well. Once bitten, twice shy.

5. I'm as smart as you

The vast majority of clients are completely clueless when it comes to designing - that's why they've come to an expert. However, not all clients will admit this to themselves, let alone to you.

On the rare occasion that they do, empathise and guide. On the other occasions, it is imperative that the client understands that you are an expert. Your confidence will make the difference between being able to work efficiently or having every action questioned and guided by a novice, extending your project time exponentially.

As far as clients go: being an expert in accounting, manufacturing, or health care doesn't mean you're an expert in design - so let us be the designers here - we're the experts.

6. Can you add in my content?

This is another big issue for designers that is easily missed in your project requirements.

We bid for and plan for the creation of a web design. We slice and code a page template (or three), ready for the customer to add in their content. Then we get the files; "Here's the content for the home page. I'll send you over the other pages in a few minutes."

How did this happen? You receive your files as Word documents, so you can't copy and paste directly into the pages - plus you never signed up for this. You're a designer and you've done the design.

Unfortunately, clients don't always understand the distinction. They want a web site designing and assume that the final deliverable will be a finished, ready-to-launch site, including content. It is our responsibility to ensure that this assumption is corrected before you begin working.

If not, you're only leaving yourself open for all the issues that come with content publishing; spelling errors, font layouts and delays in content (see #7).

7. I've not written the content yet. I'll provide it as I do

I warned you!

As savvy designers and developers, we understand that content is king. It keeps your customers coming back, the search engines happy and makes your site look professional and intriguing.

Clients don't always understand this, in which case you will receive Word documents of sub-par commentary with no direction on what to put where.

If they do understand the concept, that can be worse. Each page optimised for keywords and positioning, which takes time. They send you over one page at a time, with a day between pages - and you've got 50 pages to complete!

As with agreeing to upload content, you must agree this process with your writer/client at the start of your project. The client does not need the site designed and coded to write content. Ensure that they start composing content straight away or, alternatively, have them produce the content at a later date and provide all content to you in one go.

There's nothing worse than copying and pasting a page of text and then having to wait 2-days for your next one!

8. Can you add these images?

This is another assumption that we need to correct at the start of the project: What happens with images supplied by the client?

I once agreed to upload 10 images to a customer's site as part of their content. It's only 10 pictures; how hard can it be? Big mistake.

The images were supplied from a digital camera at a resolution of over 2000px square. The image holders were 150x150px. Also, the images were poor quality; bad lighting and exposure meant that they also needed reworking to be used at such small resolutions.

The 10 images took me about 2-hours to rework, rescale and upload to the site. The thank you? Nothing. Nada. Zip.

And this was only a few images. Imagine if you have agreed to upload all content and there were 50. Or 100.

In summary, keep in mind that, like any other profession, you will work with some great people and some not-so-great people.

Most clients aren't intentionally greedy or nasty, but, make no doubt, they want as much as possible for as little as possible. If you don't nail these requirements and expectations at the start of the project, your experience will not be as pleasant as we all know freelancing can and should be.

Your goal as a designer should be to provide good service to your clients and get paid a fair rate in return. Since those goals don't match up, it's important to learn how to protect yourself and your rights as a designer, because your clients won't do it for you.

DataMouse

Danny Wareham is founder of DataMouse.biz; a web, database and graphic design company near Stoke on Trent in the UK.

How To Blog Holistically Is A Free Guide To Blogging

2010-08-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

How to blog holistically is a free guide to blogging, written with the blog reader in mind. By making readers happy, bloggers ensure the success of their blog. The authors of the free blogging guide said: "We believe that bloggers should love their readers, at least that applies to serious bloggers who write for an audience and have a message to deliver, not just some time to pass."

Their suggested style-guide includes:

1) (Being) Aware: know your readers, mission and strengths. Choosing topics, titles and writing accordingly. Write with the jargon, if any, which makes easier for readers to understand; or in plain English, if that makes life easier for readers.

2) Meditating: or at least put the post in prospective. Unless it is a breaking news, wait at least 30 minutes before publishing it. What looks wonderful now, may show several points in need of improvements in just half an hour.

3) (Being) Active: consistency in posting is important. At least once per day. If there are not enough topics to write daily, then one should question the need to have a blog. For irregular pots, better to use articles directories etc.

4) (Being) Respectful: save the mambo-jambo. Go straight to the point, and then add more paragraphs with deeper analysis, if that makes life easier for readers. Also, unless being controversial is the essence of the blog, be correct in your statements, avoid stereotypes etc.

5) Feed your brain properly: you’ll certainly blog on topics you enjoy, so you’ll likely read about them as well. Ensure you read, watch, network, mash-up, etc. with proper sources.

These and more advices about social media are available in the free eBook Holistic approach to Social Media

What Should My Freelance Hourly Rate Be? It's an Art Form by Stephen J Madison

2010-08-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest freelance writing questions people have is "What should my hourly rate be?"

When formulating your freelance rates, there are many things to keep in mind. First and foremost, who are you freelancing for? If it's a large company, they're likely used to paying freelancers a solid hourly rate. Also, if it's an ad agency you are giving your freelance rate to, remember to do your research first. Check out their client list, do they have a handsome client roster? One filled with well-paying clients? Also, look at their portfolio. Do they appreciate good creative? If the answer to those two questions is "yes," then they likely will pay a premium for good talent.

If the answer is "no" you might be wise to either steer clear or feel out your potential client to get a sense of what they're comfortable paying. If it's worth it to you, by all means take it.

But let's assume, the potential client is able to pay a reasonable amount. How should you formulate your rates to get their business?

Over my career I've toyed with various methods. I've charged sky high rates ($100+/hour) and rock bottom rates ($25-$35/hour). Here's what I've found:

1. Sky high freelance rates only work if you find a client with deep pockets. And even then, they're likely unwilling to pay that for someone they've never worked with. You might snag a project or two with this strategy (which will pay nicely), but consistent workflow will be diminished.

2. Rock bottom rates are tricky. On one hand, you may attract some thrifty clients, which you can make a modest sum off of. But most clients, especially those clients who have an appreciation for solid work and, in turn, also have the quantity of projects you want, will be turned off by such a low figure. It's the old idea of "You get what you pay for." "$25-$35/hour = below average work" in the minds of your target.

My advice? Find a place in the middle. Choose a number that most places can afford, but also a number that won't raise red flags. $75/hour has been a number that has worked well for me. It still denotes quality, but is also low enough to encourage repeat business, which is the key to being a successful freelancer.

Of course, if you're getting rebuffed with $75, by all means, try a lower number and see what works. Freelance writing doesn't have set rules, so experiment, see what works and what doesn't. And if you feel you need to discount your rate to get your foot in the door, do it. Just make sure it's worth it.

Stephen J. Madison has been a highly successful freelance copywriter and consultant for over 10 years. You can find more helpful advice on his website http://www.enhanceyourfreelance.com/.

Make Money With Blogs Through Freelancing by Thomas Reidy

2010-08-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

Having gone through the hard school of knocks, the chances are good that you have learned a lot about blogging by now - so much that you are an expert!

There are many businesspeople out there looking for your blogging experience. They think of the word "blog" and feel very intimidated about running one themselves, but realize that the marketplace is changing and they need to stay competitive by blogging. Why not offer to help them increase blog traffic as a freelance consultant?

There are a few different ways you can make this happen. You can actually do all of the work; choosing a domain name, doing the market and keyword research, setting up the script, writing the content, and setting up the monetization. You can even maintain the blog on an ongoing basis for your clients-- netting you a sizable income!

It all depends on how your target market and the type of clients you go after (for instance, you will probably make more setting up a blog for an "offline" client than you will for someone who wants a blog geared toward affiliate marketing).

If you find that you enjoy writing content but not the technical aspects; you can earn money by specializing in blog posts. As an alternative, you can outsource the writing to others and act as a project manager. Freelancing as a ghost-blogger is a high demand skill.

You establish credibility in this type of business by first, demonstrating examples of your work. Showcase your own blog to your prospects. Ask open-ended questions about, not only their objectives, but also their problems and fears. Your solution should solve both of those concerns.

Establish an outsourcing file of subcontractors who you can use on a project basis to handle the work you prefer not to do. Here is a starter list of websites that you can research:

· elance.com

· vworker.com (formerly rentacoder.com)

· guru.com

· odesk.com

· fiverr.com (projects people will do for $5)

As you start to get results, referrals will come your way. It's a great thing when you become a blogging master since everyone wants to generate business with their own blog these days!

Explore the possibility of purchasing reseller hosting rights and then sell monthly fee hosting packages for people who will gladly pay you to take their blogging problems completely off their hands. The sky is truly the limit when you start monetizing your expertise.

Thomas Reidy is an expert blogger; specalizing in coaching beginner bloggers on how to quickly and easily start their own money making blogs--just by devoting 15 minutes a day. Get 5 brand new money making blog secrets at http://blogmoney24-7.com/.

Top 10 Social Media Tips

2010-08-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

Over the past year, social media marketing has exploded with every company under the sun joining a variety of different networks to gain relevant traffic. But with so many companies vying for the business, what do you need to do to compete. Below are 10 tips to help you with your social media campaign.

Get your company username

This seems like a relatively obvious point but your username should be your company name. A good idea is to sign up to as many of the social media networks as possible to ensure that you get your company before anyone else does. At the end of the day, it's free to sign up.

Interact with your users

Social media is useless if you're not going to be social and interact with your fans and followers. Respond to what they are talking about and get involved in any question they pose.

Make your posts interesting

Boring posts will ruin your company's ability to attract more users and generate interest in your business. Posting about any current offers you have or any interesting blogs that you have written will hopefully draw people in.

Make your home pages stand out

Some social media websites, such as Twitter, give you the option to create your own background to personalise the page. Make sure your brand identity is well presented on these pages and make sure users instantly know it is your company when they visit.

Don’t say anything you'll regret

Make sure the comments and information you post reflects well on the company and don’t post something that you regret. Often what you post will stay on the site for all to view and won’t go away so be careful what you type!

Give users an incentive to join

If you want lots of fans and followers on your social media site then you will need to give them an incentive to join. By posting exclusive vouchers codes and other offers on these social media sites will keep them visiting regularly.

Keep it up to date

There’s nothing worse than viewing a social media page that hasn't been updated in months as it shows that you’re uninterested and not worth doing. Posting about topical events can keep people interested shows you know what you’re doing.

Link back to your site

Posting a link to your site will show Google that you want to share your information and knowledge with others on the internet, which is fondly looked upon.

Don't add to many add-ons
Widgets and other add-ons can bring your page to life by too many widgets and users will be put off and not sure where to look.

Post about your blogs

Your blogs can act as a great way of focusing your attention on what to talk about on each post and you can put a link to the blog to get more users onto the site.

Social media has the potential to generate some excellent relevant traffic to your site if you have the correct plan in place and the resources to push the campaign forward. SEO Junkies have been creating successful social media campaigns for many clients who haven’t got the time, resources or techniques to implement a successful social media campaign. Find out more about how SEO Junkies can help your social media strategy by contacting them direct.

Contributed by Diane Forster of http://www.seojunkies.com/

Freelancing As a Work From Home Job by Daisy Wilson

2010-07-26T06:16:00.001-07:00

Okay, you have finally taken the bull by the horns and decided that you threw in the towel. You are tired of the daily rigmarole of running back and forth from work.

Commuting through heavy traffic, meeting tight deadlines and reporting to the person you detest from the bottom of your heart has taken its toll and you want to quit!

Great! You are not alone. Hundreds of people each month are willing to quit their regular jobs so they can get on to the work from home bandwagon. With innumerable number of ways to make money from the comfort of their homes, people are more than eager to quit their nine to five jobs and make a switch.

Though there are tons of work at home business ideas, only some of them have proven to bring in the kind of money that can help you lead a debt free and stress free life. One such work from home job is freelancing.

Opting to become a freelancer is among the best ways to earn money from home. You can work independently without having to worry about starting off with a business. You are your "boss" and need not worry about registering your firm.

You can become a freelancer without going through the hassles of obtaining any license. If you have the desired skills and the urge to work as a freelancer, this is a work from home job that you can start off with overnight.

The world of freelancing is a wide arena that encompasses many fields. You can opt to work as a freelance writer, freelancer trainer, book keeper, virtual assistant and even as a freelance programmer!

Okay, so now you know that freelancing is a great work from home job! But, how do you get work? How can you reach out to potential buyers who may need your services? The good news is that there are many websites that are designed exclusively for freelancers.

Considering the fact that a number of people are transitioning to this line on a daily basis, the websites are also increasing. You can register yourself on these websites and bid on the projects posted. It is important to check the credibility of the website before registering your services.

Some websites offer a free trial period post which there would be a nominal monthly charge. This helps you test waters before taking the plunge.

What are the other things you can do to market yourself? There are a number of things that you can do to market yourself. You can have a website through which people can reach out to you. A business card with relevant details is also a good way of advertising your services.

It is very important to remember that the world of freelancing is highly competitive. Your quality of work determines how successful you will be in this work from home job. On-time delivery of projects that are in adherence with the expectations of the clients is very crucial.

If you are disciplined, determined and perseverant, there can be no other work at home job that can bring in as much money as freelancing.

To know more about how to make money from home and how to start up a work from home business, do visit the website workathomecareers.com

Making a Living as a Copywriter; Freelancing Versus Agency by Bill Knight

2010-07-26T06:15:00.000-07:00

So You Want To be A Copywriter?

Wannabe copywriters often check out my site for information relating to my services and fees. And quite right too! I still give my competitor's websites a 'gander' every now and then, in case they're doing something that I should be doing.

I receive many emails from students working towards their marketing or other media degrees, asking for a few tips about securing work in the 'Copywriting Industry' I didn't realise we had an industry! If we have, it's surely a cottage industry because most copywriters are freelancers who work on their own and usually from home.

"Well what about advertising and marketing agencies?", They enquire. "Well what about them?", I ask. And so it goes on and on until they realise that a copywriter who works for a structured and institutional organisation, is a totally different animal to that of the freelancer.

Institutional versus Freelance

So what are the differences between them? There are many. Let's look at the agency writer. He or she is likely a talented person with creative skills and a good command of the English language. They will have learned, from their course work, the psychology of selling, aspects of communication and how to write in a flowing and interesting style.

Each day, at the agency office, they will work on their assignments, which have been delegated to them by their manager. Their work will be scrutinised by their manager or team leader, who, in the interests of their company, will decide whether it's worthy of publication.

After a couple of years, doing similar 'run of the mill' stuff, they may be offered the opportunity of coming up with something completely original. All by themselves, with no guidance, un-tethered by their mentor. And, in the interests of the company, not to mention their job security, they will produce something as institutional as they have been doing previously. They'll play it safe. Well wouldn't you?

Eventually, their creative awareness and talent may break through the institutional membrane and they'll want to move on. They'll want to do something for themselves. They may even become a freelancer.

A freelancer is just about anyone with a passion and a flair for writing. Some have started out on their career path by working for agencies, some have graduated in English and just feel 'qualified' to do the job, whilst others come into the 'industry' from a variety of other routes.

By whichever means, once they become a freelancer, they quickly learn to survive. To survive and prosper as a freelancer you must have the ability to adapt, diversify and develop the skill of writing in any and every style humanly possible. But there's more! You will have to meet deadlines, sometimes work for less than the lower national wage limit and learn to turn your brain inside out. Sounds painful!

What does it all amount to? What's the bottom line?

Let's summarise thus far.

A copywriter working for an agency will work in a nice warm office with nice friendly colleagues, writing simple institutional letters, brochures, ads and information packs. They'll be paid somewhere between 18K to 26K, get 4 to 5 weeks annual paid holiday and get to slag off the boss at the office Christmas party.

Sounds pretty good to me. If you want to be a copywriter, I recommend you go down this path. It offers a good salary and a steady secure position.

The freelancer's life is not so clear cut. They mostly work on their own, write all kinds of stuff about everything and wonder where their next packet of fags is going come from. They only take short breaks, get stressed and slag everyone off at any party.

They're self-employed, so have to keep accounts. They have to buy all their own stationery, stuff their own letters and post off their mailings. They have to advertise or even worse, they have to compete to sell their services for a pittance to unknown clients through some online freelance website. The pits!
Sounds terrible doesn't it? Then why do we do it?

The uncovered truth about freelancing

Well, obviously I can't speak for everyone so I'll tell you why I do it and how I do it. "Listen up"

The main reason I write for a living is because I love it. I've always been a creative person so writing comes as second nature. And let's face it, it's not very difficult to do.

I love the challenge that each assignment brings. I have ghost-written several books for clients and each has been on a completely different subject. The downside of ghost-writing is having to sign away all rights to the work, which means you can't showcase it or put it in your portfolio. The client gets all the credit for your masterpiece.

I've written many articles for websites, emails and sales letters. I write poetry, humour and boring stuff like FAQ's and product information. But I'm never bored because the work can be so varied.

Then there's the money of course. A good freelancer should be able to make around 50K a year. Some make less but some can make over 100K a year. There really is no limit. Make a name for yourself and not only will you be earning a good living, you could possibly find yourself in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose the work you do.

Still want to be a copywriter?

Good! Now let's dispel a few myths by answering a few questions that I get asked all the time.

The 6 Most Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do you need a formal education and a degree?
No way! Although most agencies will only employ graduates, there's no reason why a freelancer needs anything other than a good command of the English language, creativity and a flare for writing. There are many copywriting courses available, if you're a little unsure or want to hone your skills, but make sure the course work is set by an experienced and reputable copywriter.

2. Can previous work experience help?
Yes! Sales and marketing experience is very useful if you intend to make a living as a sales copywriter. At the very least, you should understand the sales process and the customer service aspect.

3. I don't have a portfolio. How can I get work?
Create one! Write some articles, write a small book, write some sales letters, brochures and emails. Show what you can do. Write for free. Write for charities, magazines or newspaper letter pages. Use your imagination and write about anything.

4. Where are the best places to get work?
You could try contacting marketing agencies by way of a letter of introduction, but don't hold your breath. Magazines are always looking for fillers, so this would be a good place to start. Local small businesses might be interested in having some leaflets written for door to door delivery. Contact them by letter, listing your services and your rates.

When you have gained a little experience, go online and subscribe to some of the freelance websites. Elance, Freelance Work Exchange and Getafreelancer are quite good, but be prepared to compete with other bidders from all over the world. Some Indian freelancers will work for as little #3 an hour, so you're up against it. Still, I think it's worth the experience. I get some of my assignments this way.

Build a website or have someone do it for you. I'm of the opinion that all businesses should have a website if they want to stay in business.

Create a mail shot and work your way through your local Yellow Pages. Sell yourself. It's what you will have to do anyway, so get used to it.

5. What should I charge for my services?
This is just a guide. You'll instinctively know when you've become established.

A one page letter consists of around 500 words and should take no more than 2 hours to write, revise and finalise. If you want #10 an hour, that'll be #20 for the job. Don't bother quoting a price per word as you'll find yourself writing a load of drivel in order to fill the pages.

Again, once you're established you can charge what you think your work is worth. It's not uncommon to charge #400 for a 6 page sales letter, if you're good.

6. What do you think is the most essential skill of a successful copywriter?
If you can't do this, you won't be very successful.

"Write as you talk"

That's it! You must be able to communicate with your reader right off the page. Your words must be conversational. You must be able to 'speak' to your reader and stir their interest, their emotions, their desires.

If you're trying to sell them something, you must be convincing. Your letter has to be compelling and attention-grabbing. Finally, your letter has to make them take some action. This could be filling in a form, making a phone call or writing a cheque. It's a call to action.

Still think you have what it takes?
Then go forth and return with the bountiful harvest of your creative genius!

Good luck and warm regards,

Bill Knight

(# denotes GBP or US Dollars)

Bill Knight is a professional International Copywriter based in the UK. To learn more visit: http://www.knight-writer.co.uk/

blogReaction Introduces Revenue Sharing on Free Blogging Platform

2010-07-26T06:12:00.001-07:00

blogReaction, a social network for bloggers, today announced a revenue sharing program. blogReaction members now have the ability to generate profit from their blogs from a variety of advertisers.

Aaron Queen, Founder of blogReaction says, "blogReaction is going to be an exciting new platform for blogging. Not only do members receive their own free hosted subdomain, but they also receive, completely free, a search engine optimized blog platform. We believe that sharing profits with our members will prove to be an effective tool for retaining existing bloggers and provides a great opportunity for new bloggers as well."

blogReaction is a social network for bloggers. By leveraging the power of other social networks and search engine traffic, blogReaction is focused on bringing highly optimized traffic to the member's blog. Popular posts are featured on the front page, which helps upcoming bloggers to become more popular than ever before.

To find out more about blogReaction, visit http://blogreaction.com/

How to Maximize Your Talents Online By Freelancing by Jacqueline Harris

2010-07-18T12:10:00.001-07:00

So, are you pretty talented when it comes to designing websites, writing articles or press releases, photography or something else? Did you know that there are business men and women who are willing to pay large amounts of money for work done by web design freelancers, freelance writers and photographers? Due to the success of millions of internet companies and businesses, these things are in high demand. In order to save money and get fresh content, pictures and designs, many of these businesses are opting to hire freelancers rather than keeping a staff writer, photographer or designer. There are a ton of different freelance businesses that make many individuals an honest, decent income and they work right from home on their computer.

If you have a talent like this, you can definitely cash in on this industry. There are a few different things you will need and the first and possibly the most important are samples. People who are considering using you for different jobs want to see the kind of work that you do. They want to know your style, how great you are and they gain all this information from samples that you provide them to look at. Think of it as your freelancing 'portfolio.' By getting your best samples together, or even doing some work to use as samples, you can up your game in the freelancing business.

Another thing that many people want to see before they hire you is references. Do you have individuals that you've created work for in the past that would be willing to vouch for your excellence in work, your ability to complete assignments and your character in general? These would be immense help to someone who is trying to start a freelancing career. Something that you might want to add in with your samples and references are your work history or any special training that you've had which makes you better than the other freelancers who want the same job you're applying or bidding for.

There are a ton of resources where a freelancer can find work. From bidding sites and personal websites to referrals from clients, forums and chat areas, the internet brings you much closer to individuals who need this type of work done. If you have great talent, you have the potential to earn a good chunk of money by freelancing online. Continuing to build your experience, reputation and skills through your freelance work can land you a great position where you can earn a lot of money and be happy with what you do for a living.

Learn how to effectively use your freelancing talents. Visit [http://www.prosperby.com] and learn how to avoid scams and make real money online!

How to Determine Your Freelancing Hourly Rate by Jason W Little

2010-07-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

It's not uncommon for new writers to ask how to determine your freelancing hourly rate. And it's a very good question to ask.

To come up with a good answer, several things will have to be taken into consideration. That's due to the fact that you could miss out on some potential work if clients think your rate is too elevated or if they think it's too low.

You will want to consider very carefully how to set your hourly rate. The reason is because you could potentially lose a lot of work if you're not careful.

If your rate is too high, clients may not want to pay it, and if you set it too low, clients may think you're inexperienced, etc. What you want is a happy median that will show that you're affordable yet experienced and capable of handling anything the client throws your way.

How to Determine Your Freelancing Hourly Rate

If you hope to find your hourly rate, you'll want to consider how experienced you are, your skill sets, as well as how productive you are. If you have lots of experience as a freelance writer, your rate should be higher than someone who isn't so experienced, for example.

And if your skill sets include various types of projects, you'll be able to grab more work than someone who only knows how to write blogs, or only knows how to write articles.

And, the more you're able to produce, the higher you'll be able to set your hourly rate.
By taking these factors into consideration, it won't be hard to come up with a number that you're comfortable working with, and that clients will be more than happy to pay.

There is a simpler way to calculate your freelancing hourly rate, however, and that involves creating a spreadsheet that does the calculating for you. Of course for this to work you will have to be working already.

If you are just starting out as a writer, the above calculations should help you decide on a freelancing hourly rate. If you're working, however, the spreadsheet is a great way to come up with a good number to work with.

If you already have writing clients you work for, a spreadsheet will calculate the projects you complete, the amount of money you get for those projects, as well as how much time it takes you to finish those projects. If you were to keep track of your writing for a week or even a month using that spreadsheet, you'll have a great idea of what you are worth as a writer.

On the other hand, feel free to bump it up or down as you see fit. Your hourly rate should never be set in stone. If you're good, increase the rate. If you're still wet behind the ears, lower it a bit in order to get more work. You'll soon find, however, that hungry writers are always flexible with what they charge, to a degree. That's because being able to adjust your rate can mean the difference between a writer who is working, and one who is not.

For more information on the life of a freelance writer, go to Jason Little on Writing.

Jason Little is a professional full time freelance writer who lives in Houston, Texas. His site, Jason Little on Writing is a resource for other freelancers who have questions that have yet to be answered. Jason is always looking for more freelance work so, clients, feel free to contact him anytime.

Make Money Online - Why Every Stay-At-Home Parent Should Consider Freelancing Online! by Sarah J. Cameron

2010-07-11T07:55:00.002-07:00

Considering today's economy and the lack of job security out there, it's no wonder people are fearful and unsure of whether or not they will even have a job tomorrow, or next week, or next month. Many people are looking to make a second income and increase their savings and security.

If you are a stay-at-home parent, and wish to contribute something to your household, here are a few reasons why freelancing could be your best option for securing a second income.

1. Flexibility - you choose the hours you work. As long as you get your tasks completed on time, you can work two hours a day or eight. You can work before the kids get up in the morning, while they're at school, or after they go to bed for the night.

2. Income - You can make as much as you want, as often as you want. The number of jobs you take on will depend on your childrens ages and how much attention they require. Younger children usually demand more attention, while older ones are usually more independent and can spend a few hours entertaining themselves.

3. Various opportunities - there are freelancing positions for almost anything you can imagine: research, website creation and design, writing, programming, administrative assistants, data entry, just to name a few.

4. No commuting - you work in your own home office, so you don't have to worry about the countless hours stuck in traffic.

5. No sacrificing family time - as stated above, you can work around your family's schedule. You choose when you want to work, and how many hours a day you want to work.

Freelancing can give stay-at-home parents the best of both worlds; the joys and wonderful experiences that go with raising their children, and the satisfaction of working and earning an income. Make a list of things that you enjoy doing and are good at. Then, search the internet for companies or individuals that are hiring for those positions.

You will need to make sure that you have a fully equipped home office: a computer, a printer, an internet connection, messenger software like skype or yahoo, and basic software such as MS office.

Freelancing is gaining popularity among companies because they can save thousands of dollars a month, by not paying benefits, office space, utilities, overtime, etc. It's a win-win for both freelancers and corporations.

Once you complete a few freelancing jobs, you may find that they hire you on an on-going basis. You have the power of accepting any or all of these assignments, based on your schedule. That is true job security!

FreeLancer.co.uk is the leading site where you can find freelancers and freelance projects of all kind, where businesses connect with independent professionals to get work done.

Providers:Get a healthy Second Income from Hundreds of Freelance Jobs!

Businesses: Access a Vast Pool of Skilled and Tested Talents Online! Get the best of Freelancers and Freelance Work

Freelancing In a Free World by Parveen Panwar

2010-07-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

Freelancing brings unmatched flexibility and in fact this is one of the most popular reasons for becoming a freelancer. Flexible working hours allows the freelancer to tailor his/her work around their life style and growing responsibilities. Another plus is that you only get paid for how long you work - overtime is actually paid! Furthermore, if you like to set your own holiday and travel time, freelance allows you the option to go on holiday two weeks, or two months - depending on your financial/business needs.

Freelance work is also an excellent way to earn quick money and a good amount of it. Generally, freelance workers earn more money at an hourly rate than their
permanent counterparts. Because the recruitment process for freelance is much shorter then for permanent roles, speedy turnaround allows individuals to get in and out of a project quickly and still receive a good income from it.

Career Variety

For those individuals who like variety in the workplace, a career as a freelancer enables professionals to work on a wide range of projects for some of the leading firms in the country. Freelance work can often improve career prospects - allowing an individual to gain valuable experience on many different sector schemes while working for a variety of major companies. Another motivating factor is the desire to "test drive a company" before committing to a permanent position.

Freelance gives the candidate the opportunity to see if a particular company works for them without any long-term commitments on their part. Recognizing that this has become a preferred option for many workers, firms are now opting to initially employee candidates on a freelance basis rather then putting them through the traditional probationary period of a permanent role. Freelance can be a good option for those who want to have more control over their working environment. A highly competitive market means that there is no shortage of contracts for an individual to choose from - allowing for greater choices in where you want to work, the type of firm you want to work for, and the rate at which you'll work - certainly a tempting proposition for many candidates in any industry.

Choosing A Freelancing Career

Freelance can be a great career move -whether done independently or in conjunction with an existing fulltime job. There are three main points to consider when making a decision to head down this particular career path. Firstly- salary: freelance workers on average do receive a reasonable rate of pay. Firms realise that they have to pay more for better solutions. With the increase in the temporary market has come a rise in options for salary payments. However, it is important to remember that freelance salaries are subject to extreme fluctuation - often a case of feast or famine. Therefore, it is crucial that jobseekers be able to plan ahead - making preparations well in advance to compensate for an uncertain income, lack of benefits, moving location or travelling expenses.

Secondly a freelancer must be able to accommodate an uncertain work environment. Freelance work often involves an extensive amount of travelling/relocating. The roles that are often offered may not always be the ideal choice for the candidate, but sometimes have to be taken due to income necessities. They must also be able to accommodate the company culture in their new job, and be flexible enough to adapt to new work practices and environments.

Finally, situation - it is important for new freelancers to consider their future in realistic and planned way. Training and promotions are not often available to freelancers as many companies don't perceive a temporary employee as a long-term investment. Consider your career goals - will freelance help you to achieve these goals - will it work against or work for your current lifestyle and future aspirations?

The Smart Choice

Freelancing and consulting are great ways to explore various career paths and revenue streams. Performing this kind of work on the side can be fulfilling, exciting and fun. Taking a chance to explore a new career, or explore the world of being your own boss is a great opportunity stretch yourself a bit. The best part is that you work for the best company ever: You, Inc. Take a chance. Do a little consulting and freelancing. You might find a whole new career is waiting!

Parveen Panwar is founder of Go4outsourcing.com, an online freelance marketplace to connect service buyers with freelancers/service firms. Freelance web developer, freelance programmers, freelance software developers, outsourcing firms etc register at Go4outsourcing.com to showcase their services.

Get On-Board with Facebook's Social Search Engine

2010-07-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

Although Facebook's Open Graph is still in its infancy of developing a social search engine, companies need to take note of the "like" button that has challenged Google's dominance as a search engine.

In April, Facebook's like buttons took the internet by storm, appearing on web pages covering every industry imaginable. The idea is to use behavioral data to power a social search engine with results driven by what our peers and other Facebook users recommend instead of traditional link building SEO. This means that companies with the most Facebook users who “like” what they have to offer will appear higher in Facebook search rankings.

There are two ways a Facebook user can select that they like your company, product or service. The first is by adding a Facebook plug-in to your website so that from your homepage viewers can click on Facebook's like button. The second is by creating a page within Facebook for your company, separate from personal profile, where users will be given the option to like the business. It has been confirmed by Facebook that all web pages that use open graph plug-ins show up in the social network's search results the same as traditional Facebook pages appear.

What does this mean for businesses? It is not time to neglect the importance of traditional search engine optimization but it is time to make sure website is equipped with the Open Graph API and plug-ins. Being active on Facebook with a company page is also an important step toward increased visibility in social search results.

Source: http://www.oneseocompany.com/

Freelancing's Double Edged Sword - Independence and Isolation by Cyndy Kryder

2010-07-04T16:10:00.000-07:00

We work from our home offices. We get to pick and choose which jobs we take and which ones we turn down. We can work in our PJs, if we want (but we don't), and we can throw in a load of laundry whenever we feel like it. Ah, the independence of freelancing.

Yes, a certain allure is associated with being a freelance writer, but here's the thing. We work ALONE in our offices, without the benefit of camaraderie from coworkers. There's no birthday cake for the guy in the next cubicle, no baby shower for the woman working across the hall. No colleague in the corner office to brainstorm with when we're having trouble with a project. And when the computer takes on a mind of its own, we can't just pick up the phone and call IT. That's the flip side of freelancing.

How can you handle the isolation? Here are some tips:

Plan monthly lunches with other freelances. This gets you away from the home office and gives you the chance to compare notes with colleagues in the same situation. And keep the receipt. Lunch with your colleagues is a tax-deductible expense if you're a freelance!

Join a local business association and attend meetings. Consider the local Chamber of Commerce or another business-networking group. You'll have the opportunity to meet other local business people face to face and network with businesses that might need your services.

Schedule breaks during your work day. Staring at the computer for hours on end can make you feel even more isolated. Leave the office, go to the gym, walk around the block, say hello to your neighbor, do anything that gives you a change of scenery, no matter how brief.

Don't be afraid to call other freelances when you need another perspective or some business advice. How do you find these colleagues? By leveraging your contacts through professional associations, such as the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) and other societies. It's not unusual for me to call an AMWA colleague or two when I need to bounce off an idea or even complain about a project. Getting a different spin on things is always a good thing.

Develop relationships through social media networking. Today it's easy to connect with like-minded people through social networks such as LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. By participating in social networks you can decrease the degree of professional isolation you feel, especially if you're just starting out as a freelance and are experiencing the initial shock that accompanies exiting the corporate world.

Teach a class for fun. I find that doing something completely different from my day job, medical communication, is exciting as long as I don't overcommit. What are you good at? Look around your community for opportunities to share what you know. Chances are you'll find the balance refreshing.

Cyndy Kryder is a freelance medical writer with more than 18 years of experience. She is the author of Nude Mice and Other Medical Writing Terms You Need to Know, and the coauthor of The Accidental Medical Writer. She shares tips and tactics about freelance writing through a monthly newsletter, Pencil Points. To subscribe, go to http://www.theaccidentalmedicalwriter.com/.

Influentials More Actively Engaged on the Blogosphere

2010-07-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

Marketers looking to reach the super-influentials in their category may just want to keep blogs at the top of their list of social media tactics, according to the preliminary findings of a first-of-its-kind study released today by Copernicus Marketing Consulting and Research. An Aegis Media company, Copernicus provides growth-oriented insights and recommendations to Fortune 500 companies to improve the performance of marketing programs for new and established products and services.

Copernicus surveyed a national cross-section of 808 men and women, ages 18 and older, about their blogging behaviors and their personal influence patterns across 21 categories, ranging from products and services such as soft drinks and fast food restaurants to social/cultural topics such as sports and politics. The firm identified five groups that varied in terms of blog usage and three groups that differed in personal influence across the categories.

Copernicus discovered that study participants who scored "high" in cross-category personal influence were three times more likely to have posted a comment to a blog they regularly read and/or write their own blog than people who scored "low."

Though many previous studies demonstrated the wide-spread awareness of blogs and varying levels of participation, no other study done to date has included direct measures of personal influence.

"Many marketers pushed their brands into the blogosphere based on the assumption that bloggers and 'influentials' are one-and-the-same person," explains Kevin Clancy, Ph.D., Chairman of Copernicus. "Now they'll have some definitive evidence that suggests a strong relationship between blogging behavior and personal influence across a broad range of categories."

According to Peter Krieg, President and CEO of Copernicus, most marketers know that in the increasingly important word-of-mouth channel, "the messenger carries more weight than the actual message." As a result, they regularly seek out "influentials," also known as the people who tell friends and neighbors what and where to buy and have an impact on an increasing number of purchase decisions.

"And these influentials we've found are more engaged with blogs."

Adds Krieg: "Reaching influentials via blogs--a medium created to disseminate opinions and recommendations--makes it all the easier to share and spread information about your brand."

While marketers may not reach a sizable portion of the potential market for a product or service directly through blogs, they can still impact their purchase decisions indirectly by getting to the influentials:

A combined 77% of the study participants who scored "high" in terms of cross-category personal influence also scored "high" in blogging engagement.

In contrast, 62% of those who scored "low" on cross-category personal influence reported that though they know about blogs, they don't read them on a regular basis.

Copernicus also found a particularly strong relationship between blogging behavior and personal influence in selected categories. For example, take computers: among those who scored "low" in blogging engagement, only 23% agreed with the statement "I have a lot of opinions about computers and can often persuade other people to accept my point of view." In contrast, among those who scored "high" on blogging engagement, 59% agreed. See chart for the top 7 categories with the biggest differences.
Interacting with those most likely to influence the personal decisions of others in a medium in which they more actively engage can boost the effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing efforts, says Clancy.

Other interesting early findings from the study include:

Of the demographic characteristics Copernicus examined, only age proved predictive of blogging behavior. As age increases, the level of blog engagement decreases.

Younger men tend to have a higher level of cross-category personal influence compared to other groups.

Those with a high level of cross-category personal influence spend twice as many hours reading blogs each week as those with a low level--6 hours vs. 3 hours.

Copernicus will present the full findings of the study in a webcast on July 14. Visit http://www.copernicusmarketing.com/consult/webcasts.shtml to register.

Using Newsletters For Marketing

2010-07-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

Newsletters are a marketing tool used by businesses to keep in touch with their existing and potential customers or clients. Businesses can make the most out of this simple marketing tool; they can use it to advertise their products, introduce new services, offer discounts or promos, and announce events, among others. In the world of business, it is always important to make customers and clients feel satisfied. Thus, business owners always have to put their interests in mind.

Newsletters have started out as a print-based material. These require, for the creator, to gather news, feature articles or information that can be featured on the newsletter; layout and design using Microsoft Office Publisher, Office, or any other computer program; copy and proof readingl; and then printing it out en masse for distribution. The whole process of production is labor intensive, not to mention costly. Any company or organization need to invest money on production.

Imagine: if you have a thousand subscribers, how much would you need to produce and distribute newsletters? The hardwork and effort can be time consuming.

For those businesses who want to save money, but still be able to produce newsletters for their clientele, they can make use of online newsletters. These online newsletters are a practical way to help market your business and of course, your products and services. Online, there are different companies that offer such service. Or you can just opt to make your own using tools for newsletters online. Newsletters can be available with a fee, sometimes, for free over the internet.

Newsletters that do not come with a price are often given to those businesses who want to undergo a trial period for a maximum of 30 days and sometimes more; to experience how the product works, how they can use it to their advantage, and how the feedback will be from their clients or customers. This comes with a free use of newsletter templates as well as distribution to their clienteles email addresses. You just need to have a mailing list, complete with contact information.

Making email newsletters on your own can be easy. You just need to be, of course, connected to the internet. Websites that offer such service have templates you can choose from. Just browse through their selection, and choose the one that best fit your business image. Once you have selected the template, you can edit according to your preference: font, color, table, layout, etc. You can also replace the images with your own. Put pictures of your products, if you like.

Always make sure that you get to save your work once you make changes or when you are already finished. You will be directed to a send or even a review option. Before you go and send it your clientele, make sure that you have proof read. Go over the news, article, or promo sections to check the veracity of the information contained. Then click send; you will be asked to enter all the names and addresses of your clientele beforehand or during the latter part of the process.

About the Author:
Martha Killian has been writing articles online for about 2 years now in a printing company. You can also check out this website for more information about newsletters and how to start and make newsletter templates.

Freelancing 2010 by James Alina

2010-06-27T13:29:00.000-07:00

Freelancing has become one of the major professions for almost everyone! With the beginning of 2010, many freelancers are planning to chalk out their new strategies and goals for the year. So before setting an agenda for this New Year take a look at some quick steps that can be useful for making the career successful.

Profile completeness

Profile is important for increasing chances of getting freelance jobs It is a prerequisite for the freelancers to acquire more freelance jobs and to become an established web worker. Profile works as a resume as it includes essential information, which a buyer would be interested in knowing before finalizing a provider for his project. An online profile has all the relevant information about skill sets, education, certification, recommendations and work experience.

Online skill tests

Online skill tests are also available online across a wide range of categories. These skill tests scores can be displayed online on profiles or portfolios. A buyer might get impressed with this and award with the project. So to win over the attention of buyers, the freelancers need to take the online skill test in their area of expertise as certified service providers manage to get access to some real good projects faster.

Education & credentials verified

Getting skill tests verified can be a great of winning a freelance projects and they have an edge over unverified credentials. Buyers always look out for genuine providers with authenticated skills to outsource their projects to them. Having a profile containing a verification seal brighten the chances of winning a freelance job simply and immediately.

Participate in Q&A

This works as a knowledge sharing platform as it allows a user to share, learn and ask questions to build a network with the people in same domain. A user can raise a query, answer questions, and share knowledge with people from across the globe. This helps in improving skill sets, connecting with people from similar of different areas of freelancing business.

Promote your profile

Marketing and promoting an online profile is another important requirement of freelancers across the globe. Join the affiliation programs online, refer friends and earn through activity they would perform on the platform. Also, earn money while showcasing profile link, portfolio, certifications and earnings on different websites.

Analyze these suggestions and utilize the most required for you to enhance you freelancing career. Please share your feedback and comments as always.

Alina, a competent result oriented freelance professional and consultant with more than 4 years of extensive experience in Content writing and website development. Write articles on varied topics such as freelancing, trends, freelance project, market, jobs, resources etc.

Freelancing Tips - Handling the Difficult Clients by Adnan Akramz

2010-06-27T13:27:00.000-07:00

The world of business spins around clients and customers. This rule applies to all kind of business, whether it consists of large factories or it is about some small house based business. Whether it is about products or it is about services, the focus of the business remains upon the customers. From all those customers, depending upon the nature of business that you run, you can have many customers that are quite difficult to handle at certain times.

Since clients are the back bones of business industries, we work on making different strategies that that not only bring in the proper customers for pour business but also keep our old customers loyal to us. The level of our business is measured by the amount of clients that we acquire. If we have a large number of customers, our business will be considered to be successful, on the contrary if the business do not have the sufficient amount of customers it has no other option except shutting down its functions.

From all the functioning of business authorities and business jobs, the most important one is customer services that are made with the sole purpose of facilitating the customer and listening to the complaints if there are any among them. Further more the designs of our products and the way we conduct our business, the prices we set all such decisions are made after keeping our customers and their pleasure in sight.

In order to keep the customers happy in the business of freelancing here are a few rules that can prove to be helpful. The most important one is keeping your self cool. There are customers that can be very irritated and can just call and start shouting at you, well, you will have to wait unless they are not over with what ever they say. Once they are finished you can ask them about there problem. If there problem is solved significantly, despite of their irritation, they would prefer coming to you.

Since in online business we only have to receive the complaints via emails, and we do not have to face our customers directly, we should devote good amount of time in sorting out the problem of our customer and see carefully what can we do in order to solve out their problems.

If your customer is complaining for nothing you can just consult your contract and then explain the customer about the misunderstanding that has been developed between you and your client, these freelancing tips will help you a lot.

Tips fοr Keeping Yουr Blog Up tο Date

2010-06-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

Keeping a blog up tο date іѕ one οf thе mοѕt іmрοrtаnt aspects οf blogging. Thіѕ іѕ ѕο іmрοrtаnt bесаυѕе regular blog visitors expect nеw postings οn a regular basis. Nοt аƖƖ visitors expect tο see a nеw post аѕ οftеn аѕ once a day bυt mοѕt blog readers expect thе content οn thе blog tο bе updated οn a regular basis. In mοѕt cases visitors expect nеw content οn аt Ɩеаѕt a weekly basis. Hοwеνеr, depending οn thе subject matter thе visitors mау expect updates οn a basis whісh іѕ еіthеr more frequent. Similarly visitors mау nοt bе interested іn receiving thіѕ type οf information more thаn a few times a year. Blog owners ѕhουƖԁ bе aware οf thе frequency οf whісh readers expect nеw posts аnԁ ѕhουƖԁ mаkе аn effort tο oblige thе readers wіth updates thіѕ οftеn. Thіѕ article wіƖƖ discuss methods fοr keeping a blog up tο date including scheduling a regular time tο post blogs, using publishing tools wisely аnԁ hiring guest bloggers whеn necessary.

Finding Time tο Post Daily

One way tο hеƖр tο ensure a blog remains up tο date іѕ tο schedule time tο post blogs οn a daily basis. Thіѕ іѕ especially іmрοrtаnt whеn blog readers expect nеw posts οn a daily basis οr аt Ɩеаѕt several times per week. Bloggers whο allot a specific block οf time each day tο researching, writing аnԁ publishing blogs аrе more ƖіkеƖу tο hаνе a blog whісh іѕ up tο date thаn bloggers whο рƖаn οn accomplishing tasks whеn thеу find time tο ԁο ѕο. Thеrе mау still bе days іn whісh thе blogger іѕ unable tο publish a nеw post οn thе blog bυt thеѕе days wіƖƖ bе less frequent thаn іf thе blogger ԁοеѕ nοt hаνе a block οf time strictly dedicated tο keeping thе blog up tο date.

On days іn whісh thе blog іѕ unable tο devote time tο blogging, thе blogger mау wish tο аt Ɩеаѕt publish a short message explaining whу іt wаѕ nοt possible tο post a nеw blog entry. Thіѕ wіƖƖ Ɩеt readers know уου аrе aware οf thеіr desire tο read more information bυt аrе simply unable tο publish a nеw blog post. Aѕ long аѕ thіѕ ԁοеѕ nοt become a regular occurrence, blog visitors аrе nοt ƖіkеƖу tο ѕtοр viewing a blog simply bесаυѕе thе blogger skips a day οr two.

Taking Advantage οf Publishing Tools

Sοmе blog publishing tools enable bloggers tο write blog posts ahead οf time аnԁ specify whеn each post ѕhουƖԁ bе published. Thіѕ іѕ аn ехсеƖƖеnt feature fοr bloggers whο want tο publish nеw posts daily bυt аrе unable tο dedicate time each day tο writing blog posts. Thіѕ way thе blogger саn dedicate a block οf time each week tο write blog posts аnԁ hаνе thе posts published throughout thе week. Thіѕ іѕ οftеn аn easier method fοr many bloggers bесаυѕе thеу аrе аbƖе tο bе more efficient thіѕ way.

Hiring Guest Bloggers

Bloggers mау аƖѕο want tο consider hiring guest bloggers tο аѕѕіѕt thеm іn keeping a blog up tο date. Thіѕ саn bе a worthwhile method fοr bloggers whο аrе nοt οnƖу having difficulty keeping thеіr blog up tο date bυt аrе аƖѕο interested іn providing readers wіth a ƖіttƖе variety. Hοwеνеr, blog owners whο opt fοr thіѕ message οf keeping thеіr blog up tο date ѕhουƖԁ carefully consider hοw thе dedicated blog readers wіƖƖ react tο thіѕ change. Thіѕ іѕ іmрοrtаnt bесаυѕе ѕοmе readers mау nοt bе interested іn reading blogs written bу a guest blogger. Therefore thе υѕе οf a guest blogger саn actually bе more detrimental tο thе blog thаn nοt updating thе blog regularly. Bloggers саn gauge reader reaction tο thе υѕе οf guest bloggers іn a couple οf different ways. Thе simplest аnԁ mοѕt straight forward method іѕ tο poll thе readers аbουt thе υѕе οf guest bloggers. Thіѕ саn bе done bу asking readers tο comment οn thе issue аnԁ tabulating thе comments received. Another method tο gauge reader reaction іѕ tο introduce a guest blogger аnԁ compare thе traffic thе guest blogger receives tο thе traffic thе blog owner receives.

Abουt thе Author:
Discover hοw tο attract enormous amounts οf traffic аnԁ build уουr list fοr FREE! Click HERE tο sign up now!
Elijah Chai
Managing Director
Success Engineers LLP
http://www.successengineers.info/

Make Money Using Your Freelance Skills by Harry Durran

2010-06-21T08:16:00.001-07:00

There is no room for error and 99 percent of employers in this field are looking for English writers. So, you either have to be a native, or be very fluent in English as a foreign speaker and writer (like it is my case). If you know that you are not a good English speaker you shouldn't consider this as an option. If you can write perfect English articles, the next thing that you have to do is go online and look for a freelancing site. There are a couple of very good ones with a lot of buyers (or employers) that you can find easily and those are the ones that you are looking for. The registering is free and the sites are very simple to use, so you should not have any problem with that.

Even before starting to look for projects that you can work on, it would be a good idea to have 10-15 400 word articles written as a portfolio. Choose different subjects for each one and base the articles upon using a couple of keywords in each one. Include one main keyword in the title as well and make sure that the title is interesting and intriguing so that any reader keeps reading the articles you write until the end. Make sure to use the keywords at least a couple of times, but do not overdo it as you can't have too many keywords in the same article.

After you established this portfolio (it is optional, but you will have more chances of getting a project) you can start looking for project that you think you can handle. It is a very good idea to actually have a small project at first but it is also important to provide with good quality articles so that the employer will give you some more. If you are really good and provide with the articles on time, the employer or buyer will keep working with you on a regular basis. Basically you will become their unofficial employee.

This is all that you need to do to become a freelance writer and get paid for writing. There are some things that you need to avoid. First of all, you have to avoid getting projects on subjects that you have never even heard about. It will be difficult to start studying about a particular subject and also provide with the articles on time. You will lose a lot of time and money with such projects, so I would recommend sticking with projects that have a more common subject. In the end, make sure to always have unique articles and to strictly follow the buyer's guidelines for any given project. If you do this, you'll find paid freelance writing both easy to come by, and easy to continue.

Regardless of whether you're looking to make a career out of writing for money or just looking to get paid for writing on the side as something extra, your options are endless. Just make sure you do some research on the person or company you've agreed to write for to ensure it's a legitimate offer and not someone who is going to take your writing and run.

Things You Should Know If You Plan To Become A Freelancer by Sampath Wijeratne

2010-06-21T08:15:00.001-07:00

Freelancing has become the main source of income for many people around the world. It has become popular as it gives a big freedom for the freelancer. A freelancer doesn't need to work under someone else and the boss is himself/herself. He/she decides what to do and when to do. But there are certain things that you must be aware of if you are planning to become a freelancer. I will explain one by one which I feel that you must be aware of before stepping into the freelancing field.

The most important thing is that you must have a sound knowledge on the subject that you are planning to get freelancing jobs. For an example, if you plan to become a freelancer in software development, you must have a thorough knowledge in one or more programming languages and other related technologies. Otherwise there is a great chance that you will lose the project and your membership on the freelancing site and your reputation. And definitely you will lose your career as soon as you start. Therefore you must gain a sound knowledge in the relevant area before you step into freelancing even how much you are impatient.

Let's assume that you have gained a sound knowledge on the area that you plan to become a freelancer and you are ready to start your career as a freelancer. Next thing you must do is identifying your scope. It means, you must have a good understanding on your strengths and weaknesses. You must try to overcome your weaknesses if possible. And you must also have a good skill of time management as it will definitely play a major role in your freelancing career. If you are not confident about time management, you must do a research in the internet and learn the basics.

Now you are ready to start your career. The next thing you must do is, finding a freelancing offer. The easiest and efficient way is finding a website which provides freelance offers. You will find many if you do a Google search. Some of them ask you to pay for your membership. Some provide free registration. You can choose any option. But before registering, you must read their payment policies and other related legal conditions. You have to make sure that you are properly paid without any cheating, safely. Most websites charge a percentage of your bid on the project as a commission. You have to agree with it as it is very hard to find good projects by your own. http://www.rentacoder.com is a good website according to my personal view. But you might not find projects which suits your area of expertise. There are many websites that you can go.

You have become a member of a freelancing website now and ready to bid on projects. First thing you must do is, read the project description and understand its requirements and decide whether you can complete it 100%. If you are not clear on something, contact the project owner and clarify your doubts and problems before bidding. Many websites provide message facilities between the freelancer and the job owner. Use it. If you are confident that you can bet on the project, then don't go for a higher bet at the first time. You must build a good recognition in the community first. Don't care much about your income from the first few projects. The most important thing is winning a bid. And keep in mind to use a professional way of communication with the project owner. And always, always deliver the 100% completed project on time or before the dead line. This will increase your recognition.

If you follow these guidelines, you will definitely start your freelancing career with a good start. Always keep in mind that you must be honest with your projects. Otherwise you won't be able to continue with your freelancing career for a long time. Wish you good luck in your freelancing career.

Sampath Wijeratne is the administrator and main contributor of http://www.best-internet-guide.com which provides information on various topics related to the internet with free of charge. It also provide RSS subscription through a RSS link and by email. You will find more related articles in his website.

Online Copywriter Blows Whistle on Internet Marketing Scam Artists

2010-06-21T05:44:00.000-07:00

"Are Internet marketing 'gurus' just a den of thieves?"

Not exactly the type of question you'd expect to hear from an online copywriter who has made a significant amount of his income helping businesses sell products on the Internet.

But those were the words of Ryan Healy in his recent expose Internet Marketing on Life Support. The article caused quite a commotion in the blogosphere, attracting the attention of industry insiders, high profile marketers and more than 10,000 readers.

"There were so many emails and blog comments coming into my inbox," says Healy, "that I couldn't get any work done."

Why all the commotion? First, Healy dared to showcase fraudulent online activity like hidden continuity payments, lack of refunds, shady marketing and false testimonials.

But then he did what few dare to do: He named names. He described the fake wonder cures sold by one online marketer, the poor follow-through of a highly-paid Internet marketing coach and the fraudulent activities of another large internet marketing company.

"The internet has changed the business world as we know it," says Healy. "Anybody can start a website for under $10 and (with a lot of sweat equity) create a million dollar business."

But for better or worse, this power has made it easier than ever for people to deceive, manipulate and defraud the public.

"I believe there are many ethical Internet marketers who deliver fair value for a fair price…" writes Ryan in his article. "They do not engage in high-pressure sales, deceptive marketing methods, or the outright fraud I'm now aware of."

But as the Internet continues to gallop through its "wild west" days, outrageous hyped-up claims still abound. And it's up to bloggers and insiders like Healy to take a stand and help bring accountability to this rugged virtual land.

"I do my best to use ethical advertising practices to sell things to people who really need them," says Healy. "I hope my article has done a little to help clean up Internet commerce -- it truly is a wonderful marketing medium."

Ryan Healy is a direct response copywriter and information marketer. Since 2002, he has worked with 75+ clients, including Alex Mandossian, Terry Dean, and Pulte Homes. You can read Ryan Healy's industry-shaking article "Internet Marketing on Life Support" -- as well as 250 articles on business, advertising, and copywriting -- at his business growth blog.

Blogging to Benefit Your Business

2010-06-21T05:42:00.000-07:00

Think about the last time you wanted to find more information on a type of business, product or service. Chances are you Googled it. Now think about your business. How can you make your business pop up higher when potential customers use search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and MSN?

One way is through blogs, says Rhoda Israelov, a career mentor and executive-in-residence in Butler University's College of Business. "A savvy business marketing plan involving the strategic use of a blog can move your business up in search engine listings, and is an inexpensive way of extending a personal invitation to online searchers," she says.

As a business owner you may be wondering why you need a blog, especially if your organization already has an extensive email database of customers. Israelov offers the following reasons:

* You should consider blogging because of the potential customers who have never heard of you. Search engines rank listings based on link popularity and easy-to-index regular content. Every time you blog about your business, you are increasing the information about it on the Web and therefore increasing your odds of having your listing popping up higher in a search. Blogging is the perfect complement to e-mail as a marketing tool for the beginning of the customer relationship.

* Business owners should think about a blog as a sort of online trade-show booth. Customers are looking for information or, perhaps, for a provider of a service or product. They arrive at your "booth" and, when they read something that draws their interest, they come inside the booth — meaning they "click through" to your website. At that point you'll get the chance to find out more about them and help them find out more about you. Maybe some of them will decide to stick around and do business with your company.

* The cost of generating traffic from search-engine marketing is much lower than traditional media and has the highest return on investment. According to a study by U.S. Bancorp, the cost per lead was 29 cents for search-engine marketing, 50 cents for e-mail, $1.18 for phone book advertising, $2 for banner ads, and $9.94 for direct mail. In terms of banner ads specifically, a study by Marketing Sherpa found that as many 99 percent of clicks on a search engine were for "organic results" (which includes blogging) rather than pay-per-click advertising.

* Blogging is an easier, cheaper way to have a web presence than paying a web designer to make changes, or doing the coding and uploading yourself. Blog software through companies such as WordPress, TypePad or Blogger.com is easy to use.

When you're ready to begin blogging for your business, Israelov suggests you practice these three points.

* Provide fresh, relevant information in your blog posts. You must provide the person searching with useful, up-to-date information. By sharing your knowledge and expertise, you are establishing yourself as an expert in your field -- someone customers can trust to give them what they need.

* Imagine you're a business manager at work or someone navigating the Web on a laptop in a coffee shop, searching for information about the kind of products, services or information you offer. Now imagine they've never heard your business name. Sit down at your computer and use the search terms you believe your potential customers would likely use to see: Does your business show up? This will show you why blogging on a regular basis will help push your business higher in search-engine listings.

* If you had only eight to ten words to describe why you're passionate about what you sell, what you know or what you do, what would those words be? Write them down. This message should come across loud and clear in every blog post.

"Blogs will change business!" Business Week predicted back in May 2005. The question is: Will it change yours?

Rhoda Israelov is a career mentor and executive-in-residence in Butler University's College of Business. Her professional background includes 27 years as the first vice president of investments for Citigroup Global Markets. Her writing experience spans 30 years including 19 years as a weekly columnist for the Indianapolis Business Journal, four years as a weekly columnist for The Indianapolis Star, and regular columnist for Columbian and Radius magazines. She founded online marketing company Say It For You in 2007 to produce content for websites, newsletters and blogs. Clients are business owners, professional practitioners and organizations in Indiana and other states.

To find other Butler University experts, visit http://www.butler.edu/experts/.

Three Fatal Mistakes - Destroying a New Freelancing Career by Roy D

2010-06-13T06:56:00.000-07:00

Ask anybody whether they would like to work from home and they will nod their head even before you can say, 'but can you handle it?' The population of freelancers is increasing quite drastically as the years pass, and with the amount of 'work for hire' work available, the population will only be rising as the years pass. However, we should also consider the fact that the attrition levels in freelancing is also a matter of concern. Almost every other month we hear or see some other telecommuter giving up their comfortable confines of their homes and returning to their so called stable 9-5. Of course, not all of these cases are due to mistakes that the freelancer commits, but at least some of these situations may have been salvaged if these fatal mistakes were not committed:

Considering Freelancing to be 'Fun':

This is by far the most fatal mistake that a new freelancer can commit. A freelancing career is similar to starting your own business, where you are the owner and you are responsible for whether it works or does not. There are several responsibilities that you begin with, like determination, willingness to work, commitment and communication, etc. If you do not have these qualities and traits in you, you may ask well kiss your freelancing career a firm goodbye even before it begins.

Wanting the Big Bucks from Day One:

I wouldn't exactly blame a new freelancer if they consider themselves to be on the way for an all expenses paid trip around the world at the end of the month just because they have begun freelancing. As previously noted, freelancing is like a business, and most businesses require at least six months to two years to begin looking up and for the person to break even.

Not considering it 'Seriously':

This might be quite strange for the veterans, but another weird idea that people have is that freelancing is something that they do 'in between' or something that 'doesn't have a scope'. Of course, this might be fueled by the cultures and backgrounds that they come from - there are still some cultures and societies that think that if a person is working from home, they are basically waiting for a proper job opportunity!

Of course, there are several other mistakes that may be more fatal than these, but these are so commonly found that they may be the profession killers. It is quite necessary that a freelancer understand what they are getting into before they take the freelancing plunge. The common misconception is that freelancing is a fun job and it does not have as much of stress as an actual 9-5 Job. If you are successful in avoiding these mistakes, telecommuting can actually be pretty good for you.

Roy D is a freelance writer who provides important information about freelancing at The Freelance Resource. He also speaks about various perils of freelancing like Freelance Scams at his site.

Freelancing Tips to Ensure High Job Quality and Satisfaction by Tim Trice

2010-06-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

Recently, I read an article that discussed what clients should do and be aware of before posting a job; all of which were excellent points. Freelancers can also benefit from a few guidelines so as to protect you from getting caught up in a bad deal.

Avoid those slow to respond. People get busy, no doubt. But, I'm amazed at how little some people respond to questions about their job proposals, especially when this involves a brand new website or a redesign. If a client is taking their time to respond to your questions, how do you think it will be when you get the job?

Don't assume the client knows all of the details. I've had several potential clients ask for so-and-so to be done and then appear lost when I ask them questions about their project. Regardless of what type of job you are submitting a proposal, understand you know more than the client does. Ask questions and pick their brains; you are wanting them to teach you something.

Don't settle for less pay. One of the things I love about website development is that I do not have to settle for local jobs. That being said, you must compete with fierce international competition; some of whom will work for 25% or less for what you charge. Know your rate before bidding. Even if it is over budget, send the client a proposal with your bid amount and do a follow-up a few days later. If they're interested, they will respond. You'd be surprised at how much clients under-value work. If no response after the follow-up, consider it lost. Move on.

Don't get in over your head. This almost goes hand-in-hand with #3. When you undervalue yourself to get a job, you undervalue the job. Don't settle for billing $100 to convert a website from Dreamweaver tables to a custom Wordpress theme. At the same time, don't submit a proposal to build an ecommerce system for Macy's either (unless you have the staff to do it).

Offer some enhancements. Do you like receiving bonuses for a good job? So do clients. Doing something for free has its rewards and its downfalls. But, offering a little something the client wasn't expecting can go a long way. If you're writing content, consider submitting it to some article directories or maybe even doing a press release (with the client's permission, of course). Like #2, don't assume your client knows what to do with the excellent product you've provided. Try to give them something that shows measurable benefit to them as a way of saying 'thank you'.

BONUS TIP: Don't let emotions get in the way of submitting a proposal. Yes, you may be in a dry-spell where, no matter what type of job you bid on you just can't seal the deal. This does not mean you should lower your wages or offer extraordinary services for an ordinary job. The industry itself likely is not suffering - it's just you. Even Peyton Manning and Kobe Bryant hit dry spells. Those that truly survive in this business are those that master the bad times.

There are many other things a freelancer can do to ensure a job gets done well and enhance their name in the industry. You are not only a freelancer, but a project manager which itself takes skill to master. Keep your eyes open and be true to yourself. Yet, also know your limitations. More times than not, your clients will become repeat customers if you can take care of the basics.

Tim Trice is an online marketing consultant and website developer based in Houston, Texas. He can help get your business and your website pointed in the right direction. If you are looking for someone to give you an honest opinion on your current website or want to know how to start one, contact him to get a free, no obligation website review and analysis today!

Using Your Talents to Make Money Online Through Freelancing by Kenny Jen

2010-06-13T06:53:00.001-07:00

You want to make money and you have a PC and Internet access, but do not know where to start. You do not have much experience but would like to find a part time job. Well good news, there is work out there for you; everyone has talents and this is what will be your ticket to earning an income, how?

Have you ever thought of freelancing? These are sites where you can sign up for free, thousands of employers are looking for part time staff, especially the way the economy is nowadays. All you need to do is, register with them, fill in your skills and abilities and you can start searching for jobs immediately. Basically you will apply for a job by bidding on it, and if successful you will then be chosen and given all the details necessary, payment will vary according to the project and you can then ask them to transfer the funds to you either by bank transfer or cheque.

If you need to make money on the side and have a few hours a day to dedicate, then freelancing may be perfect for you. If you can write several articles an hour, build a website in a day, or design a brochure marketing campaign in a week - you can be guaranteed to make money as a freelancer. Check out some of the sites and see what they have to offer. With great work ethic, strong work samples and the ability to meet deadlines; you could be making money as a freelancer in a matter of hours.

There are thousands of tasks to choose from, ranging from tasks better suited to professionals in those categories. There are also other simple jobs such as data entry, which anyone can do, as long as you are prepared to put in the time. Please keep in mind that you must be prepared to stick to deadlines, but you get to choose the hours you work. The amount of money that you can make will depend on you, and how much time you are prepared to invest. Naturally, once the employers get to know you and the quality of work the more work they will give you thus allowing you to make more money. This is an opportunity that everyone can take advantage of, which will generate some income.

Kenny Jen has been writing articles professionally, both online and offline, since 4 years ago. This author is not only writing in the subject of health, but also in dieting, work at home, and many other more. Check out her latest website in Ipod Shuffle Speakers and Tupperware Catalogue.

Freelancing For Newbies - Learn How to Win Your First Project by Georgi Jivankin

2010-06-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

I started to work as a freelancer in the summer of 2006. At that time, I was inexperienced and I didn't know which projects to bid on and how to win them as well. I saw how the big players are getting their projects, copied them and did the same things that they were doing. And as you may guess, I failed. I didn't win a single project for months and that's not because I didn't copied their actions accurately, but because I had not paid enough attention to my own name and presence on the Internet.

If you wish to win your first project fast, you should make a good first impression. The important factor when bidding for a given project is to use a business language instead of jargon. For example, in the message to the project's creator you cannot write: "Hey buddy, I can do it because I have done it before and I know that I can do it you know? Select me because I need the money to pay my bills and you know, I am poor student you know I can do it of course. Please choose me and I'll show ya how I am able to do it." If you write such message, I guarantee you won't find a project for years. You should be polite and use a formal language. You could write something like: "Hello sir, I am a professional graphic designer with 5 years of experience in vector graphics, web design and CSS implementation. I am able to deliver your project in a timely manner and I can assure you that you won't be disappointed. In order to make an educated choice, I advise you to take a look at my extensive portfolio which can be found at http://www.example.com/ Thank you and I am looking forward to working with you."

If you use formal language, good spelling and grammar and you demonstrate your abilities and skills in a well-presented portfolio, you can convince the project's creator to choose you, because you seem to be experienced, professional and trustworthy.

If you use the techniques in this article, your success is almost guaranteed, so don't wait, take my advice and start building your name on the Internet right now.

To further accelerate the process of building your name on the Internet, you could grab a free report written by me, called "How to Become a freelancer". Just go here and grab your copy now: [http://www.georgijivankin.com/en/freelancing]

Georgi Jivankin is an Internet marketer and a freelancer. He has written a special report for you to read, revealing exactly how to start working as a freelancer. Go here and grab your free copy now: [http://www.georgijivankin.com/en/freelancingreport]

Reality Check For Online Freelancing by Michael Wrights

2010-06-06T07:20:00.001-07:00

Work in Your Pajamas! Earn a Six-figure Income! If You Can Write a Letter, You Can be a Successful Freelancer!

Oh, boy, I've seen all the hype. Too good to be true? Yep. I really like the six-figure income, it sounds great until you come to realize that two of the 'figures' are on the wrong side of the decimal point.

So, what is online freelancing really like? It's like a job more than it's like an adventure. A job full of trepidation and worry, where you struggle to find useful work at a wage scale you can live on and for a client who isn't out to screw you. After a year and a half of online freelancing, I've seen the landscape - oh, and I've never worked in my pajamas.

The first hurdle is getting an online presence. I currently am signed up with five different broker services. Yes, five. Each has it's upside and downside. But mostly, the multiples are for hunting purposes. To find jobs at a decent pay rate, I have to spend a few hours every day reading and bidding. And bidding isn't just a click or a simple cut and paste operation. To actually get work, clients often demand samples of previous work and a few rounds of discussion. I checked my 'win' rate at elance recently - I'm at 17%. I actually get about 1 in 6 jobs I apply for. And that is considered a high rate. At oDesk and GetaFreelancer and RentaCoder, my statistics are much worse. So, half the day is shot pursuing work. That leaves a few hours of actual writing (if there is work).

What happens is this: without work you begin to take on anything at all, even really low-ball jobs, just to get some money coming in. You find out quickly (especially if you are based in a first-world economy) that people who live in countries with a very low cost of living have a price advantage. I would starve working for $1 an hour, but there are places in the world where that is decent money. After a 18 months of 'working the system' I pull in about $200 a week, and that is with an excellent reputation at multiple freelance sites. $200 a week isn't enough to live on, and I keep a second job to make ends meet.

There are no vacation days, no healthcare, and no 401K. The instant you quit hustling, the money stops. It's great when an occasional good project comes along, but these are few and far between - the market is saturated with freelancers, all competing for the same small paycheck. And, unfortunately, when you are burned by an unethical buyer, you have no recourse. And of course, each freelance site further chips away at your income by collecting various fees.

All in all, it's more of a hobby than a paying career. If someone is truly interested in the writing game (or programming or other freelance category) I'd recommend getting a degree and a solid resume and do it for a paycheck instead of constantly struggling to make minimum wage.

Michael Wrights owns and authors webJestic.NET

Why Plan Your Career In Reverse?

2010-06-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

It is estimated that more than 90% of people do not deliberately plan a career path. Following school, most of us take whatever job is available and begin our life work. Many follow work related to what parents or other family members have done while others follow the route taken by friends and associates. These haphazard methods seldom lead to optimal career development. Why is this?

Dr. Powe's new book, Career Planning and Development--In Reverse, presents a systems approach to career planning and development. The systems approach to problem solving has been used in many disciplines and is a proven technique to achieve optimal results. The basis of the systems approach is that every element of a situation or problem is interrelated to every other element. Thus, proper and effective planning must consider all of the associated interrelationships. The book offers a detailed twelve-step planning process for achieving a positive contributing life.

Step 1. Retirement Planning.

Most of us look forward to the day when we don't have to set the clock and be at a certain place at a certain time designated by someone else. The desired retirement life style impacts the amount of money needed in retirement. Will you be content to drive a clunker car, participate in non-expensive recreational activities, and risk not having supplemental health insurance or will you want frequent travel, live in an exclusive retirement community, and assure the best of health care through additional insurance?

Step 2. How Much Money In Retirement?

Many people are surprised to learn that a retirement income equivalent to 65-85 percent of the income at the time of retirement is required to maintain the same standard of living in retirement that was enjoyed while working. A minimum of one million dollars (2010 dollars) is needed. The thought of saving one million dollars over one's working life is daunting at first thought, but with proper planning, is entirely feasible for most of the population. Most noncontributory pension plans are gone. Now, most individuals are totally responsible to earn the retirement income through 401k, Social Security, inheritance, and other savings plans. The foregoing few words should be enough to convince you that planning your career in reverse starting with retirement income needs is the way to go.

Step 3. Who Am I? Every person is an individual--is unique.

We have a genetic tie to our parents, but each of us is a different person with marvelous talents, interests, and characteristics. In this step, one should formally define personality, religious preferences, ethics and values, interests, skills, experiences, knowledges, and learning capabilities. Often, we do not know what these talents and interests are as related to the workplace.

Step 4. Work Requirements.

Once you know your retirement requirements and who you are, it is time to learn what work is about. There are many ways to earn a living with varying degrees of desirability and income. We tend to perform better at tasks in which we have an interest so the job selected should be related to something of interest. Usually, high paying jobs have undesirable characteristics such as frequent travel, extensive time away from home, high mental and/or physical stress, and hazardous working environments.

Step 5. Who Am I versus Job Opportunities.

You should make a list of jobs that meet your requirements and match "who you are" to them. Quite a lot of research is required to make the match between retirement requirements and "who you are." For example, you should know whether or not a job category demand is increasing or decreasing. It would not be wise to start a career in a field that will become obsolete by technology in a few years.

Step 6. Job Search.

Although searching the Internet is useful, networking is still the most effective method of securing a job offer. You should have developed a comprehensive network through social and professional activities. In addition, if you were fortunate enough to have mentors along the way, they can help as well.

Step 7. Select Opportunities.

You will find that there will be many career fields that match your retirement requirements and "who you are." Make and evaluate a list of the opportunities that could satisfy your requirements.

Step 8. Write Resume.

The purpose of the resume is to secure an interview. Each resume must be tailored to each specific opportunity. Have someone else proof read the final copy.

Step 9. Interview.

If the resume has served its purpose, you will be offered several interviews. Prior to the interview, research everything you can find about the company. You should know its management, organization, products or services, and competition well enough to be spontaneous in conversations with the people conducting the interviews. It is expected that you will "put your best foot forward," but never lie about anything. Keep in mind that you are on exhibition from the moment you drive into the parking lot until the time you leave the parking lot. Don't assume anything—everything rests on the initial and follow up interviews.

Step 10. Negotiate Offer.

If the interviews went well, you may be made a formal offer in writing. Negotiation is a delicate issue. Some companies will withdraw an offer if you try to negotiate. Intelligence on the company's hiring practices is helpful, but difficult to determine.

Step 11. Job Performance.

Finally, you are on the payroll. You are in the door. Now the real test begins. Do you have a "can do" attitude toward any task, menial or otherwise? Keeping a job and being competitive for promotion are very directly related to how well you perform every task. Every job has less desirable tasks that must be performed. Make certain that you perform every task with enthusiasm and vigor. Be willing to study on your own time to become better qualified.

Step 12. Contributing Life.

From my perspective, success in life should be measured by the contributions one makes in the workplace, home, and in the performance of civic responsibilities.

This article has been a brief snapshot of the material to be found in "Career Planning and Development--In Reverse." The book includes 115 current references and many illustrating examples from personal experience. It is Published by Outskirts Press, Inc. and distributed via Ingram, Baker & Taylor. It is sold by Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Outskirts Press, Inc. and bookstores and is available in paperback, eBook and Kindle formats. For more information, please visit www.outskirtspress.com/CareerPlanningandDevelopmentinReverse .

How to Make Money Online

2010-06-06T07:14:00.000-07:00

If you've ever thought that it's possible to get rich quick on the internet, you're wrong. It's wrong because every over-night success story that will happen about the internet has already happened.

Think about it, who has made a fortune from doing something with the internet? The people who created Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Ebay, Myspace, Youtube etc, etc. Getting the picture yet? The only way that you can make money on the internet, is if you discover a new use for the internet, a new way to enjoy the internet. If your idea becomes a household name, then you'll make money.

When the internet first came into creation, there were plenty of gaps in the market for making money online, as very few people had the inclination or the ability to develop ideas for using the internet. Nowadays, millions of people rely on the internet for their income. With millions or billions of users online every day, do you really think that there's an easy way to take their money with no real effort or ability? Of course there isn't. If there was, we'd all be millionaires right now.

There are some really big players on the internet these days. Google, Microsoft etc. If there's a gap in the market, believe me, they've got thousands of guys working on it right now. What you need to do is find a new way to help people buy things, sell things, watch things, find things, talk to each other, find each other. These are the things that people pay to use the internet for. If you can bring them a revolutionary way of doing one of these things, then you really might be on to something.

Mark Zuckerberg, one of the founders of Facebook, is now worth $4billion. Did he have a get-rich-quick scheme? No. He had a simple idea that he thought would help people. It was an original idea that with a combination of talent and hard work grew and grew and grew. When trying to think of an idea, don't think; ‘how can I make money?' instead, think; ‘how can I use the internet to help people and improve their lives?' If your only interest is money, your idea will show this.

So ignore spurious-looking adverts on the internet saying; 'I made thousands of dollars on Ebay/Google, send me $34.95 and I'll show you how you can too.' These are scams that prey on the desperate and ignorant. If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. There is no get-rich-quick idea out there, and if there is, then it usually involves scamming someone, and that's no way to live your life.

If all else fails, become a freelance writer. Show a company that you have a strong writing background and lots of ability and they will pay you to sit at home and write stuff for them. This is the best way to make money online.

Media Strategist Jay Deragon Addresses Basis for Effective Social Media Revenue Generation

2010-05-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

Management Consultant and Social Media Strategist Jay Deragon has released a new white paper entitled 5×6 Social Media Revenue Matrix available for free download via the "pulbications" section of his widely followed blog, Relationship Economy (http://www.relationship-economy.com/). Deragon penned this timely publication in response to business' growing demand to align revenue generation with social media efforts.

"Too many businesses are doing it wrong," Deragon reports. "They are trying to use social networking for traditional selling, and that simply doesn't work."

Deragon, who consults with major corporations globally on the use of social strategies, states that he observes even large scale brands trying to impose archaic rationale in interacting with online communities. He contends that online communities are only effective in leading to revenue when they are approached with superior relational skills.

"This means that brands need to listen to their consumers, engage them in conversation and genuinely respond and interact for the long term. This is the only way to achieve loyalty, action and advocacy of a brand amongst consumers."

In the 5×6 Social Media Revenue Matrix, Deragon provides practical insights on how to properly utilize social media to achieve business' desired effect: revenue generation. He highlights five essential aspects of any social media strategy for brand building purposes and intersects those components with six core questions that must drive any social effort or campaign.

As the social media landscape continues to evolve and social networks become more integrated into human interactions and information acquisition, more and more brands and businesses have entered the arena in hopes of bolstering marketing to garner measurable sales growth. In the new white paper, Deragon illuminates why misguided motive inevitably derails efficacy of effort every time.

"Social interaction never negates the need for great service, quality products and sincere interactions with consumers. Everything we've ever known about building customer trust and earning the sale still applies. Social media is not a magic bullet," he summarizes.

The white paper is available now via http://www.relationship-economy.com/ for free download. Click on the "publications" tab for direct access.

Learn How to Create a Website with Free Video Tutorials

2010-05-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

Learning how to make a website is the very first step for work at home jobs and internet marketing. It marks the beginning of a small business’s web venture, and is used as a base for online networking with customers and clients.

ToMakeAWebSite.org is a new website that provides videos and resources to individuals and small business owners who want to establish a presence on the web. To Make a Website provides resources in an organized and straightforward manner.

Up until now, website tutorials and videos have been either costly or hastily put together. This made it difficult for beginners to get all the resources and help they needed all in one place. The owners of ToMakeAWebsite.org created this website as a solution for those who are looking for a one stop source of free website creation tutorials.

An increasing number of small businesses have been turning to the internet as a means for reaching out to clients and obtaining new ones. Creating a web page is the first step in an internet marketing strategy. It’s often said that, "Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future." Building a website can give any business the chance to expand in the future. To Make a Website’s creators state that "It has never been easier to make a website," as the company’s goal is to teach and guide beginners into creating their own web pages and/or blogs.

Many internet entrepreneurs understand the importance of making a website but do not know how to begin. They find step-by-step video tutorials useful because they can be viewed during the process of building a site. ToMakeAWebSite.com also provides videos on choosing a hosting plan, learning how to turn a blog into a website, and how to upload files and data via FTP (file transfer protocol).

To Make a Website is a new organization ran by individuals with a lot of experience and knowledge regarding the internet marketing industry. The tutorials are designed for any individual or small business who wants to get a good website up and running. There is an emphasis placed upon WordPress in particular – the creators of To Make a Website explain, "we feel it is by far one the most superior publishing platforms to build a website or blog on."

Free SEO Copywriting Handbook

2010-05-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

The Internet has changed the face of copywriting forever. Today, the copywriter needs to understand special skills in addition to being able to persuade a reader to act.

Writing for the Internet - especially landing pages - requires a mastery of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. These skills are still new to many print copywriters.

Direct response copywriters are experts at creating mesmerizing headlines that catch the attention of readers. These headlines are followed by irresistible product offers that tempt the reader to purchase.

Today, copywriters are putting these types of sales letters on the Internet, but without proper SEO writing, the persuasive pieces will not be found and indexed by search engines like Google. If your product cannot be found, it virtually does not exist to the online community.

To learn the skills necessary to create search engine optimized sales letters, blog posts, topic descriptions and press releases, download our complimentary SEO Copywriting Handbook.

In this handbook you will also learn how to find your keywords, how to build and manage a keyword cluster, the best keywords to target, how to use social media to build buzz and links, how to execute an SEO campaign and how to measure its results.

To learn how to write effectively for the Internet, start with our free SEO Copywriting Handbook.

To receive your free digital copy of our 48-page SEO Copywriting Handbook, visit www.mequoda.com/free-reports/seo-copywriting-secrets/ now.

Mequoda Group constantly strives to help publishers succeed online by providing them with an array of services, including free daily tips, free reports, webinars, live events, consulting services and software services.

Freelancing Sites - Is the Cost Worth It? by Kristi Patrice Carter

2010-05-23T17:17:00.000-07:00

With many freelance sites that allow providers to submit proposals for projects, there are free and paid membership options. The free options limit the amount of times you can submit project proposals, so serious freelancers are faced with paying the monthly dues in order to really get in there and find clients and work. The cost varies depending upon which freelance marketing site you sign up for, and if you're a member of more than one, the cost can really add up. So, is it really worth it?

Taking a Look at What You're Making

When working with freelancing websites, like Elance, it's important to keep track of how much you're making on that site. Most of them have records so you can easily look at a week or month and see how much money you've brought in. Add up the income you're making and then subtract your expenses to see what you're left with. If you're just getting started with these types of marketing sites, it may be less than you'd hoped for, but persistence is key. However, if you've been there a while and you're not making enough to cover the monthly fees for membership or you're not making as much as you think you should, it may be time to reexamine the situation.

Quality of Projects Posted

Another thing you have to look at in order to determine whether it's worth paying the cost is the quality of projects posted. Some freelancing sites draw in individuals who are willing to pay well to have a freelancer or artist handle their project. Others draw in project posters who simply want to pay as little as possible - some even offering $.50 for a full article. Aside from being shameful, these projects are not going to pay your bills. If the site is full of these, you may want to move on to another site that has better quality projects.

Limiting the Freelancing Sites You're a Member Of

There are countless freelance sites out there, and many individuals are members of more than one. The cost can quickly add up if you're submitting proposals at 3, 4, or even 5 different freelancing sites. The key is to focus on the site where you're receiving the best quality and higher paying projects. For the rest, keep a free account rather than a paid one, and only submit proposals on the projects that really speak to you. It's worth paying for the site that is bringing you the better-paying projects, but being a member of more than 1 or 2 sites can easily make the cost not worth it! Sites like Elance.com offer a free membership where providers can post a free profile and receive the ability to submit up to 10 proposals a month and offer a plethora of great projects too!

By taking a good look at what you're making, examining the quality of the projects posted and limiting the number of sites you're part of, you can save money and still get the great projects that are helping you bring home the bacon. Good luck!

Kristi Patrice Carter, J.D. is an experienced Elance service provider that has completed over 800 Writing, Marketing, and Legal projects in the past ten years on Elance, totaling over $300.000 in total earnings. Follow Kristi as she shares her secrets to being a successful Elance provider and making money on Elance, the leading online marketplace for online talent. Visit Successfulelancing.com today!

Freelancing Doesn't Mean Free by Rebecca Stigall

2010-05-23T17:16:00.000-07:00

I'm a freelance writer. Now, that job title has never earned the respect that it deserves but, in this day and age of outsourcing and working virtually, being a freelance writer appears to signify to many buyers that one's services are to be had at a very low cost. One has to wonder why.

One of the biggest challenges facing freelance writers today, especially those of us who provide our services online, is outsourcing. Although a global economy is certainly down the road, for now, there are Western workers and non-Western workers. What I mean is that an economy is not competitive if the wages required to live in one economy are vastly different from those required to live in another.

Yes, I'm talking specifically about the outsourcing of jobs - writing jobs, customer service jobs, assembly jobs, whatever - to countries such as India, Pakistan, etc. Look, the reality is that making five dollars an hour in India is like making $50 an hour here in the U.S. We just can't compete. Not because we don't want to, but because we simply can't. I've been involved in many a debate about how American writers charge too much for their services as compared with offshore providers.

The reality is that American workers literally can't work for $5 an hour. That's less than minimum wage and will earn us a nice cardboard box under a bridge somewhere. It's not a realistic wage for this country. It is however, a realistic wage for someone living in a nation where the average annual wage is well under $2,000.00 a year! Heck, $2,000.00 a year won't even fill up the minivan let alone pay for food, clothing, housing, utilities, etc. What buyers should ask themselves is, can they live on less than $2,000.00 a year? Can they live on what they're paying us? If the answer is no, then we probably can't either.

And, even if a buyer's financial needs are met through outsourcing, their project needs rarely are. Look, I applaud anyone trying to make a living, but ya just can't write effectively to an American audience if your first language isn't English. As a matter of fact, quality (language or production) is one of the biggest barriers to outsourcing in any industry. Personally, as someone who pays dearly for the products and services I receive, I hate it when I have to contact customer service and deal with someone who doesn't understand what I'm saying. It's unpleasant and the entire experience leaves me feeling as if my business is not valued. After all, if I pay good money for something, shouldn't I receive a quality product with quality customer service - not just service and production that has been outsourced to the lowest bidder?

Buyers who don't think that their target audience notices their lack of dedication to their own project are simply kidding themselves. As I surf the web, I catch all of the spelling, grammar, and syntax errors made by writers who are either unprofessional or not English-speaking. It's noticeable, it's annoying, and buyers who think that the American public - the paying American public - doesn't just surf off to another site when we are insulted in this way need to think again. In essence, if you want to appear professional - an expert in your field (whatever service or product you sell or promote) - you need a professional writer to help you. If you don't invest in yourself and your image - it shows.

Another huge challenge facing American freelance writers are books and ebooks being marketed to a cash-strapped public making promises of earning millions from home and finding services for cheap. Several of these marketing manuals insist that virtual freelancers are to be had for pennies and that anyone can work as a writer. The only people getting rich are the ones selling these books/ebooks. The public is shelling out their hard-earned cash to be fed a pack of lies. Virtual freelancers are not cheap - at least quality ones (for all of the reasons detailed above) and you're not going to make a million dollars as a freelance writer.

Unfortunately, many people who have snagged one of these books/ebooks as a do-all-tell-all into the freelancing industry approach freelancing, freelance writers, and their own projects as if they've found the fountain of youth or something. The old adages, "nothing in life is free" and "you get what you pay for" hold true in freelancing as they do in any industry. The average professional freelancer is a bit insulted when we are approached to write for $5 a page. Since one page of good writing takes at least one hour to produce, such an offer makes our jaws drop and our hair stand on end. Yet, the authors of the books and ebooks that indicate that ALL freelancers work for such wages continue to pull the wool over the eyes of buyers worldwide.

Look, here's the way it is - freelancing isn't free. If you want to purchase work for way under market freelancing rates, be prepared to deal with the fallout, i.e., poor writing, work that is copied and pasted directly from another (copyrighted) source, writing that sounds like it's been written by a third grader, etc.

Writing that has to be rewritten or that is completely unusable is no bargain. Pay for quality work the first time around and you'll save money in the long run.

Rebecca J. Stigall is a full-time freelance writer, author, and editor with a background in psychology, education, and sales. She has written extensively in the areas of self-help, relationships, psychology, health, business, finance, real estate, fitness, academics, and much more! Rebecca is a highly sought after ghostwriter with clients worldwide, and offers her services through her website at http://www.forewordcommunications.com/

For intelligent writing solutions for your business, visit my website.

Going Freelance - Top Five Freelancing Mistakes You Must Stay Away From by Dewitt Guillen

2010-05-16T07:06:00.000-07:00

I've been offering freelancing consulting from over 4 years now, and it has been an amazing experience so far. I can perfectly remember the days when I first started where I would work for even 12 straight hours, seven days a week.

Today, I work less than 40 hours per week and my income has doubled. Not only that, but my income is also increasing constantly each month. I've learned a lot along the way, and below are the top five mistakes I was doing when I first started.

Working too much hours. The first mistake I made was working too much hours. Working 12 hours may seem productive while you're doing it, but it sucks up your resources and you end up being very tired after a few days. Instead of working all those hours, I learned to prioritize my tasks and focusing only on the important things first.

Focusing only on my core niche. I work on a very specific niche, and I'm very happy with that. However, it's important that you stay up to date and study other topics including personal development, productivity, and stuff related to your work.

Asking too little. When I first started freelancing, I was worried I was asking too much. The truth is that we are often asking too little instead. Your goal should be to ask a premium and provide the best quality possible for your services. Most clients prefer to pay a bit more but have a quality product rather than spending less but ending up with a mediocre service.

Having no passive income. Having a source of passive income is very important in those moments when it's hard to find new clients. How to set up passive income streams depends on what kind of freelancer you are. If you make websites for example, you could offer hosting or monthly maintenance.

Not having a public profile. Being known online is a must, and I would personally spend a large amount of time (after having done my work) working on my blog and building connections.

The Unlimited Freelancer is a book that helped me a lot building my freelancing business in the past months. You can read my review at http://www.theunlimitedfreelancer.net/.

Freelancing Work Opportunities - What Are the Options? by John Cosstick

2010-05-16T07:03:00.001-07:00

If you are seeking freelancing work opportunities, you may be wondering what options exist. The good news is that there are more and more opportunities for freelance workers. Here are some of the options you can consider:

- Technical writing
The technical writing jobs sector is predicted to grow considerably in the next five years. These writers make technical information easy to understand and work for clients as varied as scientific consultants, software publishers and computer systems designers. If you already have skills in a scientific or technical field and can write well then this could be a great work at home opportunity.

- Computer programming
Perhaps you are already skilled in computer programming. If you have a sound knowledge of computer scripting languages and a working knowledge of web design standards then consider freelance programming among the freelancing work opportunities that are available. Not only are there are plenty of opportunities but it's a very well-paid career.

- Writing, editing and proofreading
There are many options for those more interested in the writing and editing field. In addition to technical writing writers can also freelance for magazines and newspapers (both in print and online), as well as writing for blogs and websites. There are millions of blogs and sites out there and the number is growing all the time so there is a constant demand for well written web content. If you have a nose for mistakes then consider proofreading among the freelancing work opportunities you could take up. As long as you have a computer, keen eyes and the ability to pick out typographical, spelling and grammatical errors, this career will suit you.

-Freelance design work
For more creative types, freelance design work can be a suitable option. If you are already adept at using Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign and drawing comes as naturally to you as breathing, then freelancing work opportunities in the design sector would probably suit you.

With all types of online freelance work, getting the jobs depends on being able to promote yourself. This means using your existing contacts as well as creating an online presence where clients can find and contact you. This will put you in a position to take advantage of freelancing work opportunities.

Need more advice about becoming a self-employed freelancer? Visit Freelance-Work-Guide.com to get more useful tips and advice about making the transition from employment to building your own freelancing business, the types of freelancing jobs available, and where to find them.

4 Essential Steps to Prepare Your Blog For Earning

2010-05-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

Advertisers and paid blogging systems will judge your blog using some, or all, of the following factors:

Quality posts
Number of inbound links
Google Page Rank
Alexa Rating
Technorati Authority

Some might also give you a piece of code so that they can count your visitors, but we will leave that for now, assuming that sorting the above helps you gain a lot of traffic. So, what do you do to get the best possible ratings on the factors above for your blog so you are earning as much as possible?

First, the easiest thing to do is to make sure that you are writing plenty of quality posts. Get someone else to proof read them if you are not 100% certain of your English and make sure they are original, interesting content. This gives advertisers something to view and search engines plenty of bait to possibly send you traffic.

As soon as possible you should do something about your Technorati Authority and your Alexa rating. Starting to help push these now could still be showing improvements in a few months. For Technorati, you need to sign up for an account and claim your blog. Then every time there is a link to your blog from another blog your Authority is increasing. It takes time for these links to develop, so do this quickly.

The same applies for Alexa. It is a measure of your internet traffic over time - the more traffic you are getting the lower (better) your Alexa rank. Obviously, increasing your traffic improves your Alexa ranking, but there is also a theory that installing the Alexa button on your website allows them to track every visitor and can improve your ranking. So your next step to prepare your blog is to install that simple button!

Lastly, we just need to look at inbound links. This is going to help your Technorati Authority where these links come from the body of a blog post, whilst all suitable links to your blog will help to improve your Page Rank. So three measures will be improved by getting more links!

You can do this is several ways. For a start, article writing can be very successful. Rewrite some of your posts and submit them to article directories. Not only can this give you quality links, but some of the readers will call into your blog and maybe follow your RSS feed. This, therefore, improves your Alexa rating (but not Technorati - the links are from directories). If you are lucky, some blog owners will pick up and reprint your articles on their blogs - more links in and possibly counted by Technorati.

There are other ways of building links, such as guest blogging, where you get a blog owner to publish your work on their blog in return for a few links to your website. Some blogs also remove the rel="nofollow" from comments and it can be well worth leaving meaningful comments on these.

So, the essential steps to prepare your blog for earning are:

Write quality posts
Claim your blog with Technorati
Add the Alexa button
Build a network of links through articles, guests posts, comments and so on
That's it!

If you want to know more about home working, call over to our website - http://www.myhomeworking.com/. There you will find load more ideas, and you can get yourself a free copy of our home working ebook.

Start Freelancing With Five In-Demand Jobs by Eden Paul

2010-05-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

If you are looking to start freelancing on either a full or part-time basis, there are some great in-demand jobs that you can start doing right from your own home with little to no previous experience required.

Some hot jobs for new freelance professionals include:

1. Everyday Photography. Take pictures of everyday items around your house. Magazines, online e-zines and online web-based companies will pay good money for nice snapshot photos.

2. Writing Articles for Websites. Websites and online publications are looking for more and more content writers. You can write about your favorite topics and get paid to do it! Some companies pay per article while others pay for each page of content. Sales letters can earn over $1,000 per page...even with no previous writing experience.

3. Write Reviews Product companies, magazine subscription companies and online websites will pay for honest reviews of products that you use everyday. You are paid just for your impressions and candid feedback.

4. Online Research. All you need is an internet connection and love to surf to do this job. Companies pay freelancers to research competitors and report what you find back to them.

5. Virtual Assistants. Work from home to complete online tasks, send emails, and perform other work for independent professionals or small businesses that don't require a full-time secretary or office manager. Your tasks can include anything from secretarial work to meeting and travel planning to project managing and coordinating.

With these great opportunities, there has never been a better time to try freelance work for yourself.

Eden Paul is a CPA and small business owner who enjoys helping others follow their dreams by using freelance communities and resources like GoFreelance For more information and ideas on how to start working for yourself, visit http://www.freelanceworkreview.com

Freelancing - The New Full Time by Udit Verma

2010-05-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

Freelancer, by definition is a person who is self-employed and conducts business with employers & sells his or her services minus a long-term allegiance or contract to any of them. The freelancers work independently on temporary freelancing projects for a fixed duration of time and the method of payment for these projects vary from one project to another.

There is a boom of freelance projects available these days as broadband internet connection, offshore outsourcing and crowd sourcing have shrunk the world and have altered & expanded the available markets. This in turn has encouraged the growth of service sector in many emerging economies like India and China.

There is a gamut of wide-ranging service paradigms available for a freelancer, which will empower you to showcase your creative and technical competence to the world besides helping you make astonishing profits. Some of the areas where freelance employment is commonly found are:

* Graphic Design. Graphic design is an aesthetic and professional craft which necessitates tailoring graphics for visual communication and its presentational aspects. These days' companies outsource graphic design projects to freelancers to maximize their profits and to minimize costs. Freelance design project would include logo designing, promotional displays, visual designs etc.

* Web Design. Web design and web database design is a process of creating web pages and its content which would eventually be delivered to the end user through World Wide Web. There is a wide variety of web site designing projects available on different freelance job websites.

* Software Development. With the boom in Information technology more and more software developers and freelance programmers are opting to work from home as it's a fairly lucrative career option and also since they can enjoy the freedom and choices that are on offer.

* Writing & Translation. In a globalised world one has to deal with people from different countries who speak different languages. In such a world, to avoid conflicts that could arise due to difference in written or spoken languages, freelance translation services become very valuable. Similarly freelance content writing projects like article & blog writing, book writing, blue-penciling, proofreading, resume writing etc are in great demand.

So, if you have the confidence & the necessary abilities then it's the right time to launch yourself into the world of freelancing & excel in your professional arena besides earning a decent livelihood.

Udit Verma is freelance online service consultant and is writing review articles on online design, graphic challenges, freelancer web design, logo design projects and information on free lance projects.

How Do Freelancing Boards Facilitate Buyers and Providers? by Charles J William

2010-05-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the internet, there is now a huge potential of freelancing work. Not only part time programmers, designers and writers can benefit from this but also people can make it a full time profession and can earn money from home by working in their own style. The best way to maintain a steady stream of work is to register with freelancing boards which provides a common portal to both Buyers and Providers. Below is the description of how these job portal works for both Providers and Buyers.

* A freelancing job board is a place where buyers frequently outsource their work or a chunk of their project which could be anything from a small scale work to a full time project. The basic concept of almost all the job boards is same with little modification of rules and payment methods. Here is the step wise procedure of how it works.

* Buyer will register with these freelancing job portals after accepting their terms and conditions.

* Buyer will post a job in a specific category with all the descriptions, attachments and requirement of the project.

* Buyer will specify the times lines until the bids on that particular project can be placed.

* Provider will register with these freelancing job portals after accepting their terms and conditions.

* Depending on the expertise of a provider, he will look for suitable jobs in his specific categories.

* Since it's a reverse auction style, provider after finding his suitable job will bid on that project.

With his bid, he will include the amount, duration and his proposal of "How the job will be performed".

* As soon as the bid is placed, Buyer will be notified that someone has placed a bid on his project.

* Among all the bidders, Buyer will select the most suitable bidder after evaluating the proposal, time duration and cost of the project.

* The selected bidder will be awarded the job and after he accepts it, the project will start and emails will be exchanged for further communication.

* If a project is big, then the milestones will be defined and payment will be released based on the completion of these milestones as agreed.

* To solve the payment issues, best way is to escrow the payment which saves both buyer and provider from any possible conflict and fraud.

* Complete payment will be released after the project has been completed up to the satisfaction of buyer.

* Both buyer and provider will be able to provide a feedback for each other which helps buyer in getting future project and provider in getting good freelancers for future project. This is the tool which is establishing your reputation as a freelancer.

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. Its FREE to sign up and can provide substantial income for freelancers and quality skilled work for users.

How to Freelance - 3 Critical Differences Freelancers and Employees Have

2010-05-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

If you're thinking about going into freelancing, then this article may be of help to you. When you first start out with your own freelance business, you may find out some things that you are not used to and quite frankly different as if you were working for someone.

Here are a few things to keep an eye out for and how to handle them.

First, you do not get a pay check every two weeks. In freelancing you are not getting a pay check every other Friday. You'll need to bill you're clients and wait 30 days or so for payment (if they pay by check).

However, if you are completing work for multiple clients, you could get multiple checks and get paid more frequently. That's one of the benefits about owning your own business, you can get more clients to make more money and get paid more frequently.

The next thing to think about is no one is around to give you work to do. You'll have to get it yourself. At first, you may find it odd that you don't have a boss around to give you work to do.

This becomes apparent right after you make the decision to go into freelancing. While not having a boss can be nice, you're only goal is to get clients so you can get the work.

Finally, you are expected to perform better than an employee. Yes you read that right. You are looked at in a different light with your clients. You are expected to get the work done better and faster than your client's employees. While it may sound intimidating, it really isn't. You'll get used to it and actually enjoy the role you take on.

So while you will experience some major differences between working on a job or being self employed, you'll eventually get used to them. Look at it this way. You had to adjust being an employee at some point in time. It's no different here. You may find you prefer to work this way.

Want to learn more? Click the following links to learn more freelancing tips and get my free report on how to start your own freelancing business. Click Here for the report.

Freelancing Mistakes to Be Avoided by Harry Baldev

2010-05-02T11:19:00.001-07:00

Being a freelancer is the best thing that could ever happen to anybody bearing in mind the big bucks associated with working for multiple companies. True as that may sound, there are some contributing factors that can effectively make sure that you will not get to touch even the smallest of the so called big bucks simply because you let everything else fly out through the window as you salivated at the thought of you smiling all the way to the bank. Simply put, there are some mistakes that people make which hinder them from being quite the effective freelancers that they are supposed to be.

Taking a client for granted is one of the surest ways of digging your way into the grave simply because you are the one in need of money and not him. You should therefore strive to keep your client as much as possible through being the most reliable which is only achievable through prompt delivering of their work. This could also be achieved through delivering of a clients work before the expiry of the period. It may look like boot licking but this is the surest way of winning your clients trust as whenever new work comes by he will always keep you on it. Make sure that you can be easily reached through phone contacts and other forms of communication. Just be a friendly type of person and show interest in whatever it is they are doing.

Being the yes man all through will cost you considerably. This is the type of freelancer who never thinks before answering questions relating to work load and such related matters. It is the greatest letdown for you to nod to a clients request knowing very well that you are not in a position to deliver. You can imagine the damage you will have caused such a client. But worse still, you might find them having dedicated a whole site to some of the people with the worst services ever and your name could be top on the list.

Talking back about your clients on social sites will be the greatest blunders of all time that you can ever commit. You should have at the back of your mind the thought that clients always make outrageous decisions and as such, do not go badmouthing them on face book with your friends. They could be listening and that could be the end of your contract which means that the big bucks will have been lost.

Bring your best friend over into this small company that you have just started and that will be your own undoing. Friendship and business have always been strange bedfellows in the sense that there are those who will be guided by the monetary value part while you as the person who came up with the initial idea. Since a friend will never want to be associated with bad times, he will always ditch you when the times are tight.

Whether a freelance graphic designer, you want to find a Freelancer or Freelance writer editor, the above mentioned are just some of the many mistakes that freelancers do. But if you avoid them then you can rest assured that your business will flourish

5 Biggest Reasons Why You Aren't Getting Success in Freelancing by Foqrul Islam

2010-05-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

Many freelancers seem to give up freelancing because of not getting desired success. It's really a disappointing thing that, many people around the world give up their regular 9 to 5 job and start freelancing from their home. So, why don't they get success although they try hard? However, as a newbie to the outsourcing world, you should aware of the 5 biggest mistakes. You would be glad to know that, in this article, I am going to tell you the biggest 5 reasons that ultimately put an end to your freelance career.

1. You Don't Complete Your Project Within The Given Time:
It's really disappointing that many freelancers don't complete their projects within the given time. However, you should know that, the person you work for is obviously looking for the work done by you within a certain time. Notwithstanding, this is the reason why freelancers don't get a good feedback score. On the other hand a great feedback score can lead you to be a successful freelancer as you don't have to fight with hundreds of providers for a job. A buyer will simply choose you for the interview if you have an appealing feedback score.

2. You Don't Take Your Jobs Seriously:
Many providers don't take freelancing jobs seriously. They think it's nothing more important than just passing some time on the internet. However, many freelancers just get fired because of this weird thing. Whatever the job is, concentrate on it and try to do it efficiently.

3. You Are Doing Too Many Jobs At a Time:
Nowadays, many freelancers seem to do a number of jobs at a time. Sadly, it always ends up with a negative result. Think for a while, (assume) you go to your office (9 to 5) and you are being assigned to do a number of tasks at a time, what would be the ultimate result? You won't be able to do a single task efficiently and perfectly. Don't take too many projects though you think you would complete those in time as you work from your home. Don't think of making huge amount of money at the very beginning. It takes some time.

4. You Are Too Busy To Communicate With Your Buyer:
After getting a job, some freelancers become so exited and boisterous that they often forget to communicate with their buyers. Most of the buyers want a weekly progress report. Sadly, many providers don't care much about that. You have to build a good relation with your buyer. You would be glad to know that, a good relation helps you get your hourly/ fixed price rate increased.

5. You Aren't Persistent and Continual:
The virtual world is very competitive and aggressive especially online marketplaces. The number of providers has been rapidly increasing and it's becoming more competitive day by day. However, many new providers seem to be unsatisfied about their jobs as they are being hired with a small amount of money. Nevertheless, you have to be persistent and assiduous towards your works. Although you don't get high-price jobs at the beginning, you will get your hiring price increased later upon having experiences. Be persistent as you won't be able to make a huge amount of money overnight. It takes some time.

Finally, I can say that, if you really want to succeed in freelancing, you should aware of these mistakes. However, mistakes do happen. Try to learn from your mistakes. Take your online jobs seriously, concentrate on your works and try to build a good relation with the buyer.

Foqrul Islam is a successful internet marketer and freelancer. He is the owner and founder of http://www.funinblog.com/ where he shares each and every aspect of making money online. In order to discover the hidden truth of making money online from your home, keep your eyes on the website.

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

2010-04-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

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.