Freelance Pro

Carpet cleaning?

2008-03-25T13:15:00.004+08:00

How much time and money have you wasted self cleaning your carpet and rugs? Freelancers like us, though have flexible time to work, should avoid mixing home work and professional work. We have better things to do than banging, foaming, and spraying carpets in our front yard. Let the professionals do it.

You have invested quite an amount of money on your carpets. Don't ruin it by cleaning it harshly. Those expensive persian rugs do have some special procedure requirement. And stop buying expensive off-the-shelves carpet cleaning liquids.

Anyway, a list of carpet problems was forwarded to my email. If your carpet exhibit these signs, you may need to call professional help: carpet cleaners San Diego for instance have a couple of good ones.

Dark line around room perimeter, stair edges, under doorways and drapery.
Spotty brownish appearance in parts of the carpet.
Brownish to yellowish discoloration of the carpet or a yellowish color on the tips of the fibers.
Yellowish to brownish discoloration on the carpet.
Gradually evolving yellow discoloration. Carpet slowly losing its color to a yellowish tinge. Ionic optical brighteners are agents used to convert invisible ultraviolet light to visible light, which increases apparent brightness.
Yellowing of carpet in traffic areas around entrances and exits especially from parking or street areas.
Shows as a lighter area on the carpet surrounded by a darker ring.
Carpet has light or dark spots in random locations.

See, what did I tell you? Those things only professional carpet cleaners can do.

Personal Injury Case

2007-12-22T10:37:00.000+08:00

This one we should all be aware of. We have a right to file for personal injury claim at any time we are harmed by another person or company. Personal injury cases are not only limited to car accidents, slip and fall injuries or work injuries. One basic criteria to know if you can file a claim for personal injury is if the other party was negligent. Negligence is to act with reasonable care. So when someone was negligent and as a result you were harmed, chances are you might have a personal injury case.

To actually know if you have personal injury case is to talk to a personal injury lawyer. You lawyer will be evaluating your claim if you can recover from personal injury case. He/she will, at the least, prove three things: that you have suffered damages, the other party was negligent and that negligence was the cause of you damges. Of course there are other things to consider whether you can collect from your personal injury claim or not. The best way to find out is to talk to a personal injury lawyer.

Personal injury lawyers handles wide variety of personal injury cases. They even handle negligence cases that don't actually involve personal injuries. If you're not sure about your claim, it's best to talk to one. They have answers to questions like: how much is your personal injury worth, whether you get a compensatory or punitive damages, why you shouldn't deal directly with insurance companies, or what's the likelihood that your case will go to trial. These are the questions that only personal injury lawyers can answer.

How To Become A Freelance Chef

2007-10-12T07:25:00.000+08:00

When you think about chefs, what do you think of first? Which aspects of chefs are important, which are essential, and which ones can you take or leave? You be the judge.

Becoming a freelance chef does not mean that just knowing how to cook automatically qualifies you to go into someone’s home and cook for them. Obtaining the necessary industry (yes, it is an industry!) knowledge through a comprehensive training program puts you way ahead of the game. Knowing how to market yourself as well as how to go about everyday business functions like accounting, price-setting, scheduling, menu-planning, customer relations, and more can very well dictate whether or not your freelance chef business succeeds or fails.

Two of the biggest organizations in the business of training and bestowing accredited certifications to personal freelance chefs are the United States Personal Chef Association (USPCS) and the American Personal Chef Association (APCA). Both organizations offer information regarding liability insurance, software to help with scheduling and menu planning, tools and equipment, and local chapters provide coaching, advice, and other support for members.

Thanks to the advent of these trained personal freelance chefs, many families now have their favorite meals prepared for them up to several weeks in advance, ready to simply heat and devour. For many, this means getting a decent, home-cooked meal instead of relying on fast food or tv dinners. And most personal chefs not only do the cooking, they plan entire meals, do all the necessary grocery shopping, and clean up their mess when through in their client’s kitchen. Personal chefs spend, on average, four to six hours twice a month in their customers’ homes making such dishes as salmon with Parmesan crust, fettuccini Alfredo, crab cakes, and other fine meals. Some suggest and provide wines, as well.

Once you begin to move beyond basic background information, you begin to realize that there's more to chefs than you may have first thought.

Pricing averages from $7 to $15 per plate, but with savings found in time saved by not having to shop or do the cooking themselves, people from singles to seniors and professionals with little or no free time, find the service worth much more than the cost.

Training schools for freelance personal chefs provide cooking and business education through seminars, personalized mentoring sessions, classroom instruction, video- and audiocassette teaching, CDs, books, and online testing for a typical price of around $900. Information varies, of course, from school to school, but usually includes such things as checklists for starting out with your business, learning how to price, preparing recipes and planning menus, packaging prepared meals for storage, sanitation and hygiene, and more. Chefs who are already certified as personal chefs – and who are already successfully running their own personal freelance chef businesses – commonly provide instruction and support as mentors.

Personal chefs enjoy all the benefits of any other business owner – and all the responsibilities. Some freelance chefs cook for as many as 15 families. But to most, all the hard work is worth it. One personal chef summed it up nicely: “When you cook for a family for any length of time, you become a part of that family as well.” And who would not enjoy that?

Don't limit yourself by refusing to learn the details about chefs. The more you know, the easier it will be to focus on what's important.

In the meantime you can find out more by visiting the web site listed below.

About the author: To learn more, please visit http://define-culinary-arts-program-schools-restaurant-management.info/ Keith Londrie II klondrie @ http://yahoo.com http://define-culinary-arts-program-schools-restaurant-management.info/

Article Source: www.isnare.com

Finding Freelance Projects

2007-10-12T07:22:00.000+08:00

Being a freelancer is a tough job for anyone. Whether you are a writer or a web designer you know that the competition is fierce and you must always be on the look out for more jobs when working on one. This is part of the course when freelancing. Most often there is no stability or guarantee when freelance is involved. You are hired on a project basis and will be kicked to the curb once the project is complete unless you happen to earn another project right away which is rare to say the least.

To help fill the gap between those needing skilled labor and the freelancers that provide the labor there are several web sites that have sprung up. These sites allow employers to post projects of a wide variety and then the freelancers can bid on those projects. This has become an effective tool in maintaining a steady flow of work for the freelancer, but there are several downfalls to some of these sites.

For one thing, there is normally a fee that is charged for using the service. How much and how often varies by site. Normally you will pay a monthly membership fee as a freelancer wanting to bid on projects. This fee can be as high as eighty dollars on some sites, but the average is twenty. One should be careful when working with a site like this as it will be much harder to turn a profit when you consider the amount of money you have spent on the monthly fees.

There are also sites that work on a commission basis. This works by paying a percentage of the money that you earned from a project to the site for successfully bidding and completing a project. The commission charged is different with every site and averages around 10%. This system of payment is a lot more popular as the freelancer can simply add the commission amount to their bid to ensure they are getting the amount they need to complete the project.

The services offered by these sites are normally wonderful. A project manager is a great tool for tracking the projects that you have bid on and those that you have won. This ensures that nothing gets swept under the rug and forgotten about thus tarnishing your reputation.

Other sites offer safe payment resources. These payment options are basically escrow accounts where the money is held until the project is completed and approved. This works to provide security for both parties. The employer does not release the money until the project has been completed and approved. The freelancer is guaranteed to get paid for all their hard work.

There are some sites that offer all of these services and remain free for the freelance worker and the employer. They maintain the site through advertising and do not charge a commission or a monthly fee. This has become a very popular occurrence as freelancers can earn more money without having to spend so much in the process.

About the author: Visit the next generation of freelance portals, http://www.workasfreelancer.com. Besides a lot of features, the service is free of any commissions and fees from signing up to signing the contract with the project creator.

Article Source: www.isnare.com

Freelance Photography: How To Begin Your Career

2007-10-12T07:19:00.000+08:00

Photography is a vast world. There are many different types of photography and many different kinds of people that enjoy it. It’s a hobby that be relatively inexpensive or one that you can invest a lot of money on. Photos are so special because they give us memories of times and places and events in our lives. We can hold onto these memories forever with a photograph.

As much as people love photos, many people love taking them even more. Whether it’s a mother who takes photos at every of her children’s moments in life (first smile, first step, first spaghetti meal) or maybe it’s the father who never forgets his camera for a football or basketball game, or maybe it’s the young girl who loves nature hikes with her camera; these people are not exceptions. They all have an eye for those special moments and they all appreciate the camera’s ability to capture that moment and freeze it in time forever.

What is Freelance Photography?

What if you love photography so much you wish you could do it for a living? I mean, you actually get paid for your photographs! But you work solely for yourself, selling each photo or series of photos individually. You don’t have a boss. You work sometimes on assignment and you may sell to magazines. That is freelance photography.

Freelance photography may be your entire career or it may start out as something you do in your spare time but begin making money from it. It’s just like freelance writing in this sense that many people turn it into a career and enjoy the freedom of working essentially for themselves on their own time and making money doing something they love doing anyway.

How to Build a Portfolio

To start getting jobs as a freelance photographer, you need a portfolio. A portfolio will show samples of your work. Even if you have never had photographs published or publicly displayed, you can start a portfolio of your best work and then add onto it if you win photography contests or start receiving paid work.

How to Get Jobs

As we mentioned, building a portfolio is the first step in submitting your work for pay but when it comes right down to it, it’s the quality of the photo that will determine if you get paid for it. Some people have more of a natural talent for taking great pictures than others but it is a skill that anyone can learn. There are schools dedicated to the art of photography and you can even get a degree in it. If you are just getting started, you can look into classes provided by your local community center or community college. Some cities have photography groups that meet to share photos and tips. There are also many groups online dedicated to photography and freelance photography.

You need to view as many famous photographs as possible. Take a look at what is getting published and compare it to your own photos. This allows you to compare and learn from other’s work. It takes more than just point and shoot to get a great photo. You need to learn about focus, lighting, colors and backgrounds and much more.

Once you start learning about photography and creating a portfolio, you can start submitting your photos to contests and magazines. Get a list of photography markets and start submitting to ones that accept your type of photos. Don’t expect to make it to the big times right away. Few people actually achieve this but you can start small and eventually make your way into a nice living from freelance photography.

About the author: Looking for information about Photography? Go to: http://www.asaphotography.com 'ASA Photography' is published by Colin Hartness - An excellent resource for Photography! Check out more Photography articles at: http://www.asaphotography.com/archive

Article Source: www.isnare.com

When Is The Ideal Time To Look For A Job?

2007-10-11T09:39:00.000+08:00

Most people start searching for a new job when they "need" a job - when they've resigned or been asked to leave their current job, or have simply decided to leave. However, if you want a great job - one that suits you down to the ground - these are unlikely to be the best times to start looking.

Well, as it happens, the ideal time to start searching for employment has less to do with your need for a job and more to do with a particular organization's need to hire someone for that job. To be precise, the best time to be on the outlook for a new job is when the organization has realized it needs to hire someone for that job.
But let me clarify: the ideal time is not when the company has hired a recruitment agent or is already advertising for the job... it's when the company has JUST realized that it needs a specific position filled.

And just why is this the best time for YOU to start looking for a job? Because if you're "there" when the company has decided it needs to hire... and you have all the experience, qualifications and skills its looking for, then (except for any regulatory or political requirements to advertise the job) you're the one its likely to hire! The only reasons why the organization wouldn't hire you would probably relate to the remuneration you ask for or for corporate political reasons outside your control.

But, of course, if you've researched the organization and prepared yourself for the role... presumably you would only present yourself for the job if you understood the lay of the political land and knew what salary range would likely be accepted.

Having said all this, you still need to be "in the right place at the right time", don't you? So how do you accomplish that... when the organization isn't advertising the job? (And how do you know whether or not you want to work for that organization anyway?

Well, I'll be honest, this is where you will have to roll up your sleeves and do a little work. Nothing hard - but some decision making, research and a little networking. And the first step is to identify which companies you'd like employment with.

Let's say, for example, you wanted to develop project management skills and were particularly interested in the software industry. Therefore, you would identify medium to large sized software vendors where there were likely to be project management roles on offer.

Following this initial research, it's time to find out more about each company you've identified. This will allow you to sort the "wheat from the chaff" so that you can target the three or four firms you'd most like to work for. Ideally, you'll also try to meet the key decision makers at those companies - the people with the power to hire you or recommend that you be hired. This may be a matter of attending industry events and even meeting other people who might be able to introduce you to the "decision makers" (the people with the power to hire you or recommend that you be hired)... or of calling up the person you want to meet and asking if you could take them out for a coffee in return for a chat. Do whatever is appropriate to lay the basis for a relationship... so that, over time, the decision maker(s) will keep you informed when a job opportunity comes up.

Now that you're as "in the know" as you can possibly be, your job is to (1) keep your ears to the ground, (2) think, and (3) act! In other words, if you learn that the company is thinking of bringing out a major new product - think about the implications of that. Does that mean that they'll need more project managers to help with the launch? If so, get on the phone to your contact and ask for the chance to present some ideas about how you could help.

Obviously, when the opportunity arises you'll have a better idea of what approach to take, but the point is, all it really takes to get the job is to be aware of what's going on with the companies you're monitoring, analyzing that information, and acting on it. And, really, that's as hard as it gets.

Okay, so this approach may not be the best way to go if you need a job and you need it NOW (who knows when the companies you're targeting will need to hire?). However, it really is the approach to take in order to land your dream job... and only requires a little research, patience and the confidence to talk to people to do it. Try it!

About the author: Anna Johnson. Get the job you want! Watch Anna's funny and inspiring movie, Career Choices, then download a free chapter of her shocking and controversial ebook, Insider Job Secrets Revealed: http://www.insiderjobsecrets.com/career-choices.htm

Article Source: www.isnare.com

How To Choose A Career

2007-10-11T09:33:00.000+08:00

By definition, a career is an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life, which typically offers opportunities for progress. When it comes to choosing a career path, it’s important to consider a number of factors and how they may affect your future.

It isn’t always easy to know what you want to do tomorrow, much less 10 or 20 years from now. Right? This is why so many people often struggle with choosing a career, but there is one way to improve your ability to choose the right path. If you choose a job in a field that you already love, work will be enjoyable and you may find yourself with the perfect career. Many people have turned their hobbies into a career, while others have used their talent to land them the perfect job. If you have an interest in a certain topic, find yourself passionate about a hobby or simply have a natural talent, it may be worth considering as a future career possibility.

During your search for the perfect career, education will undoubtedly play a significant role. For certain careers, you may need a specific type of degree or certification. If this is the case, it’s important to look at various colleges and what they have to offer. Some offer job placement assistance, which is important to those who are new to the workforce. Speaking of which, your geographical location may impact your ability to succeed in a particular career. In some cases, you may find yourself in a situation where relocating for a job is a requirement in order to find success within a specific field. When choosing a career, it’s important to consider your willingness to travel and/or permanently relocate.

As mentioned earlier, a career generally is a job that offers the potential for progress. If you find yourself in a rut, you may lose interest in your career choice, so consider selecting one that will give you the chance for advancement. As is the case with almost everything in life, progress is an important part of happiness.

Have you ever heard someone say that money isn’t everything? Well, it’s true. With that being said, it’s important to note that money is necessary and the career that you choose will greatly determine your livelihood. Some careers are naturally more profitable than others, but the key is to look for a career that offers you a combination of financial stability and will provide you with enough left over to save for retirement. Regardless of your age, it’s never too early to think about the future and how to prepare for it.

The information contained in this article is designed to be used for reference purposes only. It should not be used as, in place of or in conjunction with professional career advice and/or recommendations. For additional information or advice relating to job placement or selection, consult a professional career counselor.

About the author: Leslie Gerard is a consultant for Red 3 Enterprises ( http://www.red3enterprises.com ) and its subsidiaries ( http://www.red3enterprises.com/2007/03/04/gifts-and-otherwise/ , http://www.red3enterprises.com/2007/03/03/moveable-models/ )

Article Source: www.isnare.com

High Speed Internet

2007-10-06T09:15:00.000+08:00

I'm trying to consider Comcast Cable Deals for my high speed internet needs. My internet connection has been too intermittent recently that pushing updates to my client servers has affected badly. Update script executing stops in the middle of the critical procedure resulting to corrupt files most of the time. These are the times when you wish it didn't started updating at all. Trying to pickup where you left off isn't a desirable to be in.

Anyway, the Comcast Cable offers: Comcast's Bundled Service Plan seem to fit my home entertainment and work needs. It got digital cable, highspeed internet and digital voice bundled in one plan. It will be saving me $200. With that amount I can get a second new 19in LCD monitor.

Another bonus is that for all of that Comcast Cable sends only one easy to read bill. I'm a sucker for simple things so a simplified, unified and a easier to understand billing statement wins. It saves me from the hassle of paying three different products at three different billing cycle.

Currently here are the prices for their services. Digital Cable starts at $33 per month with $75 credit cash back. High Speed Internet plan have prices starting at $33 per month with $125 rebates and a FREE modem. Digital Voice also starts at $33 per month with $25 cash back and has only 1 rate for all your calls so you won't overwhelmed when the bill arrives.

Dead-End Job? Warning Signs You're in the Wrong Job... And What To Do About It

2007-09-30T19:13:00.000+08:00

There's nothing worse that hating your job. You dread Monday mornings. You drag into the office late. You avoid socializing with your co-workers. But what if you actually like certain aspects of your job? What if things aren't so cut and dry? How can you tell if you're putting energy into a job (and a career) that won't satisfy you for the rest of your life? How can you tell if there's something better out there for you? Well, here are a few warning signs that, even if you're enjoying certain parts of your workday, you'll ultimately be better off going in another direction:

1. You rationalize your misery. Most people "make the best" of their jobs for practical reasons: They need the extra money. They think they have to pay their dues before they can move on to a fulfilling career. They believe disliking their job is just part of life. But making excuses for leading a so-so life (even if it's not that bad) will always leave a void in your heart.

2. You aren't challenged for fulfilled. Sure, you may be interested or even fascinated with certain parts of your job. But if you don't feel like you're growing in new ways, or contributing anything worthwhile to the world, you may find yourself wondering what the point is of all your hard work. Everyone has a purpose in life, and if you feel like your current position isn't going to allow you to fulfill that purpose, you'll probably end up tolerating a job that doesn't fit you.

3. You complain about your job to anyone who will listen. We all know that misery loves company, so if you hate certain aspects of your job, there will probably be plenty of people there to join you in the pity-party. In the beginning of my career as a paralegal, I spent every Friday night with most of my co-workers, complaining about certain parts of our job. Even though I generally liked my job, and loved the people I worked with, somehow all we ever focused on was the negative parts of our job. It became a way to connect with and relate to each other. This was my first clue that I was in the wrong field (at least over the long term).

4. You daydream about what you'd really like to do with your life. Do you have a passion that you just can't bury? Do you secretly wish you could do surf tours in Costa Rica? Or open a Bed & Breakfast in Vermont? Most people have a vision for what their life would look like, if it weren't for all of those pesky adult responsibilities. If you find yourself thinking that there's something better out there, there just might be.

There are a zillion different jobs out there. There is NO reason to suffer for a lifetime in a job or a career that isn't right for you. If you decide that you ARE in fact in the wrong job, it's time to start taking steps to move into a field that you LOVE. So how can you do that?

First you have to figure out what's stopping you from leaving your current position. Is it just that you can't figure out what you'd rather do? If that's the problem, then start doing some research. Begin talking to people who have careers in something you suspect you'd really like to do (mystery shopping? CIA agent? CEO of a major corporation?). People love to talk about themselves, so offer to buy them lunch and in return see if you can ask them some questions about their job. I've never had a problem getting someone to open up to me about their life. If you went to college, visit your alma mater's career center. Most campuses allow alumni to utilize their services forever. They can give you personality tests, offer research tools, and provide counseling if you just need someone to bounce ideas off of.

Is the problem that you know what you'd rather do, but it seems unrealistic or impossible? Then the first thing you need to do is banish those doubts. Talk to a career counselor or to a trusted friend. Start by admitting that you have a dream for your life. Then begin uncovering the reasons why you're blocking yourself from realizing your dream. Are you afraid of failure? Do you think you need to be "responsible"? Do your parents/friends/spouse put down your ideas for a different life? Do you think you're too old to start all over? Figure out what your obstacles are, and then begin brainstorming ways to overcome them. This is when a coach or a counselor can really come in handy. Real change takes a lot of dedication and persistence, and having someone on your side, committed to your success is the best way to realize your dreams.

It's never too late to make yourself happy. You only get one life - make it as amazing as possible!

About the author

Sarah M. Schultz, MA, CPC is a certified Personal Development Coach in Park City, UT. Sarah coaches teens and college graduates in identifying their personal values, developing an authentic identity and building a passionate life. Register for your free copy of her article "Self-Reliance: 7 Tips for Finding Your Strength Within" on her website at: http://www.newheightslifecoaching.com.

Source: GoArticles

Keys To Success - Must Have A Clear Goal

2007-09-25T20:37:00.001+08:00

This is another important key that you will need if you want to success. You must have a clear goal in your life. If you've read my previous articles about the keys to success, maybe you will think that this key is more important than other keys. But like I said, the order of which key comes first is not important. All these keys to success are equally important, you will need them if you want to success in your life.

I know that many of you already know about this key, you always heard that successful people saying that you must a goal, you must set your goal, etc. Yes, indeed, without a goal, you cannot achieve anything. Now, if you’re reading this article, means that you’ve the interest to success in your life. Nothing will happens automatically, because you have the goal that you want to success, only then you will come across this article, and read until this point. Therefore you see, if you don’t have a goal, you will not do all these things, you won’t be reading this article by now. Only if you have a goal, your goals will leads you and tell you what to do.

Well, the goals you set must be clear. Let me give you some examples here, what a clear goal means. A clear goal is something that you can achieve, the more tangible, the better. If you have a goal like this “I want to be rich in two years”, it is not clear enough. Because it never state that how much is it that you want to make. For some people, rich means having $1 million, and for some people, having $10k is considered rich. So you must set clear goals for yourself, the clearer goal you have, and the easiest it can be achieve.

When we are small, our goals are crystal clear. Try to ask a child, what he wanted to be after he had grown up. Straight away he will tell you “I want to be a doctor”, “I want to be an engineer”. But after we grew up, our goals became very blur. If you don’t believe this, you can try to ask your friend. And you will get something like “Well, it depends”, “I want to be success”. These are all the blurry goals you may get. The time we grew up, we’ve been exposing to the negative environment that changes our mindset.

Have you ever heard some one said that he wanted to go for vacation? But in the he ended going nowhere. Why? Because his goal is not clear enough. If you said that you wanted to go for a vacation, you must know where is it that you wanted to go. If you wanted to go to Malaysia, did you know that Malaysia is big and where you want to step foot? Your goal should be like this, “I wanted to go to Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia, I’m ready to spend $5,000 for this trip, I will stay there for 7 days and 6 night, etc”. This is a clear goal. Even if you say that you want to buy a BMW, you must specific the model, the colour and other features. Only then it can be considered as a clear goal, and can be achievable.

Hence, you know the importance of having clear goals now. Keep this key in together with you. When you are down, frustrated, take out this key again, and remind yourself about your goal. It will give you a lot energy in pursuing your dreams.

Learn how to Make Money Online, live a Millionaire lifestyle in no time. Get all Free Tips Making Money Online here, http://themillionairesecrets.blogspot.com/

If you don’t act on this information today you may never get the opportunity to take this life changing step again. Just follow the link and start your new life today!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shawn_Lim

Take a break, play online casino

2007-09-22T20:53:00.000+08:00

Once in a while, we need to take a break from work and give ourselves some time to recharge or ways to enjoy. One of those things I do away from work is playing online casino. It gives me a way to earn and having fun at the same time.

Online gambling, like other online and offline ventures of mine, involve some degrees of risk. I consider them all gambling. Putting up new sites and monetizing it is no different from betting on online blackjack. The only difference I see is that with online gambling, I get the results right away while my online ventures takes months or years to know if they bore fruit or not.

What's the first thing you should do when you want to gamble online? Look for a decent online casino. There are tons of them so you'll need some sort of a list. Online Casino Bluebook list popular online casino sites for free. The list are reviewed by experienced online gamblers. Casinos in the list are rated and ranked by bonus size, payout percentage, customer service, game features, number of games, software graphics, and ease of use. Oh did I say those in the list are the top 10 online casino sites? That alone is good reason enough for you get started on finding your luck online.

Employer Responsibility and Liability in Employee Leasing

2007-06-06T11:19:00.000+08:00

When trying to decide on employee leasing for your business, it's very important to be clear about who takes employer responsibility and liability. It's wrong to say that the employee leasing services company takes all the responsibility and liability. It's not right to leave to you, the business owner, most of the liability which is the reason why you avail of staff leasing service in the first place.

Employer responsibility and liability must be shared. This is in fact what Axis Group advocates as a Professional Employer Organization (PEO). Axis Group partners with their clients to allocate and share employer responsibility and liability. They are in the "business of employment". Risk management, workers' compensation, human resources, labor law compliance, payroll, benefits, and employee tax administration are just some the services that Axis Group provides. Making it the complete human resource and employee benefit package leaving you free to manage product development and production, marketing, sales and service.

So, when choosing the right Professional Employer Organization (PEO), bear in mind to balance the responsibility and liability between you and the PEO company. Each PEOs have their own specialties but most will work for your benefit. Their success depends on you success. They will try to work on you advantage so you can focus on making your business as success rather waste your time running it.

7 Rules of Successful Freelancer

2007-05-26T11:52:00.000+08:00

I've been a freelance programmer, web developer and system administrator for three years. Not that much, you'd probably say, you may be right. You may be wrong either. Anyway, when you're 21, three years don't seem to be a little time.

I started when I was 18. I had a part-time job in dental clinic (I'm terribly afraid of dentists since then, though I wasn't afraid of them before) and my salary could just cover my Internet bills (in a small town ISPs have very high prices while students can't get much money for work) and leave a little spare money to later spend them on my friends' and parents' birthdays and New Year. I'll tell you the full story some day, now I just want to note that I started from barely nothing and today I only get money from freelance. No full-time office work.

1. Work regularly. Don't depend on you mood. You should choose time for you to work, and you must work every day from, eg. 6 pm to midnight, and you mustn't do anything but work during this time. Yes, it's very tempting to have a break, read forums, chat, play quake, make love, go skating, etc, and finish the work next morning. That's completely wrong attitude. You work at home, it gives you more freedom and more flexibility, but it's still work.

Of course, if you feel tired, you should rest. Make coffee, smoke a cigarette, clean your cat's toilet, but do not start doing anything time-consuming and interesting – you'll lose a working day.

If you don't want to do anything right now, force yourself to do. You want money? You want to finish this project? So work, you bastard! Start from simple things, do some routine stuff you didn't want to do the day before.

Also, it is very important to make your family understand, that this is work, too, and they should try to not to disturb you when you're working.

It's hard at the beginning, but soon you'll get used to working on schedule, and become as productive as never before.

2. Don't lie to your clients. “Of course, I do not!” – you'd say. Lie! Terrible lie. There are three kinds of lie to client I know:

1. When you weren't working or didn't yet do something, but you say you were or you did.

Sure, you don't want to look lazy. But you aren't, are you? So what are you afraid of? Tell you client honestly, that you lost a couple days, tell him, why is it so. Don't make him distrust you. Tell him, what are you going to do to outweigh lost time.

2. When you have problems with some part of work, but you say that everything's okay or that there were some difficulties, but you overcame them.

Are you afraid to look not good enough? You aren't then. I'll tell you more about that a bit later. Remember, noone can know everything, no one can overcome each and every difficulty. You understand it, right? So why do you think, your client doesn't? Don't let him think you're a lier. Tell him, that you are not very familiar with 'XXX', but you can work it out, and say how much time do you need to do that.

3. When it was easy to do something, but you say it was a great achievement and you had to go through terrible difficulties to implement that feature.

Are you afraid to get less money than you could? If you want higher prices, take harder work. Any work should cost what it is worth. And do you really want to look that bad, so you are hard to do even simple things? Clients are not coders, but in most cases they realize what is easy and what is not.

3. Don't think you're smarter than your customer. If you're that smart, where's you money then? You not smarter, and neither he is. You now how to code, he know to make money. Everyone is an expert in his own sphere, so cooperate. Ask him, why he needs the features he needs. Understand what are priorities. Tell him, why is 'XXX' bad in your opinion, and how could it be improved. Extreme programming adepts call it 'planning game'. Work together. You'll see the resuls.

4. Communicate. Yes, it's obvious, but many people underestimate the importance of communication. At first, people like when you're open and communicative. Be a nice guy. Let them like working with you. Of course, you met to work, not to chat, but a couple lines in IM isn't a big deal. Just let client know what are you working at right now. Be alive. It is okay to say “Be right back, gonna make some coffee”, you're a coder, coders are known to drink litres of coffee every day. That's thought to be funny, use it. Be a geek and be a normal person at the same time. But do not chat too much, you should be working. And your client surely have things to do, too. Remember (or write somewhere) clients' names. Let them feel you remember them.

And the second, not that obvious, benefit of communication is that it helps you track the progress. When you tell someone what are you doing, you know better where you are now and what are you going to do. IM is optional, but weekly email reports are the must, even if client doesn't require them. It would be very good if it's your idea to file the reports. They are not only to let client know how much he has to pay you. they are for you, too. Without them you may have lost the feel of progress and start working slow and inefficiently. I recently made that mistake, and right now I'm finishing the project I would finish two months ago, if I had reported regularly.

5. Do what you can do and a little above it. If you're afraid you aren't good enough, you aren't. We are programmers. We can do anything. If we don't know how to do something, we read manuals, look at the examples, and do it. But, from the other side, you must clearly know, what you aren't good at. Never take the work you're sure you can't do. But don't be afraid if you have to deal with something new. Ask for more. Get experience. You can't get experience in any other way but working.

6. Love your work. Obvious. Never deal with what you don't like. Be good at what you are interested in. Find your niche, but ensure it's not too narrow. Discover new areas of expertise for yourself, but always keep yourself interested. Enjoy your work, programming is almost like sex, didn't you know? If you don't get any pleasure from your work itself, maybe you should try to find someting more suitable and joyful for you?

7. No step back. Never ask for less bucks/hour than on previous project. No, I don't mean asking more and more and more. You'll lose all your client then. But the work should be paid what it is worth. So don't take the work that is too cheap'n'nasty for you. Be professional.

Maybe not all the mentioned rules are the must, but I did follow them and it brought me to success. My freelance experience is not limited to these rules, check my blog at http://www.miheev.info for updates of this article, my other experience, including reviews of freelance sites and general freelance and programming tips and tricks.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aleksei_Miheev

More on staff or employee leasing

2007-05-17T19:08:00.000+08:00

If you ever thought about outsourcing your staffing needs but is taken aback by the cost of availing staff leasing services, think again. There are staff leasing or employee leasing companies that caters to small to medium size businesses. At least, that's what Elite Business Solutions offers.

With employee leasing services, you should not think about how much you will pay your staff leasing company but you should think of how much you could save by employing their services. HR departments are costly to maintain and the headaches they brought is enough to divert your focus from revenue generating activities. Enter employee leasing companies like Elite Business Solutions.

Not only that. Elite Business Solutions also offers payroll, employee benefit programs, human resource management, and risk management and insurance.

How are these beneficial to you and your business?
They can help implement the practices necessary to maximize the benefits of our service model, which can help take a growing business to newer levels. EBS puts the resources necessary at your finger tips to put you back in control of your business and your vision back to work.

The best of all, You are assigned a business advisor as your main contact. Your business advisor works with the service team to ensure your needs and expectations are being met.

What are PEOs and how you can benefit from them

2007-05-12T10:07:00.000+08:00

What is PEO?
PEO stands for Professional Employer Organization. It is also known by it's other name: Employee Leasing Companies. They are in the business of helping other businesses with payroll processing to staffing. PEOs are full pledge HR department.

A general overview of what PEOs offer businesses:

Payroll outsourcing and processing
Workers compensation
Governmental compliance outsourcing
Employee benefits and savings
Financial savings plans, 401K plans...
Small business group health insurance plans
HR outsourcing and human resource assistance

Why do businesses need PEOs?
PEOs get the job done fast, efficient and economical. PEOs handle the issues with employees leaving businesses to concentrate on running the revenue generation part of the business. No more worrying about workers compensation, for instance. But how does it work? Here's a good outline of how workers compensation is handled by PEOs from Get PEO Quotes website:

Improves Cash Flow: Most PEO's require no down payment or upfront cost to cover workers compensation premiums. This also eliminates the year end audit since you are on a pay-as-you go plan. No Surprises at years end!
Sharing the risks: By pooling your employees with thousands of other employees your company is able to share in the economies of scale. Imagine the buying power of a 25,000 employee company to yours.
Loss Prevention: Employee leasing companies have a vested interest in keeping your employees safe. They are very proactive in helping your company run a safer workplace to help reduce claims therefore, costs as well. Most PEO's have in-house safety engineers to assist you in making yours a safe workplace.
Certificates of insurance: In the event that your company needs a workers compensation certificate of insurance, they're just a call away. Most employee leasing companies have the ability to turn those valuable workers compensation certificates around quickly.
Extended Limits: Higher numbers of employees means higher limits of workers compensation coverage, adding another measure of security for your company.
Claims Administration: In the event of an "on the job" accident, simply call the number provided by the PEO and they take it from there. The PEO will make sure your employee gets the rapid quality care they need with helping them get back to work quickly.

When You Hate Your Job and Can't Leave

2007-05-05T11:01:00.000+08:00

You hate your job, but what specifically? Take this structured approach to get some clarity, and identify some action to take. It's unlikely you hate everything, there must be something that is good, and other elements that are ok.

Step 1: Take some time (perhaps over the weekend) and put down in detail what you dislike about your job. You really must be specific, it is not just that you dislike your boss, but e.g. the way he never gives you feedback or flies off the handle without reason, or never shares business information with you and your colleagues.

Step 2: Next, list down what you like about your job. There must be something that you like, perhaps not your boss, but your colleagues, or your free healthcare.

Step 3: Identify what you can resolve. Can you be proactive in some areas? Can you approach the person you are having problems with? Perhaps it's a colleague who doesn't do their fair share of work so everything gets loaded onto you. Be careful though. Don't charge right in, wait and think things through from their perspective.

Step 4: Address the areas you may need some help with. Has the volume of work increased so much that you have to work late each night, or are you taking work home? Do you need to discuss this with your manager if it is becoming far too much?

Step 5: Should you look for more responsibility? Are you bored by what you do? Let your boss know that you could handle more and get involved in some projects? If you get turned down, then persevere. Perhaps you need to convince him or her more. Are they aware of your out of work achievements?

Step 6: Do you need more variety? Look to do more of what you like and less of what you don't. Think about how you can position this to your manager to make it a win-win for both of you. If you get on well with your boss she or he is likely to want to keep a valued member of staff and so be more willing to help.

Step 7: you can take a wider view and see what else you can do to make your time there more tolerable - sign up for an evening class and do some study in your lunch break? You might even get some support from the company.

So, a few suggestions to help you make the most of a job you don't like. You are likely to learn something about yourself, and the way you handle work situations and people relationships. Any other ideas? Do let Denise know.

About the Author

Brought to you by Denise Taylor, Chartered Occupational Psychologist. Denise is a careers expert who specialises in helping individuals achieve career satisfaction and to take a systematic approach to job search. Do you need help with job search? Whether it's CV preparation, interview practice, increasing your profile or self marketing, let Denise guide you though the maze so you get a job quicker, make more money & have fun while you do it.

Article Source: GoArticles

Make Money Online with Text Link Advertising

2007-04-26T20:54:00.000+08:00

What's the easiest way to make money online? In my experience, text link advertising is the easiest way to make serious amount of money online. Text link advertising is buying and selling text link ads. And in my experience, Linkworth is the easiest and the best text link advertising company.

Linkworth cater to both advertisers and publishers. Advertisers uses text link advertising as a way to do search engine marketing. They buy links from relevant sites to drive traffic to theirs. Publishers, on the other hand, sells links on their site.

So whether you are the advertiser or the publisher, you stand to gain from text link advertising. For advertisers, more visitors mean there's a big chance of people buying what they're selling. For publishers, the more links they sell the bigger their online income.

Better still is that, you don't have to work that hard. Linkworth offers an easy to use admin area to their members. So looking for a good and relevant site to advertise has never been easier. Try emailing thousands of webmaster offering links and you'll likely be tagged as spammer. For publishers, you have full control on how much you want to sell your links so your relatively new site has a good chance to have an advertiser if you priced it right.

How to become a video game tester

2007-04-21T14:07:00.000+08:00

Imagine receiving all the newest video games for free. Now imagine being paid up to $50 per hour to test and give your opinion about those video games. This is what a video game tester does. Video game testers play video games before they come out and tell the manufacturer what they like and dislike about the game. This way the public will get the best possible product.

People are making hundreds of dollars to test video games and give their opinions about them. You do not need any special skills to be a video game tester. All you need is the gaming system for the game your are going to test. Here is a quick way to get a job as a video game tester.

Finding a video game tester job may be difficult unless you know a programmer that works for ea games or sony. It would also be difficult to try and get a company to hire you for a video game tester position. The best way to find a video game tester job, and usually any job for that matter, is to find someone on the inside and work through them. Many companies will post these jobs on their website so just do a search for video game developers and you will find many. Go to their website and see if there is a posting for a video game tester. Here are a few to try: ea.com, capcom.com, lith.com, atari.com, and konami.com.

Once you are hired as a video game tester you will receive your games to test in your mailbox. The game will come with an assignment to fill out that will include things you like or dislike about the game. Usually the company wants you to look out for errors in the game. Make sure to read your assignment and understand what the company wants you to look for. Each company pays different and they will tell you the hourly pay. When you have completed testing the game return your findings to the company, they will most likely provide you with a return envelope for this.

Now you just have to wait for them to send you a check for being their video game tester. After completion of each job, you will get a check in the mail from the company you worked for. The best part about being a video game tester is that you get to keep the game that you tested!

This article was meant to guide you in your search for becoming a video game tester. This is a great job because you can set your own hours to play the game. Good luck in your quest to become a video game tester.

Get paid to be a video game tester. Test new Video and PC games. Visit Video Game Tester

About the author

Michael Slevin

5 Critcal Barriers to Effective Communication

2007-04-14T06:30:00.000+08:00

Barriers to effective communication are commonplace for the Internet small business newbie. They were told that,” Building an online home business is a very simple task; you can start with little or no start-up business knowledge, capital & can start immediately making thousands of dollars per month.”

The home business newbie filled-to-the-top with all the hype puts caution on the back burner and digs right in. This is the first barrier to effective communication.

The newbie relied on the information without verifying its legitimacy. That is the number one reason why we have a 95% small business failure rate today.

The first barriers to effective communication are twofold, the newbie got bad information and secondly, he relied on the suspect information. It has been said that, “If it sound to good to be true, it's probably not true.”

To keep you from being one of the 95% failures, find out if the source of the information is true. I would ask them,” What makes you an expert & what are your credentials?” I make them answer me before I take the bait. To me, it's better to err on the side of caution.

The second barriers to effective communication in a home business for the newbie, is not understand the role of communication in a small business.

The truth is that all business has to have a communication component. The online home business cannot and will not work without it either. The newbie has to continually hone their communication skills; if he does not, his advertising, marketing, service and management of his small business will surely suffer.

The four major components of the home business I mentioned above is the main barriers to effective communication in a home business. Most newbies don't know how to write ads & sales copy. They don't know the formula (A.I.D.A) for writing good effective advertising.

Most of the ads I get everyday says, “I'm a newbie, would you please buy my 'X' product/service and send your friends too?” I don't even open an email any more because the subject says it all. I open my inbox with my index finger poised over the delete key.

The fourth barriers to effective communication for the newbie are learning how to market. Somehow, the newbie thinks they can sell. Being a salesman takes training. If they do it any other way they are repulsing their prospects. If you don't already know, most people hate to be sold. They don't want to be pitched.

To remedy for being repulsed, you must master marketing. Marketing makes you attractive to your market. When you market as apposed to selling, your marketing sorts & sells for you so you don't have to sell your prospects.

Lastly, the last barriers to effective communication in a small business are good service. From the time your prospect has its first contact with you, this is your golden opportunity to interact with them. The law of attraction takes the first seat. Your objective is to ultimately bond with them & with their permission, have an ongoing relationship with them.

Without a lengthy discussion, meet them where they are, human behavior play a crucial part here. There will never have a second chance for a first meeting.

So get it right from the beginning. Be yourself, they have a second sense when it comes to you not being genuine. So don't do it! Character and trust count. If you don't it right here, they will drop you like a hot rock.

This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_146821_80.html

Taking Time to Think

2007-04-12T16:26:00.000+08:00

How often do we take time to think? How often do we get away from the Rat Race and deal with the important issues rather than the urgent ones? How do we as CEO’s sit down and consider the critical issues in our marriage, family, business, spiritual life, and future? For me this is a continual struggle. I am an action person and am far more of a “doer” than a thinker. Also, I am a workaholic, so I constantly have to build rest and time to get alone into my schedule. Many of you as business leaders share this struggle with me. I have done some things well. A daily time in God’s Word is a habit for me and I really enjoy just walking and praying. I also love to exercise and pray for others. I have tried to regularly be in a small group of my peers. This is a great time to get away from the business and deal with key issues with other wise counselors. I also love to read and do a lot of that while traveling. However, in the last year I have missed concentrated times of study.

Over the last five or six years, my wife and I would plan an extended weekend at the lake for study and writing about every six weeks. Last year due to a heavy U.S. travel schedule and several overseas trips, I did not get in all of these special times. This year I decided to remedy that. So I have put in the “big rocks” first into my schedule jar before the “pebbles and sand” of urgent issues fill up the space. I decided to spend every Wednesday that I am in town at home in study, prayer, and writing. This special time for wisdom and thinking is already on my schedule for the entire year. It will be a battle to stay with it, but I know how important it is to me. The result will be that I will be more able to keep my focus and my priorities in a world that continues to move far too quickly.

The bible tells us that God is the source of all wisdom. James 1:5 (Message) says, “If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get His help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought.” God will give us the answers if we take time to be with Him and seek Him. Throughout the book of Proverbs we are challenged to seek this wisdom. Proverbs 3:13 (M) says, “You’re blessed when you meet Lady Wisdom, when you make friends with Madame Insight. She’s worth far more than money in the bank; her friendship is better than a big salary. Her value exceeds all the trappings of wealth, nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her.” Because I am taking this time several times a month, this means that I can write articles like this even though I am involved in several businesses. By doing the important things at certain times, I do not allow my life simply to be controlled by the urgent.

I was talking to another CEO this week. He asked how I still was able to have balance in my life even though I traveled a lot. I told him that early in each year I set aside times of a full week and several weekends alone with my wife. I set a week to be with our children and grandchildren in Colorado and several special weekends at the lake. We set times to be with other couples for special times together. We have an empty nesters weekend each summer, and this year we will celebrate our 40th anniversary with six other couples at a nice resort. By having these important times already set in my schedule, then it allows me to travel and work hard while maintaining my priorities. Although I love my work and could work many hours, I have a set time that I go home when I am in town. This gives my wife great security.

So, I am guarding my calendar so that I can do the important things that are a high priority to me. Why not begin now to put the big rocks into your schedule jar for the next six to twelve months? Then, you will have time with your family, your leadership team, and time to gain wisdom from the Father. It will be the best thing that you can do for your health, your marriage, and your business.

This article provided by ChristianBusinessDaily.com -- The Online Network for Christians in Business. Your source for news, articles, and commentary from a biblical perspective.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kent_Humphreys

The Highs and Lows of Working from Home

2007-04-08T13:34:00.000+08:00

In the following article I aim to outline the major disadvantages of working from home. After reading this article you should be more aware of the dangers that threaten the success of your home business.

So you've decided to work from home, fantastic news. You imagine yourself 5 months from now on a golf course somewhere or in a bar enjoying some social drinks before returning home and discovering your business has once again expanded with very little of your own efforts brining you tonnes more money for you to spend on your leisurely pursuits and free yourself from debt forever!

Unfortunately for most people the dream of working from home becomes very quickly a nightmare for these main reasons:

1. Lack of Promotion of the business

2. Over grand expectations too quickly

3. Loss of interest

Lack of Promotion: I would say before you take the plunge and decide you want to fire your boss and work from home, first think about how much advertising and marketing knowledge you have, then ask yourself how can I increase this knowledge and roughly how long do I estimate it will take me to gain enough marketing experience to develop a stable business.

Over Grand Expectations: Dreams are wonderful and it's great to have big goals, but every big tree in the forest begins as a single seed. In other words you must start small, and once you can grasp that concept life will be a lot less stressful and frustrating for you. Before your business can expand for itself you need to be able to develop a strong organisation beneath you, before you can do that you need to of acquired the marketing knowledge, and before you even begin that you need to start developing yourself as a leader, the strength of your team and the success of your business depends on how good of a leader you are.

Loss of Interest: This is one of the major factors that will prevent your success in working from home and it follows on from the other two mentioned because if you don't know how to promote your business or develop yourself into a leader representing your company, you will not see the wealth you desire. This will make you even more frustrated and inevitably give up on the whole idea in the first place. It is hard to stay committed and focussed when working from home because our homes are a different environment to the whole office feel we are use to working in. Also there are many distractions to be found at home. The best way to stay focussed would be to make a deal with yourself to work totally and fully on your business for a certain amount of time everyday. During that time you will only involve yourself in activities that will grow your business or educate you to become better at growing your business. If you commit to just a few hours everyday without fail of doing this, over time you will begin to experience tremendous success and it won't be long before you can enjoy those late noon golfing sessions while your business works for you:)

"Give me 10 minutes of your time and I'll share with you my secret to generating over $3,000,000 in only 27 months online FREE Newsletter http://www.easysteps2riches.com"

The article the reader is currently reading is available for free reprint

About the Author

I graduated with a BEng (Hons) in Engineering. I am an investment banker with a growing online Network Marketing business without buying or calling a single lead.

Source: GoArticles.com

Drop Shipping As A Business!

2007-03-31T23:43:00.000+08:00

Elaine has been a fan of eBay for a long time and has recently cleaned out her home thanks to them. She sold many of the things that she no longer needed (or wanted) and made a decent amount of money off of it. The process was simple and she enjoyed doing it. It just worked for her. Now, she has nothing more to sell. She has thought about starting to look at garage sales and selling things for friends, but she knows that if she wants to make good money, she'll need to find products to really sell.

This is where dropping shipping or wholesale purchasing come into play. For many individuals this is the ideal way to sell products. All you need to do is to purchase products that people want at low prices and then to sell them at a higher mark up. Sounds easy right? It really can be that easy, in fact.

For many individuals, selling on eBay is what draws them to drop shipping. This online auction site features hundreds of people looking to buy virtually anything you can imagine. This makes it the ideal place to go to find a deal too. Yet, for those that are looking to sell, it can be a way to make a solid income. While eBay is in itself an entirely different article, just know that many individuals that get into drop shipping do so to sell products through eBay.

Other avenues can be used to sell products to. For example, many individuals develop websites, promote them and drive traffic (customers) to them to sell their products. In fact, you can even use drop shipping to help you to sell products through mail order as well. All of this can be done right from your home. Nice and neatly too.

So, what is drop shipping or wholesaling? If you were to start a home based business today selling pens you would need to stock lots of pens to sell right? Not necessarily. In drop shipping, you can actually sell the product without having the product in front of you. This is done by simply working with a manufacturer who will put aside a lot of the product you wish to sell. They will take care of sending the product to the customer, once it is ordered while you handle the money. You will charge them more than you were charged which is what gives you the profit.

This is not always the case though. In some cases, individuals will actually purchase the products they plan to sell and stock them to send out as they are needed. In either case, the goal is to purchase and sell products at a higher cost than you bought it for.

The Pros And Cons

In order for you to make any money at wholesaling, you'll need to purchase and sell products that people want. To do this, you will need to do some basic research to help you. This is not that hard to do especially if you are using a program such as eBay. Next, you will need to track down distributors that will allow you to advertise and sell their product. This can be more challenging. One mistake that people make it to purchase lists of drop shippers from others. This can be a vital mistake. It is often wiser to do your research and find a more reliable way to go such as getting feedback from others.

If you find a product that is selling well, you can make a good amount of money off of it. You'll find that most people that work at promoting their products will do well at selling them. It really pays to take the time to research the right products out there. Of course, you can always make and sell your own product. This can actually be a great way to make even more money through selling products.

About The Author

Keith Lee is a motivational speaker, a life coach and a fitness instructor for the past 10 yeras. He study and did research on the Internet Marketing Industry for years. Go to his webiste http://www.MyInternetMarketingSuccess.com for some superb tips.

Source: ArticleCity

Get Your Website to Profit With the Best Affiliate Programs Available

2007-03-19T12:17:00.000+08:00

The Internet is one of the most frequently used tools for communication today. There are over millions of people who log on to the Internet every single day. Besides, with the benefits that the Internet gives, who would not want to be a part of this information superhighway.

With the Internet, you can communicate with your family and friends through emails and instant messengers, you can purchase goods and services without leaving your own home, and the Internet is one of the most promising income generating tools that everyone can use today.

In the past, you needed products or services in order to make money through the Internet. Today however, you can make money through the Internet by using affiliate programs. This program will allow you to make a substantial amount of money out of your website and is a very good home business that you would want to get in to.

First of all, you need to know what an affiliate program is and how it works in order to fully understand how you can make some money out of it. Affiliate programs is like a joint venture where you or your website becomes a partner with another website that have already developed a product or service that they are already selling in the Internet. As a partner, your job is to direct the visitors of your website to your partner website and hope that they will purchase the products or services being offered. Your website will be like the company's marketing arm, among several.

The company you plan on being affiliated to will be providing all the necessary tools that you need in order to start the affiliate program. They will be providing the links, and some companies will provide free e-books on how you can effectively earn from affiliate programs.

The best way to profit from your website through affiliate programs is by promoting your website in the Internet. The key to success in affiliate programs is targeted traffic. This is why you should think of a product or service that you would want to promote and also a product or service that you are knowledgeable about. Think about your hobby. For example, if you like fixing cars, you want an affiliate program that promotes cars, or car parts.

In your website, you will then discuss about your hobby. Make some articles and post it in article publishing websites and also in your own site. Since your affiliate program is selling cars or car parts or even car accessories, the traffic you generate in your website will have a greater chance of clicking the link or banner of your affiliate website and buy from that website. You will then earn a commission out of the sold product.

As you can see, it is very simple to earn money from affiliate programs. However, when you are just starting out in the business of affiliate programs, you have to work hard to establish your reputation as an expert in the product or service you are promoting. The best way to do this is publish your articles about a particular product frequently. This will build your reputation in the Internet and soon, you will get that targeted traffic you have been always wanting. It is also a good idea to update your website once in a while (once a week) with tips and tricks on a particular product.

The best thing about affiliate programs is that you do not have to be in front of your computer 24 hours a day 7 days a week. All you need is a few minutes of checking up in your website and also check out your earnings in your affiliate programs. Always remember to update your website frequently in order to keep your readers and keep them buying from your affiliate website.

By Steven Gerber via ArticleCity

About the author
Steven Gerber is a professional copywriter & marketing consultant. He is a protégé of Dan Lok, the World’s #1 Website Conversion Expert, & in Steven’s totally biased opinion simply THE BEST. You will find the latest internet marketing techniques & tricks at: http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com.

Hectic Schedule

2006-12-04T23:41:00.000+08:00

I know I have not written anything original lately. It's because I was having tons of work. I am juggling 3 projects. Each with different focus. But still I'm happy with where I am now. I left my day job 3 months ago to go full time freelancing.

I am now working at home at my own time. I'm officially a professional freelancer. When I started this blog earlier this year, I was newly hired in a new career direction. But before that I am already doing freelance work on my time. So I created this blog to teach myself and share what I have learned.

After 3 months of staying at home, working. I started to realize, it's never really a walk in the park. Self-discipline to stick to work schedules kept me going.

You see, working at home has its ups and downs. I can take a break anytime I want. Do the workflow depending on what I feel. But also, it is easier to deviate from my schedule. Allowing myself to sleep whenever I feel like slows me down terribly. It's all just self-discipline, really.

And about the content of this site, I'll try my best to write more.

Dead Ducks Don't Quack...

2006-12-03T13:36:00.000+08:00

I struggled around for almost 18 months before I realized that to have real success online, I needed to have my own product.

After I realized that, I created my first one... then another... and another... I started to get obsessed with product creation.

And that's the topic of this newsletter is creating your own product. I'm going to show you 19 ways to create your own products quickly.

But, before I do, I wanted to talk about a few key things.

1st - don't do all the work yourself (we covered this before when we talked about outsourcing)

2nd - the key is quality content... It doesn't matter if you have to film in on your home camcorder or a recorded phone call... if the content is high quality - your customers will love you.

I paid $50 for a weightlifting DVD the other day, and when I turned it on... the opening scene was black.

Then you heard the guys wife say "I can't see anything."

A second later the guy said, "You've got to take the lens cap off honey!"

You then saw her take the lens cap off, and he started teaching.

Now, that was horrible quality, but the content was amazing. I ended up buying all 6 dvd in his series BECAUSE THE CONTENT WAS SO GOOD!

I know quite a few people who get caught up in making everything look too professional. I had one friend spent thousands of dollars filming and producing one DVD (which turned out very nice BTW) - but all of his budget was spent on that, and had no moolah left over to market the product.

He still hasn't made his initial investment back.

My point isn't to make products that are crap - but to create the highest level quality content as possible, and your subscribers will appreciate it. I've been going back now with all of my old products and now repackaging them now that I can afford to.

3rd - just do it. Remember from before my motto "Ready, Fire, Aim." Get the product idea, create it and get it out there as fast as possible. Money follows speed, and if you don't go fast you will loose out.

Another reason to go fast is because what if your product is a flop? Another important lesson is to fail fast. I've known one person who's been trying to sell the same ebook for the 5 years I've known him with absolutely no success.

Like my friend Marlon Sanders says, "Dead ducks don't quack!" If you have a dead duck - move on to something new - FAST!

4th - people pay different prices for the same content delivered in different ways.

What I mean is that you can sell an ebook for $27. Now, if you take that exact same content, record it into a "book on CD" - you can sell that same content (in a different format) for a lot more - usually $97 or more.

Now, let's say you want to go to the next level... what if you took the audio, and the text, and combined them into a video. You could make a camtasia video that shows the bullet points from the book as the audio reads through them.

Or create an outline from the text, and record yourself teaching the concepts...

There are a million ways to switch forms of content - but just remember that people pay more for audio then they do text... and more for video then they do audio.

Ok - now that that is out of the way - let's get to work.

Here are 19 ways to create a product:

1st - Software Creation - Creating software is one of the easiest ways to create a product fast. You can create something for almost any niche. I have one client who had a public domain book about dream interpretation - so he had someone create a software program for under $100 where the user could type in a word, and if found that interpretation in the book and displayed it for the end user.

2nd - Public Domain - this is one of my FAVORITES!!! These are "works" where the copyrights has expired. You are able to take these and re-package them and sell them as your own products!

3rd - Interviews - interview an expert in ANY field and sell the recordings and/or the transcripts. This is the best way to become an expert in any field - just interview the experts and people will see you as one of them.

4th - Seminar Videos - put on your own seminar, record it with a video camera and sell the footage.

5th - Re-niche content - if your selling a product (or bought rights to a product) - you can re-niche it for a different audience. Example would be if you sell a book about speed reading, re-niche it to "speed reading for students."

6th - Book on CD - record yourself reading your book and sell it on cd.

7th - Resource CD - compile a list of resources for a specific niche, and sell the directory. I've personally bought resources on supplements directories and also one on "spy" stuff. (I know - I'm a geek)

8th - Recycle content - take products or content you've created in the past and re-use it. I'm using this blog post as a newsletter, an article, probably a chapter in a future book... Recycle what you're doing now.

9th - Camtasia Video - this is one of the most powerful tools online marketers have. Create screen capture videos of anything you can do on your computer. Demos of software - PowerPoint slides, how to... anything computer related. Think how much moolah the "computer professor" makes by making "how to" videos for different Microsoft products.

10th - Idea collection - Combine a list of ideas and sell those. I've got friends who sell list of ideas on how to make money quickly, how to clean your carpets, how to take care of lawns, etc...

11th - Others experts submit content - get others to submit articles, or audios, or vidoes, and compile them into a product. I did this with one of my wrestling products. I had people submit their best stories, pictures and poems and compiled them into a product.

12th - Podcasts - like an online radio show that you can download. Have paid podcasts - or record a bunch, then take the recordings and put them onto CD's.

13th - Membership sites - have residual income coming in when people pay you over and over again for access to your membership site. You can provide content in your membership sites - or create software programs that people have to pay monthly to use.

14th - Teleseminars - just record yourself interviewing someone or teaching on a subject that you know a lot about. The majority of my products were created with some type of teleseminar.

15th - Ghostwriters - hire someone (think outsourcing again) to write a book on a the subject that you want to sell.

16th - Free coaching calls - do free coaching calls for your members, track their progress, then compile the recordings into a product.

17th - Mastermind roundtables - get a group of experts together and have them discuss the subject - record the full thing and you've got an instant product!

18th - Private Label - similar to public domain, but usually created w/ the intent to sell w/out a copyright. A million ways to use private label stuff. Most people fail at this because they try to sell the content "as is." Be sure to make it your own and you'll have a ton of success with these.

19th - Case studies - one of the best products I bought this year is 12 hours of case studies. The people teaching the course compiled hundreds of casestudies for the subject we were learning about, and then explained how they all worked.

Ok - there's 19 ideas. Hopefully that will give you an idea for your first product.

To add your comments to this article please go to:
http://www.dotcomsecrets.com/blog/2006/11/the_buzz_about_viral_marketing.html#more

About The Author
Russell Brunson has been a successful internet marketer over the last 4 years, he is actively helping other people to achieve their goals online. For more information go to http://www.DotComSecrets.com.

Start Your Own Online Home Business With A Money Making Site

2006-11-28T20:27:00.000+08:00

Keen to start your own online home business and generate an income from home, but not sure where to begin? Or perhaps you have already tried a few online opportunities but have yet to make money online!

In the past I have fallen for the hype and wasted a lot of money because I really did not know what I was doing or did not have the experience and knowledge to put everything together to make an online home business work, so here are some tips to start your own online home business off on the right foot and how to make money online.

When you think about it, having a successful online business means that you will need to own your own domain, which will enable you to alter, add to and change your web site when necessary. You ideally need the opportunity of offering a free newsletter that visitors to your site can subscribe to, so you will require an autoresponder to be installed and a series of follow-up emails will need to be written. You will require products to sell and ideally you need to use companies who ship the goods on your behalf, otherwise you will need to get involved in accepting payments and shipping the goods, which you will have had to purchase first yourself. These are only a few of the basics and one can see that it can be very involved and complicated.

But let us look at what else may be required, just so that you are fully aware of what starting an online home business is all about. Owning your own domain and having access to your source code gives you the freedom to do what you like to your site, which means you have control of your business, but this will require knowledge of html. Internet Marketing is another animal altogether! You need visitors, lots of them, to your site to generate signups and sales, so ideally the online home business opportunity should offer a full training program and a forum where you can go to discuss your business, get assistance and ultimately you can offer help to others.

The ultimate of course is to find a business-in-a-box. This means that your website will come fully set up with the affiliate programs loaded and you will be able to select your own domain name and then be in a position to add any other programs to the site. The all important autoresponder should also be installed and ready to fire off emails to your subscribers, plus you will be able to add more follow-ups to your autoresponder.

You will be able to install a link exchange program to create linking partnerships, a stat counter, add banners or text links, change the colour and design of your site, choose your keywords and optimize your site for the search engines, link your blog to your site, add an article directory, stream fresh content onto your site, upload ebooks, software and more. Literally, you can do whatever you want as you have full control of your own online home business.

You may well be thinking that this is all too complicated and you do not have the knowledge, but that is the great advantage of joining an online program that sets your money making site up for you and with a comprehensive training program in place and an active forum which you can join and actively participate in, you will have all the help you need.

Starting an online home business does not mean that you are going to be generating an income immediately. You need to give yourself time to work through the training, learn and implement all that you can. It is a step-by-step process that takes time but each step you take builds your business. The marketing and advertising of a web site needs consistent, ongoing work, as you need to build momentum to ensure that your money making site is visible to as many people as possible.

If you have decided to start your own online home business you are in for an exciting time. You will experience frustrations and setbacks, but these can be overcome with the support and backup. The secret is just to press on and never quit. Remember, Rome was not built in a day. The learning curve may be steep, but work hard and have fun and once the momentum kicks in with your marketing and advertising you will start to make money online and reap the rewards of all the hard work you have put in.

By Cynthia Minnaar via GoArticles.

About the Author

Cynthia Minnaar invites you to visit www.cyns-home-biz.com for ways to generate income online. Start your own online home business with a money making site complete with 400 day pre-written email autoresponder campaign.

Generating Internet Income? Utilise These Great Free Webmaster Tools

2006-11-21T17:24:00.000+08:00

When looking for free webmaster tools, my advice to you is to be sure that you are using tools from a reputable site or, more importantly, if you are downloading software be very careful that the download does not contain adware and spyware or viruses for that matter!

On that note let’s start off with the free software that you can use to protect your computer, because if that is not running well you will not be able to run you online business successfully. Windows Defender from Microsoft is great at scanning your computer for unwanted software. The free version of AVG Anti-Virus as well as Ad-Aware SE and Spybot are great at keeping your computer free of viruses and other undesirables! The free version of ZoneAlarm has many great attributes. Just a word of warning if you are running AVG anti-virus, ZoneAlarm will not detect that you have anti-virus protection, so do not be alarmed, it is just that ZoneAlarm has not been programmed to look for AVG. The one program I did purchase was ProcessGuard, which amongst other things protects my computer from keyboard loggers, protects the physical memory, blocks global hooks, blocks rootkit/driver/service installation and registry DLL injection. These programs all run harmoniously on my computer and so far I have managed to keep out all the dangerous and unwanted intruders.

Now on to the more exciting free webmaster tools, that will greatly assist you in the running of your online business.

Google Alerts can really add excitement to your day. If you set up a Google alert for the name of your affiliate program/s, Google will advise you by email when a new page appears on Google with these search terms and you can view the page and see if it is an opportunity to recruit an affiliate. Sometimes the new page can be a forum post asking for opinions on the affiliate program. This gives you the opportunity to add your opinion with your affiliate link of course in the signature file.

You can also set up a Google alert for your own name. This throws up some really exciting results as you can see when someone has clicked on your profile in an Article Directory or clicked on your articles as well as where people have clicked to find out what other articles you have written. This is definitely worth trying as I am sure you will be both surprised and amazed at what comes up!

Google Webmaster Tools, previously known as Google Sitemaps is so useful in that you are able to let Google know when you have updated your site. The sitemap enables Google to crawl your site better and ensures that the most current pages of your site are indexed quickly. You can just create a sitemap upload it to the same directory as your .index files and in the Google Webmaster Tools under Add a Sitemap you just type in or paste the url of your new sitemap. Google also give you reports on their latest crawl of your site and notifies you of errors, as well as give you details and positioning of your keywords. There is also other really useful information available.

Google Analytics is an amazing free service where you can see exactly where your visitors came from both geographically and through which entry page, what keywords they used, where they exited your site, etc. You will have to give this one a try for yourself as there is just so much useful information for the webmaster which enables you to fine tune your marketing and promotion strategies.

StatCounter offers a free version which I use on my site and I keep it invisible, as I believe it to be more professional, but this free service also provides incredibly detailed information about your visitors, which is extremely useful. It also records your page loads, unique visitors, first time visitors and returning visitors. It is easy to install and with this powerful little tool you can check to see that visitors to your site are increasing daily.

Online Link Popularity Tools and Back Link checkers are easily available online and enable you to monitor your link popularity and back links on a regular basis. Writing and publishing articles regularly is a great way to see your back links increase on a daily basis.

These are only a handful of the free tools that I do use to assist me with my online home business. There are many more really useful tools provided by Google as well as other reputable sites, it is just a matter of finding what suits you and your business.

As traffic is the key to generating income from the web, these tools that I have mentioned assist me in closely monitoring where my traffic is coming from and what keywords are being used.

By Cynthia Minnaar via ArticleCity

About The Author
Cynthia Minnaar works from home online and invites you to visit http://www.cyns-home-biz.com for ways to generate income online. Visit http://www.cyns-home-biz.com/pips.html to start your own web income generating website complete with 400 day pre-written email autoresponder campaign.

Get A Life Full Of Passion, Start Your Own Home Internet Business

2006-11-15T21:12:00.000+08:00

It doesn't matter if you're an experienced business person or a total novice. You can take advantage of a home Internet business. Normally you set up your business from the comfort of your own home. You can start at a very modest budget.

There are many advantages coming with a career as a Internet business owner. And the requirements you probably have already.You'll need a well equipped computer system connected to the Internet.

Dedicate a corner in your living room, or if you have a spare room, as your work space. And most important, your home Internet business will crave 100% commitment and dedication.

You'll find a lot more opportunities than stuffing envelops, paid surveys or affiliate marketing. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's possible to earn money with these type ventures, especially affiliate marketing. The important point is that you must find what fits you and your personal skills.

You don't need to make any big investments to get started with your Internet home business. If you're new to the Internet business idea, you must start with a serious research. Spend some time to find available opportunities. Evaluate them, keep the ones you think is genuine.

Now you have to get in contact with people who have already tried your possible opportunities. If none of them succeeded, well then it might be a fraud, skip to the next possibility. Carry on until you find something that actually work.

The world wide web has opened a whole new world of possibilities for people who want to escape the never ending 9 to 5, Monday to Friday routine. Including spend a lot of time commuting. The Internet offers a possibility for anyone to work from home. And the web is truly world wide, You'll reach people from all over the globe 24/7.

The idea of your Home Internet business comes with a lot of benefits, such as, your choice of working hours, you'll be able to schedule, so you can spend more time with your loved ones. The time you used to spend traveling to and from work, will be a free time resource.

The possibility to start your own home Internet business may be what you've been looking for. If you are a self starter, want to take your own decisions, and work when it suits you. Well, then it might be a perfect fit.

If you have strong motivation and a burning desire to be your own boss, and have some spare money to get you going. Take the plunge.

If you don't have any financial reserves, you can start part time. Just do your research first, make sure you jump on something that really work.

You will face some obstacles and temporary setbacks, but your new lifestyle will be well worth it. The freedom itself is reason enough, then add all the other benefits, and you have a very valuable package.

You might not become a millionaire, but to gain the possibility to work from home with something you're passionate about, and make a good living from it. Well, what more can you ask for?

By Ove Nordkvist via GoArticles

About the Author

Ove Nordkvist's web site http://www.small-biz-ideas.net is all about small business ideas and business start up, online as well as offline. Visit http://www.small-biz-ideas.net/home-Internet-business.html to learn more about how to start a home Internet business.

ReviewMe

2006-11-10T16:46:00.000+08:00

I learned about ReviewMe from one of the Yahoo Groups that I subscribe to. I know I have not written original content substantially lately. Maybe this is the start of a more frequent posting from this blog.

Ok. So I created an account in ReviewMe and here's what I learned so far. ReviewMe is more like PayPerPost. And while PayPerPost leaves out the parts of the world that are not eligible for having a PayPal account, ReviewMe caters to everybody with a valid address that is reachable by their country's postal service. This is where PayPerPost went wrong. And, I bet, this is where ReviewMe is going to win this internet review market. There are just too many people who can write better who are scattered around the globe.

After I created my account, which is the most painless process I went through this month, I added some blogs I though advertisers would want to be reviewed. Freelance Pro are one of them. Be aware, though, that the site/blog you are registering should pass their criteria. Bottomline is that you need to have already an existing site with good amount of traffic and ranking to pass. There are other factors, of course.

As with all the sites I joined. The next I look for is the FAQ page. I cannot find ReviewMe's FAQ page but I learned a good deal about them in their blog. I found out that their only requirement, so far, for writing is to disclose that post's as a review.

There's not much to say about ReviewMe for now except that they've just launch their service yesterday (Nov. 09, 2006). What a way for freelance writers to earn some more from their god given talent.

Oh by the way, this is a review of ReviewMe.

Damn the Scams!

2006-11-08T15:47:00.000+08:00

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that the majority of us hate our 9 –5 jobs. We hate the rat race. We hate someone telling us to do this and that. We hate been told what time we need to be somewhere in the morning and what time we may leave. We hate been told what we are worth in terms of the salaries we get paid. We hate been told that we can only have so many days holiday a year. We hate long hours, too much stress and time away from our families.

Is it any wonder why millions of us are crying for a way out by searching for work from home opportunities? It’s not called the employment trap for nothing!

It’s another unfortunate fact of life that certain individuals and organisations are very quick to realise this fact and so begin to perpetuate their work from home scams.

If you are at all like me, you would have come across these sorts of work from home operators many times. The results are loss of money and an ever growing cynism with regards working from home. Most people give up after a few times of been conned into believing that they can make money from home.

Fortunately for some, the desire is so great to avoid the employment trap and to work from home that they continue to search and search until they do find an opportunity worth pursuing. Not all opportunities suit all people. When you come across one you think may be worthwhile it is of absolute paramount importance that you do your due diligence and research. It is only after this that you are in a position to make a judgement call. Always consult with your lawyer if huge sums of money are involved with regards start-up costs. Go on to forums and see what people are saying. One word of warning though – a lot of forums are filled with the sort of people who will be negative about every sort of opportunity. This is mainly because they have had bad experiences in the past and really do not believe that there is any suitable work from home opportunities out there.

The key to finding a work from home opportunity that is genuine and suits what you are searching for is to be persistent, never give up your search, be a healthy sceptic and to always do your due diligence and research.

The best piece of advice I can give you is to learn from those that have been where you are and have come out the other side successful and fulfilled in their home working life.

By Stuart Ramsay via ArticleCity

About The Author
Stuart Ramsay has successfully fired his boss and enjoys a new life working from home. He is passionate about online business and shares his passion with others. To find out more and receive a free work from home newsletter & bonus, please visit http://www.officialwealth4u.com.

Freelance Pro: Free to be yourself

Rid Yourself of the Receipt Pile

2006-11-03T16:24:00.000+08:00

How many of you have a shoebox of receipts that you go through at the end of every year? Do you pay an accountant to go through those receipts for you? You already know how important it is to keep track of those receipts and take each and every deduction you can. Below are some tricks that I use so that when tax time comes, I don't spend hours getting ready to do my taxes or have to pay someone to organize FOR me. My hope is to make your "tax life" a little less stressful.

Organizing receipts throughout the year:
1)Get a plastic expanding file folder with 10 20 pockets and self labeling tabs in it ($9.00 $15.00 @ Staples)
2)Make sure it is easy for YOU to open and close. Most have an elastic band that is easy to use.
3)Create tabs for each tax category that you will have receipts for (see list of possible categories below)
4)Put the file folder in a place where you'll see it and use it!!
5)Whenever you take receipts out of your pocket, wallet, purse
etc... place it in the appropriate pocket in your file.
6)At the end of the year, you have two choices.
a)put all receipts in corresponding manilla folders and place into a tax box
b)bundle each pocket with a rubber band or paper clip. label them with sticky notes and put them in the last 2 or 3 empty pockets.

If you REALLY want to be organized:
1)Create a spreadsheet to track all of those receipts
2)Every time you get a receipt enter the amount, description and tax category into your spreadsheet.
3)Then file the receipt away
4)At the end of the year, you can print out your spreadsheet and put it with the bundled or filed receipts.
5)If you have a PDA, there is a software program called QuickOffice, that I highly recommend. You can take any MS Excel or MS Word document with you on your palm (some PDA's come with a similar program).

What about that pesky mileage report?
Do you have a PDA? There are many different software programs you can download. Go to http://www.handango.com and type in "Mileage" for your search. There are programs starting at $5.00.

If you are PDA less, then there are several options.
1)store a pad of paper in your glove box with several pens
2)get one of those pads you can stick to your dashboard
3)log it in your day planner or calendar that you carry around with you.

Tax Categories to file under:
(these are taken from the IRS Schedule C form, choose the ones you use) Advertising
Commissions and Fees (you know all those Coaching Associations you belong to)
Contract Labor
Depletion
Depreciation (most electronics get depreciated)
Insurance
Interest
Legal and Professional Services
Office Expenses
Pension and Profit Sharing Plans
Property Rental or Leasing
Equipment Repairs and/or Maintenance
Supplies
Taxes and Licenses
Travel
Utilities
Other

For more information on these categories go here:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs_pdf/i1040sc.pdf. Starting on page 3 you'll see the EXPENSES information. The actual form is at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs_pdf/f1040sc.pdf.

By Kirsten Beireis via GoArticles.com

About the Author

Kristen has had several careers before becoming a VA. For Kristen, being a VA is not just about completing tasks. It's about helping Coaches succeed so that they may help more clients with the amazing work they do. For more information, go to http://www.vi

Your Guide to Making Money on the Internet

2006-10-16T11:20:00.000+08:00

There are many sites offering you ways to make easy money on the internet but most of them are scams. Even though making money on the internet is possible, it is not in the ways these sites suggest. You will never get rich quick using a scheme which will guarantee success. Don't you agree that if someone knew how to make a fortune overnight they would use it for themselves and not sell it to you for $30? This is how these sites work - they make money on the internet by giving false hopes to the broke or poor.

Despite that, it is still possible to make money on the internet. I personally do that as a freelance writer. What I really like about the internet is that it gives you more work opportunities. First of all, you can work from home which is always a pleasant thing to do. Secondly, you can be your own boss as you can set your own work hours and get paid when you finish your tasks. Another advantage of the internet is that it allows you to connect to many other people and in case you are good at marketing yourself you can sell your services quickly. Despite all these great advantages, there is no miracle solution. Even though you shouldn't leave the house in order to make money online, you still have to get the work done.

As a freelance writer I use the countless opportunities of the Internet to meet potential employers. One thing I use is craigslist. It is very helpful as there are hundreds of jobs offered every day so you have to quickly discover useful contacts. To be completely honest, I should admit that there are many better resources for making money online but all it comes to are connections. One way to develop them is to ask for referrals from your previous employers. Even though you might never meet the people you work for, when making money over the internet is concerned, it is almost the same as real life work - you do need connections. Consequently, making money on the internet is not such a difficult task. However, what is really hard is to make your living on it and not just an additional income.

By Morgan Hamilton via ArticleCity

About The Author
Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning money. Get the information you are seeking now by visiting http://www.makingmoneymanual.com/making-money/making-money/your-guide-to-making-money-on-the-internet.html

Reasons for Not Getting a Job

2006-09-23T15:36:00.000+08:00

Steve Pavlina listed his 10 reasons for not getting a job. And if you're like me who hates being a slave to another for money, this is definitely a good read.

I really liked these two paragraphs from Steve:

Smart people build systems that generate income 24/7, especially passive income. This can include starting a business, building a web site, becoming an investor, or generating royalty income from creative work. The system delivers the ongoing value to people and generates income from it, and once it’s in motion, it runs continuously whether you tend to it or not. From that moment on, the bulk of your time can be invested in increasing your income (by refining your system or spawning new ones) instead of merely maintaining your income.

This web site is an example of such a system. At the time of this writing, it generates about $9000 a month in income for me, and it isn’t my only income stream either. I write each article just once (fixed time investment), and people can extract value from them year after year. The web server delivers the value, and other systems (most of which I didn’t even build and don’t even understand) collect income and deposit it automatically into my bank account. It’s not perfectly passive, but I love writing and would do it for free anyway. But of course it cost me a lot of money to launch this business, right? Um, yeah, $9 is an awful lot these days (to register the domain name). Everything after that was profit.

It talked about giving value and I totally agree. In freelancing, we give value not time. Nobody cares how much time you put in on your current project as long as it works as intended. You can work for 18 hours a day but if your work sucks, there's now way you are going to generate enough income from your work.

Steve's business is self supporting, generating him income even after he had published his articles. Project based freelancing, on the other hand, require us to look for another when they're done. But if the project is really well made, it will do the talking for you. In other word, it is supporting itself.

How Does It Feel To Be A Freelancer

2006-08-20T07:52:00.000+08:00

When you are freelancing, everything that you do are attributed to you. When you succeed, you get all the credit. If you fail, you get all the blame and you have no one to pass that on.

Most of my life I was freelancing. I take orders from no one. Everything is based on what I think is right. There are other factors that affect my decisions and they are not from other people. They are objectives. Something you can readily weight and it's determining value does not change much over time.

So how does it feel to be a freelancer? Great. You always get the bragging rights to your work. Being your own boss has its own perks but here's a list of what I feel being a freelancer.

You are always right.

If you are wrong, nobody's going to tell you're wrong. Except yourself.

You get to give your utmost attention because you only work when you feel like it. You only work when you feel the energy within you.

You value your work highly. After all you get all the credit afterwards.

Here's the greatest downside to being a freelancer. You run the risk of losing everything everytime. One wrong step in the wrong direction can send you falling down faster that you can say Ugh. While you enjoy the reputation due to past successes, that same reputation can be your stumbling block. You see, in freelancing, your reputation is what brings you client. Much like lawyering. If you're not careful those papers you hang on the wall is only good for wiping you behind.

In closing, I feel proud freelancing. Yeah, it's the thought of being free that carry me through near impossible projects.

Freelance Pro - Be Free, Be Happy

Freelance Gigs: Web Design

2006-08-16T17:02:00.000+08:00

One cool freelance gig you can go into is Web Design. If you enjoy mixing and matching colors, photo editing and layouting you can never go wrong with Web Design. Web designing has been a staple internet revenue generator ever since the internet went public in the mid 80's.

Web Designers are like fashion designers. The obvious difference is that web designers make clothes for sites while the latter for humans. Differences aside, they both aim to make clothes that'll make someone - somesite in the case of web designers - look good.

Getting into web design business, some basic tools are: a good image/photo editing software, popular browsers (firefox, IE, Opera), and a good PC. A good book about html and CSS is a must. People have a penchant for standards compliant design nowadays.

In web design, you should learn the language that browsers understand: the Hypertext Markup Language or HTML. Browsers can understand plain text, of course but then again it wouldn't be fun if you site lack form and color. That's where HTML comes in. It gives your HTML document a structured form and colors that pleases the eyes.

The one site that taught me a lot about HTML is w3schools.com. After you've mastered the basics, use it as a reference. And don't forget to validate your site in W3C markup validator if standards compliant designs are your thing.

Develop A Home Based Business That Works!

2006-08-05T09:55:00.000+08:00

Internet and home based businesses have virtually exploded since the 1980’s. To have an Internet presence these days for most companies is not just a desire, but a requirement for any company serious about attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. Even home based businesses have benefited from the Internet revolution. Today, payments can be made online and a person may never have to see, or even talk to, a real person. What a change from the old days, when one had to either speak with someone on the phone or live in a particular city to buy a product or make a sale! These days, anyone can have a home business and be successful, if they have the right systems and support in place.

Now, even small home businesses can put the power of the Internet to work for them. And you, as a savvy Internet Marketer and someone with a home based business, can and should put it to work for you. The days of having a home business with a “tangible” product and maintaining inventory (which is riskier), are just about over. That is the old way of developing a successful home based business. Now, you no longer have to spend thousands on advertising, and you don’t even have to consider print, radio or TV ads. The Internet has changed all that. What you do have to do is market your home based business wisely online.

The Internet is open 24/7. That means that anyone, anywhere in the world can visit your website or buy your products at any time. Your home business is your livelihood. This means that you need to be smart about how you manage your limited time and resources. As far as your home based business is concerned, this means having your sales and advertising systems on autopilot so they don’t require any driving from you. It also means separating the customers that are serious about buying your products from the “tire kickers”.

There are really only a few systems on the market for home based businesses that can save you valuable time and money by doing the advertising and sales work for you. Even fewer will send you real, targeted, qualified customers. But you don’t just need a computer system for your home based business, you need someone who will take you by the hand and show you the ropes. Many companies will sell you an Internet home business system. Not many will actually show you how to make it work for you. You need to find the one that will, because the success of your home based business depends on it.

By Elias Georgi via ArticleCity

About The Author
Elias Georgi makes it easy to build your home based business and earn a substantial income quickly. Learn how to increase your income in the comfort of your own home with minimal effort by visiting: http://www.eliasg.com

Freelance Pro: Professional Freelancing

The Biggest Distractions Of Working From Home And How To Avoid Them

2006-07-24T10:02:00.000+08:00

Do you ever have days when the little things in life seem to be fighting to keep you from getting any work done? Here are some suggestions to help you alleviate some of the most common distractions people face when working from home.

If you have young children underfoot throughout the day, it is easy to be drawn away from work. Try to get things done during nap times and after the children have gone to bed. You can hire a teen aged mothers helper to come in for a few hours each day, or go all out and hire a Nanny. Even 10 hours a week of quiet, uninterrupted time will help you drive your home business forward.

Repeatedly checking your emails can be another major distraction. Replying, deleting, and managing emails is a drain on your time and produces no real results. I recommend checking your emails no more than 3 times a day, and deleting unwanted emails only once a day, in the evening. You will be surprised how much time this will free up for you to do more important tasks.

Surfing the net can be a serious time waster. If you are looking for specific information, find what you need quickly and then get out . Sign yourself off of messenger services, and by all means stay away from chat rooms, forums and blogs until you have completed your work for the day.

Use a voice mail service to take your phone calls if you don't wish to talk on the phone. Make sure to turn the ringer off so you won't be distracted. Set aside a specific block of time each day to call contacts and leads and follow up. Stick to your plan.

Running errands can be done at specific times during the week, such as on Wednesday between 1 and 3. Going out for just one errand 2 to 4 times a week is a waste of energy, time and gas. Get it all done in one afternoon and don't worry about it for the rest of the week.

Housework is not everyone's favorite activity. If you avoid it, you'll get overwhelmed. If you are spending too much time on it, you have little time for your business and family. It helps if you delegate some of the responsibility to other family members. Break up the chores by doing 15 minutes worth of cleaning several times a day. This has the added benefit of getting you up out of your desk chair and moving. If finances allow, you can hire a cleaning service to assist you with the chores that you really dislike doing.

Putting these suggestions into practice will keep the distractions to a minimum and ensure your home business will run more smoothly.

Source:
Angie Hewerdine is a successful home business owner with a driving passion for helping others change their lives. She has assisted many in realizing and attaining their personal and financial objectives. Learn more at http://www.TheTimeForChange.com or call 1-800-491-4758.

Freelance Pro: Professionally Free

Web Directories

2006-07-16T11:51:00.000+08:00

In my previous post, Freelance Gigs: Be an SEO Part 2 - Link Builder, I wrote about the minimum skills someone who is starting on SEO should acquire. This post is about web directories.

Web Directories, What are they
The term directory suggests a list. Much like the traditional phone directories. It lists and categorizes websites. It allows people to add their sites in categories that best describe their site. Supposedly, when you want to find something, you go look in web directories. But not anymore. With the arrival of better search engines, web directories was relegated to the sideline.

In this day when search engines are kings of the web, web directories still has their use, helping search engines find new sites. A link from a web directory gives your site better probability of being indexed by search engines. And remember, most web directories are categorized. This help search engines determine the relevancy of sites.

Web Directories for Link Building
As I've said, there's not much you can do with web directories. They had been overtaken by search engines and portals. But they are still good for creating a relevant link to your site. Creating a link from web directories are easy - way, way easier than emailing for link trading/exchange.

What's more? There are more than a handful of them around and growing by the day. There are directories that asks for payment, others ask for a linkback, some require you to write an article in their forum/blog. But what's great about web directories are they still work. There are still some that search engines trust.

Low Quality Link
It is common knowledge around SEO communities about the quality of links that web directories provide. But believe me, many good SEOs still have web directory strategy in their list. Don't limit our link building activities to finding only high quality links. Web directories, other than the low quality links, can send some direct traffic to your site as a side effect.

Where are they
Or better yet, where's the list. Web directories list sites. There are other sites that list web directories. One site that lists web directories that I always start with when submitting sites is this free web directories page. It highlights which directories are free and which requires payment. This way you save time if you only wanted free directories. Even if you are looking for paid listings, this list gives you an estimate of how much a link on that directory cost.

Automated Directory Submission Software
When link building, why do it manually if it's easier to just fire up a program to do all the work for you. Right and wrong. Yes, it's easy but you won't learn anything. You have no way of knowing if that program you bought for $49.50 really does what it advertise. Web directory admins do change their signup process from time to time that will more or less break your auto submitter. What's worse is that you still end up doing some work because submitter cannot email back because almost all web directories today require some sort of verification and have anti-bots.

If you want to be an effective SEO/linkbuilder, do it by hand and learn something along the way.

Freelance Pro: Work when you feel like it.

Freelance Gigs: Be an SEO Part 2 - Link Builder

2006-07-06T22:58:00.000+08:00

To become a SEO, you need to learn some basic skills that all SEO possess. They have to start somewhere and most still do the basics. There are a number of basic skills an aspiring SEO must learn. Link building, on-page optimization, off-page optimization, keyword density analyzation and copywriting are just some of the basic skills SEO must have.

With more and more sites popping up daily, online businesses need a way to promote their sites and wares. The need for SEO also increases. Search engine optimization as an activity need humans who can think and adapt to the situation. SEO has not yet been fully automated other than spamming blogs and emails. This make SEO a good freelance gig.

The most important skills of SEOs is link building. This is the holy grail of search engine optimization. The days of keyword stuffing the meta is over. The rise of Google as the king of search pave the way for links to become the most precious online commodity. Google made links as the basis of a site's credibility. Google Pagerank, the algorithm that ranks websites in the results page, uses the number of inbound(incoming) links to rank sites against other sites.

As you can see there more stuff in links that are important other than giving site A a way to access site B. Nowadays, links offer a whole lot more than that. The ratio of your incoming and outgoing links plays a major role in search result ranking. The anchor text(e.g. the underlined text being displayed) of the link tells the search engines/bots something about the site at its destination. A link with an anchor text home loans is telling the search engine that the site found at the other end is about home loans. So if that site about home loans gets enough link pointing to it with an anchor text home loans, chances are it'll rank higher in the search engine result pages(SERPs) for the keyword "home loans".

As a link builder, your task will be to produce inbound links to your client's site. Some things you should consider:

what are the terms/keywords your client wish to rank for in the SERPs

how will you produce/deliver those links

how long can you make his/her site appear in his desired position in the SERPs

Those are not easy task even for the experienced SEOs. That's why they usually outsource those to freelancers.

Term/Keywords
The term/keywords your client wishes to rank for is the determining factor of your success. Some terms are very easy to rank for, some are not. Trying to rank for the term "real estate" or "home loans" is harder than, let say, "real estate provo utah". You see the more generic and the shorter the term, the harder it is. It's because people who search are just too lazy to type and are always in a hurry. This behavior also applies to how they click on those results - always the top one.

Link Production
Every SEO dreams of having the ultimate program for them to create enormous amount of links in the shortest possible time. But then again if everybody is doing it, they are just offsetting each other. Producing inbound links is an art. Sometimes it uses deception, sometimes creativity, sometimes ingenuity and sometimes necessity. Those are just some of the things bots cannot do.

Link building is an art because you have to carefully craft a scheme that will make people link to your site. SEOs have a term for this: linkbaiting. Linkbaiting is something that you do to gather links without begging, buying or threatening. People just finds it irresistible.

Ways to linkbait:

Creating a super original and very good content that will merit as a source that everyone will link to

Original Humors, they always travel fast and are being passed along everytime

Bordering on defamatory remarks - most of the time an authority on the subject gets away with it

Having the scoop on the latest upcoming super secret web.0 app.

Give away free or semi-free stuffs - Yes, people are a sucker for freebies

Of course if linkbaiting is not for you, there's always directory submission. You, basically, just submit links to directories. Probably the most boring way to build links but, hey, someone's got to do it. And if the pay is good, why not?

Another way to build links is by link trading. Link trading or link exchange is done by two similarly themed or related sites. If your site is about auto detailing, most probably you'll want to trade links with sites that sells mod parts. You put his link on your site, he put yours in his.

Now if you're thinking of blog comment spamming to build your links, go ahead but be warned. It's never good in the long run. Your site loses credibility and the only sale you get is from duped visitors. This technique is most suitable to fly-by-night sites that sell porn, pills and casino.

When will you rank
There are no guarantees in SEO. You can never predict when will your site appear in the first page of SERPs. That's why link builders are often paid by the hour they spent building links.

One tip I always remember when link building: Never build your links too fast. You risk losing them.

Freelance Pro: Be your own boss.

Freelancing Gigs: Be an SEO Part 1

2006-06-06T10:15:00.000+08:00

First and foremost if you are already doing SEO skip this post you're better off optimizing sites than reading this post as you already know all that will written here. For others who aren't please read on.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Basically, you optimize websites to rank better in search engine result pages (SERPs). Please be guided that SEO is different from SEM (Search Engine Marketing). SEO is just a subset of being a SEM. Anyway, for starter we'll just take on SEO.

There is no formal way of training to become an SEO. SEO learn by reading lots and lots of articles on search engine optimization, search engine algorithm, basic web design, copywriting, link building, some hacking and others which are beyond the scope of this post.

SEO is increasingly becoming popular in this age of internet. More and more companies are started online and there are others that are converting or getting their business in the web. And for this companies to compete, they are in constant need to advertise. Just like television, the basic premise they have for internet advertising are the same. More airtime the better - more eyeballs the better. In television or print, advertising firms manages the ads. Online, it's the SEOs/SEMs.

With just declared online advertising expenditures of companies shows that they are increasing year after year, more and more SEO jobs will be needed to fill the demand. SEO can never be automated. It require thinking. SEO is beyond spamming. Best strategies out there doesn't utilize spam bots, they use humans who are able to workaround search engine constraints to deliver the desired result.

What's good about being a SEO is that it's perfect for freelancing. SEO work doesn't require fixed time. You work when you feel best, when you feel inspired, motivated or when you just thought of new ways to put a site on that top position in SERPs. However, to become an SEO, you will be needing a mishmash of skills to achieve your goal. You need a little knowhow of everything. SEOs are train to be well rounded.

Actual SEO on the Part 2 of this post.

Getting Started on Freelance Copywriting

2006-06-03T17:22:00.000+08:00

You may not believe it but with the re-emergence of the internet from late 1990's and early 2000 dotcom crash, copywriting is one of the most sought after job online. Every company online needs a good copywriter to their webpages and ads. And they do it often.

Copywriting as you know is a skill. It is learned over time. There's no magic involve, just perseverance, some brain and a dash of luck. If there are tons of online copywriting jobs wanted, beware, there are also tons of sites offering to get you started copywriting.

All the tools you need to get started copywriting might already be available to you. If you are reading this article now, then you are well equipt to get started. First, you need to read some good copywriting article. You need to learn from those who had succeeded. You need some footsteps to follow.

Of all sites that I have visited on copywriting one of the better ones that I have come across is How to Get Started as a Freelance Copywriter. And for those who have a general idea or is already practicing copywriting, I strongly recommend Copyblogger.

Magic Phrases for Negotiation in Freelancing

2006-05-02T09:21:00.000+08:00

Getting an increase in pay as a freelancer can be a tough job. Freelance Factor listed five magic phrases to get what you asked for.

That sounds a little low.

A timeless classic. This follows a golden rule of writing: keep it simple. No matter what figure is proposed, just state those five words and then shut your mouth. Since no one can stand uncomfortable silences, your tight lips will force the editor to say something in response. Either he or she will make a new offer, ask you what you need, or tell you that’s the best they can do. If it’s the latter, employ one of the next phrases.

To make it worth my time, I would need…

This one lets you take control of the situation. If you’ve already figured out approximately how much time and effort this piece will require, you should be able to determine how much you expect to be paid for it. Make sure that you’ve done some research and that your figure is in the realm of what that particular market typically pays. (Asking for a figure that’s 20% more than their average payment for an article of your word count and scope is reasonable; asking for 200% more is not.) Don’t bother mincing your words; just state your figure and let the editor decide whether or not to meet your demands.

Considering the amount of research required, can we agree to…

You can end this open-ended statement with a higher fee, less rights, or other "barters." Heavily researched pieces often have potential reprint markets. If an editor has asked for all rights, or exclusivity in any way, use this as a bartering chip. Mention that you can only give them exclusivity if they’ll raise the fee; otherwise, you’ll accept the fee for one-time rights (or whatever rights you find suitable) only. You may also barter for free advertising space, links to your website, etc.

I’m expecting more for this piece.

Another simple statement that forces the ball back to the editor’s proverbial court. Again, follow this one with silence, and allow the editor to come up with a new figure. This statement introduces the possibility that you could decide to sell the piece elsewhere if the editor doesn’t meet your requirements.

Can we work on that?

For pop psychology fans, this one brings the editor onto your "team." By using the word "we," you’ve asked the editor to partner with you in coming up with more acceptable terms. This question opens the door to a variety of improvements; you may choose to talk about fees, rights, word count, sidebars, kill fees, etc.

Link: Freelance Factor

Freelance Tools: Project Management

2006-04-26T09:33:00.000+08:00

Just like in any other job where you have to collaborate, freelancing requires you to be organized and efficient. One way to do that is to have some sort of a Project Management program where you can track the development of you project. Make no mistake, project management does not only apply to online or software projects. It is used in just almost everything. We just don't notice it but we do project management in one way or another. We may put it in a piece of paper or we do it on our personal computer or we have it in our cellphones.

What is Project Management
Wikipedia define Project Management as the discipline of defining and achieving targets while optimizing the use of resources (time, money, people, materials, energy, space, etc) over the course of a project (a set of activities of finite duration).

Project Management Activities
Also from Wikipedia, Project Management is composed of the following activities:

Planning the work
Assessing risk
Estimating resources
Organizing the work
Acquiring human and material resources
Assigning tasks
Directing activities
Controlling project execution
Reporting progress
Analyzing the results based on the facts achieved

Don't be fooled by the length of the list. It can be applied to even the smallest project. Project management being used in freelancing helps us to be methodical in our approach. It gives us a clear view on where our project stands amid the complexity of the project itself. Most importantly, project management helps us manage more than one project at a time which we do most of the time.

Make Your Clients Happy

2006-04-22T10:16:00.000+08:00

When selling anything, may it be products or services, our aim other than to earn is to make our clients happy. When going solo, we tend to all everything our selves - we do the dirty work, we do the support, we do the marketing, we do the selling... With so much work, we sometimes become sloppy. For lack of time, the quality of our work drop. And in time we start to lose our clients.

Quality Product and Services
So how do we keep our clients happy? As mentioned above, we maintain or better yet improve the quality of our work. But most of the time, improvements are hard to come by so maintaining the quality is the best that we can offer and we must never fail in that area.

Sense of Importance
Clients are demanding. They expect to be treated with utmost importance even on simplest task. It's not that they wanted us to spend all our time with them, what they want is that we give them our all when they need them. One good example of this is when doing a telecommute job, clients expect their freelancers to give them regular updates on the status of the project. They would like to think that we are doing something about the task/work given to us.

Deliver on Time
Time is gold. Almost every task has a need to deliver in a timely manner. Deadlines is part of the job. Clients welcomes it if we deliver before the deadline. This gives them a chance to test/check the product/output/result and returns before the deadline.

How to Spot Work at Home Scams

2006-04-20T17:27:00.000+08:00

Working at home holds a great deal of promise to most of us who wants more freedom. There tons and tons of work at home ideas and schemes both offline and online. We have these tendency to jump into those who offers almost everything and makes our lives easier. So how do you spot these schemes or scams? Freelancemom.com have a short list.

There are a few rules of thumb that I go by to determine if a work opportunity is legitimate.

1. Does it seem to good to be true? If someone is promising a lot of money, for little work - or it seems flavored to be a 'get rich quick' scheme, count me out.

2. Do they require money for more 'information' about the opportunity. Or do they require a down payment for materials (such as the envelope stuffing schemes, and other build crafts at home schemes.)

3. Do thorough research on any business opportunity you consider joining. There are some legitimate ones. Avon and Tupperware for example.
But it takes a certain type of person to make these types of biz ops work.

See, based on the list above, it's very easy to determine which one is a scam and which one is the real deal. However, there are still a number of us freelancers, especially the new ones, falls into these traps. These scammers are hedging on the fact that there are suckers born every minute.

Work at Home

2006-04-18T13:21:00.000+08:00

A lot of people wants to be with their family. They want their work to be close to home. If possible they want to work at home. Home-based business by individuals are one the rise and most are earning well from it.

Work-at-Home and Freelancing Distinctions
Freelancing and Work-at-Home are most of the time one and the same. Sometimes they are not. Freelancing vaguely refers to those things you are paid to do. It is not necessarily a business but it sure can. Work at Home, on the other hand, refers to those things you do at home which are more likely a home business.

Work at Home is closely related to Home-based business than to freelancing. But since it falls into the category in which you are not employed, it can be considered as freelancing.

Work-at-Home People
The people who are likely to work at home are those who love staying home, those who needs to look after the children. Most of these people are mothers who needs to supplement the household income or wanted to earn some money to buy something for herself but at the same time needs to look after the children and take care of the house.

As mentioned, work at home is closely related to home business. And because it's a business, moms have the time on their hands flexible enough to take care of domestic matters. Unlike freelancing where time should be spent finishing a project, work at home allows a fraction of time.

Taking on a project

2006-04-12T12:15:00.000+08:00

When deciding on your freelance gigs, you mostly come to a point when you ponder on if to take the project or not. There are many criteria for you to decide whether to do it. The list below will help you choose if the project is worth taking.

Do you want the job?
More and more freelance gigs are dropped not due to it being difficult or anything but due to freelancers not enjoying what they are doing. If you like what you are working on, no pesky clients can put you down.

Does it pays good?
Of course you should ask yourself this. Pro-Bono is good but you should not be overdoing it. You are making a living here. Professional projects needs professional person and should pay well.

Do you like your client?
Working on a freelance gig with somebody who are not helping to get it done is never good. You must have a good working relationship with your client. You must be able to approach them and notify them about the projects and what other things you need for it to get done. And them to communicate to you about their concerns in the development of the project.

Will the project expand your client base?
You should look at your freelance gigs as a snowball that gets bigger the farther it rolls. What I mean is that your freelance gig must pave ways for you to get other gigs either by client rehiring or referring you to others. Will that project look good on your portfolio is another question to ask yourself.

Freelance Networking: Pseudo Company

2006-04-10T12:19:00.000+08:00

You can't do everything. You need somebody to do something that you have limited or no knowledge at. Yes, you can be the "jack of all trades" but the quality of your work will suffer in one way or another.

Pseudo Company
What you need is to pool your resources and skills with other freelancers whose skills are related to yours but not totally the same. Simply put, you are a web developer who are good at codes. However web developing is not all codes. You need graphics, and html layouts. You certainly need a graphic artist and a web designer. It is only natural that you find other freelancers that compliments you and you with to them. What you and your "partners" have is a pseudo company. Not really a full company in the sense that you are all bosses and each of you have your own clients.

What's great about Pseudo Companies is that you are not limited to one. You can have multiple networks if you want depending on you resources and time. The downside to it, however, is that partners can easily leave the company whenever they want leaving the rest dysfunctional especially if you are in a middle of the project.

Freelancing: Finding Clients

2006-04-08T10:36:00.000+08:00

The awful truth about freelancing is that you search for your own clients. The task is pretty easy if you have background in sales and marketing. If not, looking for clients is a steep hill to climb. Here are some of the ways you can get new clients.

Join Communities
You can join communities that are related to you. If you are an aspiring photographer, join photography groups in your community where you can share and learn at the same time the tricks of the trade. This is also a great way to get new clients by letting others know that you are in search of them. They might have more projects that they can handle they would happily refer to you.

Setup Website
The cheapest way to market yourself is through a website. Your website is your office in the web. People search in search engines for stuff they need. And if you have a website, these search engines can send these people to your site. Your website also serves as a repository of your works. If you're a freelance photographer, your website is your bestfriend next to your camera. Put up a gallery to show your work.

Pro Bono Work
Offering free services have gained popularity as the starting point to accumulate prospective clients. By giving free services, you are giving them a sample of the quality of your work or service. More often than not, if they like how you do business with them, they are likely to contact you in the future.

Business Cards and Fliers
As I've previously written, have a business card with you always - you never know who you'll meet today. In parties, do not be afraid or be ashamed to give away business cards. Give them out, give them out freely.

Parking lots is also you friend when marketing. Give out fliers in the parking lot. If you don't feel like it, attached them to the cars' windshield. They will surely notice especially when your fliers have good design and color.

Freelancing Contract

2006-04-08T09:04:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, a none-paying client is all you need to be discouraged from pursuing a freelancing career and opt instead to receive a flat salary every month being employed. Freelancing pays good if you know how to make your clients pay. You don't even need force, just a piece of paper will do. What you need is a Freelancing Contract.

Freelancing Contract How-To
About.com, one of the best resource site in the internet has this guide on how to create a simple contract you can have your client signed. From that article I give you the steps here.

You can create any sort of document that appears as an invoice. Many word processing programs contain a document wizard and several invoice templates. Open up one of these templates or create a new one.
Your contract needs to be as specific as possible. In the upper right hand corner of the document you can type the words SERVICE TERMS, CONTRACT or any other variation in a bold, 12 or 14 point font size (larger than the rest of your contract type).
On the left side, type your name, title, address, telephone, fax, Email, etc. Make sure all of your contact information appears here.
On the right, type the date and complete contact information for your client.
Assign the project a job number and write it down for your records. Also include this information on your contract, usually above the client's contact information for easy reference.
Make a few lines to detail the job description. If you're giving a price quote for a TV commercial, write as much detail as you can. For example: Job Description: Joe's Used Cars (:30 TV Commercial)
Are you charging by the hour or offering a flat rate? If charging by the hour, be sure to put your hourly rate on the contract and an estimate of how long it will take you to complete the project. If you're charging a flat rate, be sure to put on your contract that this is the bottom line price.
Your contract can resemble an invoice (lines for a description, price, etc.) to be more professional. Of course, you don't want the word INVOICE to appear on your contract. But you can easily save a copy of this document as an invoice so when you complete your work, you can send an invoice that mirrors your contract. Less confusion and less room for debate over paying up.
Now you're ready for the heart of your contract. Be very specific on what the client is getting. Just because you have your policies on your Web site doesn't mean you can be skimpy in your wording here. Example:
Commercial Copy
• Copy Due DATE
• Revisions and rewrites included as defined in policy
• Payment for services due within XX days of final revision
Type in your price for the project (or estimated hours if you are working on an hourly rate). If you are working on an hourly rate, be sure to include terms on how you handle going over the hourly estimate. If you estimate 3 hours at $100 an hour and you come back with a job time of 8 hours, you're going to have a hard time convincing the client to honor their end of the deal.
Write a line that acknowledges the client is accepting the terms by signing the contract. If you are doing your business via fax, as most freelancers hardly meet their clients these days, you'll want to tell the client they need to sign the contract and fax it back to you. You will sign the contract before you send it to them for their signature so they will have your signature on their copy.
Make two lines at the bottom of the contract. One for you with your name typed below the line and one for your contact person at the ad agency or individual business with their name typed underneath the line. This will be your signature lines when you and a client accept each other's terms.
Save your contract so you can plug in the details for your next project without having to start all over again.
That's it! To see a sample of your finished contract, click on the link under the "Related Resources" section at the bottom of this page.

Freelancing Rates

2006-04-06T11:36:00.000+08:00

Do you ever wonder how much to charge for your work or services? Yeah, it's tough decision to make. Charge too much and clients scampers away. Charge too low and you are working for nothing. If you are experiencing this anxiety, it is time to create a price matrix for your work/service. Sure, there will be times that you need to compromise and charge a bit higher or a bit lower. It all depends.

Also depending on you expertise, the rates vary. As a HTML Coder, you cannot expect to charge the same rate as your EJB programmer friend. And also, it adjusts to the level of mastery you have over your skills.

Rates
Webmonkey have a matrix that details freelancing rates depending on their skillset:

Writer (Technical)	US$35 to $100
Writer (Non-Tech)	$300 to $1,000 per piece (or $.30 to $1 per word)
Editor	$35 to $75
Copy editor	$25 to $50
Producer	$50 to $125
Information Designer	$50 to $100
Interface Designer	$30 to $75
Graphic Designer	$50 to $150
Animator	$50 to $150
Straight HTML Coder	$10 to $30
Advanced HTML Coder (CSS, dHTML, etc.)	$20 to $50
Programming (everything from Javascript to backend)	$100 to $300

Freelancing: Home Office

2006-04-04T16:43:00.000+08:00

Being a freelancer gives you the freedom to conduct your business anywhere. You can be the on-the-go type who lugs around with a laptop, you can put up an office somewhere with lots of foot traffic, or you can have your office in the comfort of your home.

Home Office
The benefit of having your office at home is that you save money on office space lease, not to mention the additional cost of travelling to and from your office. It is very important to consider this especially if you are starting on your venture.

Pitfalls
One of the pitfalls of having your office at home is you becoming lazy. Discipline is key to becoming a successful freelancer. You can't wake up at noon and work a few hours and expect to rake in loads of cash at the end of the day. Not unless you are selling you're a part of some money laundering syndicate. Even them works hard.

Ideal Home Office Space
Home office ideally are not big. They should be spacious enough to allow you to move around for that thinking/creative phase of you projects but no too spacious that you can't reach your tools at arm's length. That office space must be located far from the bedroom to discourage you to take that nap during your supposed work hours. And it must be out of your kids way.

Basic Equipment
So what, then, your small home office must have? For one a telephone line, you absolutely need this for clients to contact you and most importantly, you to contact them. Telephone line can be shared with the household but it's best if you can have a separate line. For online freelancing or work-at-home business type, an internet connection is required - you just can't do anything without it. A decent printer for that brochure presentation and contracts. An answering machine to take your calls when you're away, remember, you don't have secretary to answer them for you. A fax machine is also suggested.

Freelance Pro - Be the boss, Be free

Freelancing, Part-Time, Full-Time

2006-04-03T11:22:00.000+08:00

Do you really have be unemployed to freelance? This is one of the question some of the freelancers who are the same time doing their own stuff ask themselves. Their reasons differ but most will agree that freelancing gives them the satisfaction they don't get from their job. In fact, it's great doing your own stuff. Another reason is that, they will have something to fall back into in case they decide to leave the corporate world or they are laying out the groundwork for their own business.

Part-time or Full-time
So is doing your own stuff while employed be considered freelancing? I think so. In that part of your world, you are free. You are your boss. And unless your company clearly prohibits you from doing so, which they usually doesn't care unless you're trying to undermine their clients, you can do all you can in your own time.

So let's say you work in a technology company, Search Engine Optimization to be specific. Of course it will be a conflict of interest if you are doing the same thing for money in your free time. But you can always go into web design where you can integrate your SEO expertise anyhow or go into affiliate marketing for yourself which also leverages your SEO mastery. This is called part-time freelancing.

So when do you go full-time freelancing? Full-time freelancing is in essence you are already building your own business. The time for one to become a full-time freelancer is ripe when his/her earnings from freelancing is more than double than what he/she is earning from his day job. It only mean one thing. If you will just exert a little more effort on that freelancing thing, you are better off doing it all the way. But then there are other things to consider, like securities of offered by an employed person or the discipline one has to sustain his/her work habit. Mileage varies. In the end, it's case to case basis.

Your label in business cards

2006-03-25T12:25:00.000+08:00

Yeah, it was a tough question to answer. It took me a couple of days to figure out what to label myself in my business card. Being a freelancer there are a lot of things that you can call yourself. But most of the time, the label has got to do with what you do.

Offline freelancers
Easy if your work is offline. If you are a plumber, you put there something like Master Plumber. If you're a auto detailer, put Auto Detailer. Most of the time, people put CEO in their cards.

Online freelancers
Online freelancers like web designers, software developers, or web developers may have a hard time putting labels on their business cards. It's not that they don't need one to get clients. Sometimes, they do need to meet face to face with a prospective client. If this happen, chances are prospects will ask for a business card.

Most of the cards I've seen, including mine, have "consultant" in them. Consultancy is a pretty generic term that fits in anything hard to define and those that have a wide/broad coverage. It fits most programmers, they use many programming languages. It is not to say that most freelancers are consultants, but they are. So to be safe, just put "Consultant" to describe yourself in your business card. Actually, you can put anything you want - CEO, Manager, Specialist, anything.

Get Started Freelancing: Portfolio

2006-03-23T15:35:00.000+08:00

Just like in any field and in any job, in freelancingl, you need something to show that you can do the task at hand. In an offline freelancing, most of the time you have samples of previous work or referral from a previous client to prove that you can do the job you sought.

It's no different in an online freelancing. You need to give an assurance of your skills. In most cases, this is called a Portfolio. It is a showcase of your work. Web designers have galleries with screenshots of their web designs. Web developers also have links to their project sites. Software developers have download pages for their softwares.

Personal Site
It is suggested that you first get a website to host, hold, and showcase your skills. A place where people can go and verified that you do exist and you have done something that they would want you to do for them.

As a freelancer, it doesn't matter if you host your site in a free hosting account or in a paid hosting. A newbie freelancer can get away with this. But a professional freelancer will most likely get a paid hosting to give that professional feeling to their prospective client.

Work Samples
As mentioned above, you need to have samples of your work to show prospects. If you do not have something concrete to show, if you're a web developer or a web designer, your site is your best sample.

Other than that, you need to show more. Your other options are your work/services rendered to a close relative/friend. This is best achieved when you are still starting and have more time in your hands to do projects pro bono. Don't squirm at doing things for free for others. That good deeds will pay up in time. You just have to have patience, just like everything in life.

Do small projects which you can finish. If your friendly baker next door needs a website, design one for him for a small fee or, better yet, for free. The return you get from it not monetary - at the moment. Think about future projects this opportunity brings to you.

There are freelancers who are employed before doing the same job as what they are doing as freelancers. They have a lot to show. Their path is easier.

Get Started Freelancing: Freelance Sites

2006-03-16T05:41:00.000+08:00

So, you have your tools and you checked your skills. You feel ready to go to work and get your hands dirty. Unless you have somebody looking for clients for you, as a freelancer, you need to go out and do all the work. After all, this is your "business".

You should know every details on how to go about it. And the best way to do that is when you are still starting. As your business grows you need not do this things if you can already afford to hire people to do work for you but as a freelancer, and starting at that, you have no choice but to find clients yourself.

It's hard for a software/web developer geek to go out there and knock on every shop if they need something done with their software or business process. Geeks are not known to be very good in sales and marketing especially during the first meeting. So where should one go if visiting prospective clients are not your thing? Online.

Online Freelancing Marketplace
Most of the freelancing work are now posted online. It's cheaper for the company seeking freelancers and the freelancers themselves. There already exists many sites that cater to these service buyers and seekers. As a freelancer, you can look and compare companies for better compensation. For companies, they can choose the one that fits their criteria. Example of these sites are (these are some of the sites I use):

Take note that some sites require registration others do not. Others even requires membership fee. But if you are starting as a freelancer, it's best to stick to free sites. There are projects available in fee-free freelance sites. Craigslist is my favorite. It's free and has lots of listings.

Freelance Pro - Be the Boss, Be Free

Get Started Freelancing: Invoice

2006-03-11T10:50:00.000+08:00

In my previous post, I wrote about service pricing and payment gateways. In this post, I am writing about invoicing, what is an invoice, why you should send invoice to your client and online invoicing services.

What is an Invoice
An invoice is a detailed list of goods shipped or services rendered, with an account of all costs. It is commonly known as an itemized bill. As a service vendor you can send the service purchaser a written account that indicates the quantity and value of the items purchased. When you give someone an invoice, you are therefore billing him.

Why give an Invoice
The invoice will give your client the clear idea of what he will be getting from you. The invoice will help eliminate confusion as to the extent of your service. The invoice is also a sort of a contract binds you and your client. Paper based invoices can be taken to court if not honored by either parties. In a way, your invoice will protect you but can put you in trouble if you don't honor what was agreed.

But the best reason of giving out invoices is for accounting purposes. It is easy to track and manage your finances when everything is documented. It is very important when you are settling you taxes.

Paper and Online Invoices
When it comes to legality of the transaction, paper invoices will always win, hands down but with the advent of the internet and the subsequent boom of eCommerce, electronic invoices has gained popularity especially when companies are not located near each other. For paper invoices, your local printing presses can help you facilitate in getting a license from your internal revenue service before they will print the invoice. But most of the time, internal revenue service issued invoice is not enforced like Official Receipts since they are merely a detailed lists of items/service you and your client has agreed upon.

One good online invoicing service I found is BlinkSale. It offers free account for beginner freelancers who needs to send invoice not more than 3 times a month. It is already appropriate to most newbie freelancers.

Freelance Pro - Be the Boss, Be Free.

Get Started Freelancing: Service Price and Payment Gateway

2006-03-10T11:37:00.000+08:00

So you want to become a freelancer. You have evaluated your skills, your time and dedication. You are ready to take on projects that seem doable. Before you jumped into the murky water of freelancing, you have to know what are the tools of the trade.

First you must have a way for your clients to pay you. It's not a problem if you are doing the job onsite. Your client can just hand you the payment after you got the job done. The client is less likely to scam you in this situation.

Service Fee
It's different if you are freelancing online. Most of the time, you are dealing with a total stranger. The internet is home to a lot of scammers. People online can be mean. When dealing with a project online, make sure you ask for a partial payment up front. Don't start with the project unless you are paid initially. It doesn't have to be the full of the agreed price. It should be enough for you to start and him to trust you that you will finish the project.

You can't ask for the full amount before the project starts. No one in their right mind will do so. The right value for the initial pay is somewhere between 30% to 50% of the full price, depending on the project.

Payment Gateway
So how can your client pay you? Setup an online payment system. Apply for one. As a freelance, you don't need a merchant account. Most people use PayPal. But Paypal is not readily available to all countries. Check on their website if you are living in a country where they allowed residents to signup for an account. If you are unfortunate who belong to a non-registerable country, you can try other online payment system. There's GreenZap, StudioPay, and 2Checkout. There are others, some are specific to your country of resident. These sites will give you a way to accept credit card payments from your client.

Freelance Pro - Be the Boss, Be Free.

Freelancing Benefits and Drawbacks

2006-03-09T08:32:00.000+08:00

The following are taken almost verbatim from Wikipedia on Freelancing:

Freelancing Benefits and Drawbacks
Freelancers generally enjoy a greater variety of assignments than in regular employment, and almost always have more freedom to choose their work schedule. The experience also allows the opportunity to build up a portfolio of work and cultivate a network of clients in hopes of obtaining a permanent position.

A major drawback is the uncertainty of work – and thus income – and lack of company benefits such as health insurance or retirement pay.

Another drawback is that freelancers often must handle contracts, legal issues, accounting, marketing, and other business functions by themselves. If they do choose to pay for professional services, they can sometimes turn into a significant out-of-pocket expense. Working hours can extend beyond the standard working day and working week.

As a cultural phenomenon, freelancing exists both below and above the system. In Germany, for example, among other countries, creative freelancing is considered one of the most socially elevated fields of endeavour one can pursue. In Japan, freelancing is generally associated with an inability to find work with a major company, and is held in low esteem.

As with every endeavors, the drawbacks almost always outnumbers the benefits. It should be put to mind that it is not purely in numbers that we based our decisions. We should take into consideration the weights of the benefits and the drawbacks.

Yes freelancing is tough. There are more people failing on this than being employed. Just like everything that we do, we gamble, we risk to achieve what we longed for. Just what I've said before, freelancing is not for the faint of heart. So before you jump into the freelance market, please do think deep and hard about your decision.

Freelance Pro - Be the Boss, Be Free.

What is a Freelancer

2006-03-09T02:22:00.000+08:00

The following are taken almost verbatim from Wikipedia on Freelancing.

Whatis a Freelancer?
A freelancer or freelance worker is a self-employed person working in a profession or trade in which full-time employment is also common.

Common Freelancing Jobs
Fields where freelancing is especially common include journalism and other forms of writing, computer programming and graphic design, consulting, and many other professional and creative services. But the practice is widespread: for example, bounty hunters and mercenaries are freelancers, with their full-time counterparts being, respectively, the police and the military.

Newest Freelancing Opportunities
The internet has opened up many opportunities for freelancers, especially those in low-wage countries working in software development and information technology areas, while it has made the work of many other kinds of freelancers easier by increasing communication.

Freelancing Basics
Freelance practice varies greatly. Some require clients to sign written contracts, while others may perform work based on verbal agreements, perhaps enforceable through the very nature of the work. Some freelancers may provide written estimates of work and request deposits from clients.

Payment for freelance work also varies greatly. Freelancers may charge by the day or hour, or on a per-job basis. By custom, payment arrangements may be upfront, half-half, or upon completion.

Freelance Pro - Be the Boss, Be Free.

FreelancePro

2006-03-08T10:02:00.000+08:00

FreelancePro is all about freelancing and being a freelancer. I will posting freelancing resources and tips on becoming a better freelancer. For those who are contemplating on going this route down their career path or is already a successful freelancer, I will try my best to provide a insights on freelancing.

I am also a freelancer. I do work for other people on specific projects. All I can say about being in a freelance market is that, it is tough. It is not for the faint hearts. Beginners need someone who can point them to the right direction. Somebody who will help them avoid the pitfalls successful and failed freelancers alike experienced.

I will be writing here about my experience of being a freelancer. I will also be writing about the tools I used, the strategy I take, the places where I hunt for projects and a lot more. I am by no means an expert but I am writing from a perspective of the one who haggles with prospective clients.

That's it for now. Welcome to Freelance Pro. A blog of a semi to pro freelancer.

Freelance Pro - Be the boss, be free.