Reasons for Not Getting a Job

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

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.

1. You are always right.


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


3. 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.


4. You value your work highly. After all you get all the credit afterwards.
5. 
   

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

1. 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.
   


2. 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.
   


3. 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.
   


4. 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.
   


5. 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

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:

1. Planning the work
2. Assessing risk
3. Estimating resources
4. Organizing the work
5. Acquiring human and material resources
6. Assigning tasks
7. Directing activities
8. Controlling project execution
9. Reporting progress
10. 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

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

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

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

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.