5 Traits of Successful Freelancers

One in three Americans is a freelancer or temporary worker in the post-recession era, according to research by the Human Capital Institute (HCI). The majority of contract workers are part-timers, and their ranks are growing at more than twice the rate of full-time employees, the HCI reports.

The reality is that many midcareer workers who lost jobs during the recession are putting themselves back to work by pitching their skills to companies, including their former employers, as "free agents."

Successful Freelancer

Your marketability as a free agent can be appealing to employers who need to get the job done but don't want to pay the extras -- health insurance, taxes and overhead costs -- associated with full-time employees. You can use this demand to your advantage and build a freelance business to support yourself, stay current in your field and keep moving in an unstable economy.

Here are five key traits you'll need to develop a successful freelance business.

1. Be Businesslike. Just because you may be working from a home office doesn't mean you forget your manners. The same standards of professionalism you used in the workplace apply as a self-employed professional. Set up a work space that is conducive to doing business and working long hours. Make sure you are in quiet surroundings when making calls -- your clients should not hear the TV blaring, your child crying or the dog barking while they're considering whether to give you money to work on a project for them.

2. Be Meticulous About Tracking Your Time. It's easy to lose track of the time you spend on a project when you're not punching a time clock. Often, independent contractors find themselves spending more time on a project than they would have if they were working in a regular office environment. It is up to you to ensure that you're getting paid for the work you're putting in and complete projects in a timely manner. To set a realistic hourly rate, Michelle Mangen, president of Your Virtual Assistant, based in Sarasota, Fla., suggests surveying the competition. "When I first started my business as a virtual assistant, I asked other VAs what they charged, and that's how I figured out my initial pricing strategy," says Mangen. Be sure to include project management time in your bids; interaction with clients eats up lots of time.

3. Develop a Niche Specialty. You cannot be all things to all people. Focus on a specific niche customer or industry. Examine your transferable skills, figure out the pain points of your target customer, find out where those skills are in demand, and go after the business. Also, seek out work that may fulfill a passion that you wouldn't have gone after on a traditional job. For example, if you are a CPA who enjoys cooking, you could specialize in doing accounting work just for restaurants.

4. Build a Great Online Portfolio. Potential customers and recruiters will search online to find information about you before making contact. That's why it's essential to have a website and online presence that displays your expertise. LinkedIn can help you showcase your portfolio. (Read my previous column: Are You Google-able?)

5. Be a Networking Machine. Don't become a hermit in your home office and do all of your socializing online. Seek out local networking events and trade associations in your field and join the chapters in your area. Keep your elevator pitch handy. When you're out in the community, whether you're in transit to meet a client or running errands, talk up your business to your banker, your local merchants, and the parent on your child's baseball team who is an executive at a company that could use your services. Carry business cards at all times. Make sure contact information is updated and includes all places they can find you online.

Finding work: Many websites help freelancers develop their businesses and stay sane in the process. Here are three good resources.
•    Elance. Site connects freelancers with companies looking for help.
•    Freelancer. Companies and entrepreneurs use this online hub to post their projects and expertise and find good matches. .
•    Scriptlance. A freelancer marketplace that also handles payment processing. The site features profiles and websites of 250,000 active freelancers.
Do you have a favorite website for finding freelance gigs? Please share in the poll section.

Melinda F. Emerson

Tips & Tricks - Freelancer

11 ways to avoid zombification of work

When I say that I have a lot of work, always following a replica of the other person is "Ah, then business is going! Bravo! Apparently the crisis do not hunt".

In fact, having a job is not a specific item that you are very successful, but rather that do not pay attention to your family, your health, your appearance, your hobbies ...

Having a lot of work, it means to be tired, sleepy, stressed and overworked. Do not boast that you have a lot of work - not for glory. If you are really overwhelmed with work, lunch sandwiches and go home late. If you fall asleep watching TV and do not remember what it looks like your lover ... think it's time for tougher measures.

11 ways to avoid zombification of work


In this paper I propose eleven ideas on how to avoid employer zombification. I hope at least one (or better - more of them) to do the trick.

1. Set clear boundaries
Work only at certain times. Make sure to end your day planned work planned for this hour. Whether you work for pay or are free entrepreneur, ask yourself the time in which to work and only work in it.

2. Get enough sleep
If you think you go to bed at 2 and get up at 5 am because you have a lot of work / projects is a smart strategy ... you have a slight confusion. Lack of sleep affects extremely destructive to your health, creativity, intelligence, emotional ... on everything. Better leave for work tomorrow, but going to bed on time and afford healthy amount of sleep.

3. Internet is not a place to live

Disconnect from the Internet, if that is not connected with your work. I've tried it (although my work is all about the Internet, hahaha) and I guarantee that you will achieve unprecedented levels of creativity, relaxation, stress and lack of concentration. Internet is the number one distraction in today's business world if you ask me.

4. Spend time in nature
Even if you do not live in the foothills of Vitosha mountain, somewhere around three bushes and two square meters of lawn grass. Take a walk, forget the cares and projects. See how green the grass is, try to identify different types of flowers, sit on a bench and reflect on life ... Half an hour is enough and you will feel reborn.

5. Take time for your partner, family and friends
My sad experience that the system (in years) managed to shrug his closest people, claiming they have a job. However, the closest people can see them when you want. Yes, but not so. Statistics show that the interval between my meetings with my closest friends was ... 4 to 6 months! So, people, time passes, the work also, but precious in our lives people. Make time for them to see often when you are together, you are really with them and not think how to complete the emergency project this week.

6. Eat real food
No time for a normal lunch, right? Jump to a nearby sandwich shop and make you eat while clicking on the computer? Often you do? Does your desk in packs of waffles, pastries, pretzels and other junk? The bad news is that this does not eat (full) or work, while damaging their health and filling unabated.

To be effective at work, you need real food. I am not a nutritionist, but I think Snickers, energy drinks and croissants are in this category. Go to a normal lunch. Order your soup or salad or steak - normal and delicious. Eat slowly and enjoy the food. This will lower your stress levels will eat well and will be enjoyable. Then you will have much more energy, creativity and willingness to work.

7. Find a hobby
Hobby is a great thing - reduces stress, makes you feel happy and multiplies the energy and creativity. So you need a hobby. Consider what makes you feel happy, what you enjoy doing, what is your passion. If possible, choose something that is far from your normal work. If you are a web designer, hobby "playing computer games" probably not the best solution. Think there are thousands of hobbies that can make you blessed - photography, flowers, hiking, cooking, sports, collecting smooth stones and whatnot.

8. Listen to your body
When your body says you're tired (or worse: sick of your job), listen to him. It does not act up and feed you important feedback on their condition. When you're tired - rest. When your eyes ache - leave your computer for a while. When you sleep - sleep or at least walk and discharged. If you do not listen to your body and it will listen to you - a simple task.

9. Frequently update their direction in life
If you regularly stay up late at the office, working like crazy, you have 48 missed calls only for the afternoon ... Ask yourself - "Why do this?", "What is the ultimate goal", "how this coincides with the direction that I chosen / and in life?".

Good idea to have clearly defined goals in life. Even I think this is a vital necessity if you know what I mean. But having goals is only the first step. The next is to examine their actions and their results and ask "This brings me away from me or my goals?". Do it regularly gives a sense of direction and important decisions becomes much easier.

10. Build your healthy habits
Habits build (or destroy) our lives. Furthermore, you can not build a habit today for tomorrow. This is a long and sometimes painful process. So now is the time to begin to build good habits. If you do a little every day, at the end of the year will have 365 little things.

Here are some examples of good habits: get used to checking your mail and Facebook of every 5 minutes, 3 times a day, eat every 4 hours and then with real food, go to bed early and get up early, do your half-hour walk every day ... You decide what your habits are good for you, but the important thing is to act less on a regular basis. As Mark Twain said (I quote from memory):

"A habit can not be discarded out the window. He must cajole to come down the stairs - step by step. "
The same goes for "inviting" a habit in your life.

11. Surround yourself with people living a balanced life
If you consider yourself a workaholic, it's best to surround yourself with "normal" people. Strive to build contacts with calm, balanced people who fail to control your life and live it fully. You may be surprised by the places and situations where you will find these people. They may not look like superstars of personal productivity. This could be your grandmother, or neighbor, or as instructor at the gym.

Surround yourself with positive, peaceful and happy people and very soon, even if you do not want to become like them.

Tips & Tricks - Freelancer

4 friendly tips for building a profit website

I want to make a profit website.
And to make money from it.


You decided that you want to make personal or company  website in which you write about things that excite you, but not sure where to start?

The launch is essential to the direction of the road and the first step is the hardest. But once you've decided you should look where you want to go?

Profit website

Construction of websites is very exciting but challenging endeavor, start from scratch and after seeing a product that is constantly changing. Website is a living thing that constantly sheds its skin and is very well your current condition.

But a website has a permanent job. Let me show you a little of it:
•    Quality, unique and useful content for readers. If you build a working habit of writing such website content and quality will attract readers who will be your community.
•    Presence in social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Reddit where anything, much.
•    SEO, keyword selection and continuous analysis of the statistics of the website, as well as SEO in the article. (Title, links, photos)
•    Over time you will collect many emails from readers that you can use one Mailing list for different purposes.
•    Search for partners to exchange links
•    Find different ways of monetization. This is the most vital part of the exercise. If your website does not just income will stop doing it. So I look how you will draw revenue from human flow that they read every day.

This is not true the saying "Do it and they will come." Years ago, may already be happening but vsekidnena requires constant work to you at the end of the year to boast of good results.

The beginning starts with a vision and dreams

No matter what is your dream, they are different because people are different. I want to insert the political situation in North Korea on the death of their leader. West amazed watching millions of Koreans roar so broke, in order, from the only party in the country, expressing the most incredible grief at the death of the leader. What you do not shit been written, and what tragicomic pictures clearly on television and the Internet for this event. The son of a chief had a mother in heaven, dictator Kim lived in an amazing wealth and his people died of hunger, etc.

Good friend and thank you light candles that do not live there. Not that would make me violently to roll through the streets to express for the cameras, my infinite grief a dictator, it would be the lesser evil, but because it all shows how far a nation brought the cult of personality and one-party leadership.

Unhappy Korean people knows no democracy, and probably will never see her continue to live isolated from everyone. Do not compare with Greece on the one hand, the idea of democracy but applying it to their own people it brought to beggary. The situation there is different interests have enormous thirst for power and money and insatiable infinite stupidity of millions. As you get all this mix modern Greece.

Secure and Koreans have dreams but do not have a chance to realize them. And you live in a free country have the chance. Take advantage!

Ask yourself "Why?"

The answer will be the motivation you can see why they stopped. Reasons not allow you to write a quality article can do "fashion" design to look affiliates and advertisers to find the "right" keywords that will bring you high traffic and high revenues.

Accurate and clear picture of your dream and precise and clear about 'why' and things will happen.

Clear purpose for the website
1.    Specificity
2.    Measurable
3.    Achievable
4.    Realistic
5.    Set in a time span

You should be aware of what goals you set. They should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and have time. Only then will you know what you do, how to approach and whether it will achieve them. And your motivation will grow instead of stopping to achieve the ultimate goal.

Focus on effort and time

There were scattered, trying to be a man orchestra. True in basketball this term is very usable and many people strive to be VIP, but to play 2-3 positions for an indefinite period of time is extremely taxing effort and not worth paying. Begin to think how to earn money from your articles. Focus on a niche and unfolded its full potential there.
Go with small steps. Make a plan. Day to day, week to week. At long for now you do not need. Put small goals and reach them.

Here's a small list of tasks:
•    Daily writing articles
•    Search for keywords
•    Link building
•    Active participation in social networks
•    Search for partners
•    Search in artists (This does not give you give it to someone else to do it).
•    Design website
•    Monitor statistics
•    Correspond

Take a break

When the time comes and you feel tired, take a break. So far a great deal but if you give adequate rest of the bike he will pregori. Sam will feel when it's time to relax. Do not forget to sleep and not do 258 things. Finally you will pregorish and work will remain. Remember the saying "Work is not a rabbit to escape" so it was working before and you will have for you after you. Your goal is to get a piece of pie you can. Great pie always eat it big.

hope I was helpful and you can categorize your goals and deadlines to get the maximum and end of the day with a smile to meet at night knowing that the path to your dream is shortened by 364 days

You have almost a profitable website


Pano Kondoyanis

Tips & Tricks - Web entrepreneur

Express plan to start an online business in 10 steps

There are literally thousands of sites that promise you how a few days (at most - weeks) will start making more money online to quit your job for salary, travel the world with your laptop and enjoy life. What they do not tell you is that it is neither so easy nor so quickly.

Yes, for selling digital products, affiliate marketing, online stores and membership sites can earn a very nice amount, and many people do. But it requires months and even years, all that work, dedication and continuous development of knowledge and your skills. In any successful business is well - for joy or pity - no shortcuts.

But what to do if you really need to start earning online this month or at most next?

If you expect to tell you a secret phenomenal, unfortunately will be disappointed. But if practical approaches on the topic, you will see that you really can add a new feather to its revenues. I'm talking about the obvious and frustrating simple idea to advertise your services on the Internet. No effects, fireworks and the promise of thousands of dollars per month. Painful, but fair. Here's what I mean ...

First. You have nothing to offer to potential customers. And you certainly have. Look. Maybe now a profession that is valuable to others, you can perform these services at your leisure. You would know how to make teddy bears or knitting scarves? Maybe you know how to cook healthier or to organize events? Maybe now you have a business that does not meet expectations for revenue, you have to it?

Surely you have something to offer - something that people are willing to pay you.
Second. You need customers. Here comes the agenda building your online presence and promote your services online. Let us examine the basic steps and necessary investments in time and money.

Express plan to start an online business in 10 steps

Express plan to launch online services business


1. First step.
Your first job is to think of their brand, to find and purchase a suitable domain. You'll also need hosting for a place to "live" your site. All this will cost no more than 60-80 lev per year. The whole process takes no more than 1-2 hours to 1-2 days (depending on how you choose to pay services).

2. The system.
Now you must install the system that allow you to manage and develop your site. Such systems are many but the most popular and "modern" is now WordPress. It is totally free. Installed for 5 minutes. There are so many opportunities.

3. Vision.
One of the main features of WordPress is the ability to easily manage the design of your site using so-called. "Topics". There are tens of thousands of free and paid themes. I recommend you invest in a premium theme (ie paid). They are developed by very good professional designers and cost between 30 and 70 dollars. Surely a quality theme is a good investment. You can find them in Themeforest, Woo Themes, Templatic, Elegant Themes. Installation and setup will not take more than a few hours.

4. The structure and content.
WordPress offers an extremely easy and convenient tools to build pages in your site navigation menus, news section (blog), etc. You just have to decide what services will offer, for example, to create the appropriate pages to write something about yourself as a professional and contact details. It will not cost you anything and will take several hours to one day. The topic you chose typically will offer expanded opportunities for management of the site, such as a slide show on the home page, easy placement of your logo and other useful features.

5. Preflight.
Now you have your own website - face of your business on the Internet. It is simple and consists of 3-4 pages, but is there and works 24/7 for your business. Review your site carefully from the perspective of potential customers. Does he needed information? Persuade you to buy? Do you? This activity will take about an hour.

6. Start a blog to your site.
There is no need to do anything extra - a blog is just part of the functionality of WordPress. It is important to start regularly, 1-4 times a week to post interesting and useful articles (advice, representation of products, news, trivia) that are in your area and would be of interest to your potential customers. To write in your blog can take you around 1-2 hours a day, but worth it.

7. Create a page on Facebook.
Facebook is the biggest social network in the world and over 2 million Bulgarians have it daily. This is an extremely valuable marketing channel, if used well. First, create a page for your business, then insert your logo and information and a link to your site. Then invite your friends and start writing - every day - on the wall of your page, post links to interesting articles or resources (including articles from your blog), photographs and video - but only those that would be interesting to your potential customers. Communication in social networks is a very "addictive" activity and can take you half an hour to 5 hours a day - you decide how much time you invest.

8. Tell all your friends and acquaintances about their new endeavor, and specifically ask them to share with their friends and acquaintances. Complete chapter 8 Live, email and social networks where attend.

9. Maintain communication and respond to all calls and emails, whether to request for your services or just questions. Do not give up and promote their business online and among their friends and acquaintances.

10. Serve every customer as if the only one. Then ask him for advice and ask them to recommend you.

internet-profits.net

Tips & Tricks - Web entrepreneur

How to Improve Your Website

Have you ever visited a website and closed it within a few seconds? There are many reasons why people do this. A guest may want exit your website if it:

  • Takes too long to load
  • Doesn't look like it relates to what they're searching for
  • Doesn't load correctly
  • Is too cluttered
  • Is too empty

Improve Your Website

As a small-business owner, why would you invest thousands of dollars in building a site if visitors just tune out?

Solving click-off is one of the biggest challenges I discovered while building thousands of websites for clients as a website designer. If a visitor comes to your website and leaves within eight seconds, you need to fix something. Here are five fast ways that I've used that dramatically minimize click-off by improving your website's performance, speed, search engine results and relevance for users.

1. Speed up your website.
When your site doesn't immediately grab visitors' attention and inspire them to take action, you're wasting leads who could have become long-term customers.

One culprit for visitors quickly leaving your site may be a slow-to-load home page, and one of the biggest contributors to a slow-loading website is large, high-resolution images. Large animated Flash files can also weigh down a site's loading time.

To fix this issue, consider putting fewer images on your home page and no Flash at all. You can also ask your web designer or developer to optimize your current images by compressing them and lowering the resolution.
One easy way to test the speed of your website is to view it on a slow Internet connection. Don't have access to a slow connection? Search online for "website speed test" for free tools to test the speed of your site.

Another issue to consider is whether your web host is slowing you down. Before you pay for a host, research reputable companies known for fast, high-quality connections.

2. Bold keywords.
Search engines want to provide relevant results on websites with high-quality content. That makes it critical for you to provide the most relevant, high-quality information your target market will be searching for. One way to quickly connect visitors to that great information is to bold the most important keywords.

For example, if someone finds your site by searching "cycling in Perth," make sure your website has the keywords "cycling" and "Perth" in bold type. I'm not suggesting that you continually bold all your website keywords. Just bold one or two keywords close to the top of your web page.

3. Tag your graphics.
Another way to attract more traffic is to optimize your graphics so they become more visible to the search engines. Many entrepreneurs don't realize how much they can benefit from being listed in the Google Images database.

So how do people find you when they search for images? It's easy. When building your website, make sure your web designer includes the correct coding to hook your images with relevant keywords. Name your image files with relevant, descriptive words and include a title tag and an alt tag in your image code. These tags allow you to include more information and keywords related to your image. By including these elements, search engines will be able to understand the content of your images and it will make your site more accessible to visitors with visual disabilities.

Make sure you don't keyword-stuff that code, though. Search engines will know you're trying to cheat the system, and you'll run the risk of becoming banned from their listings. Just describe the images in natural language without repeating words.

4. Update your website dates.
When your website has the current date, it's basically telling visitors that this website is up to date. It's fresh and current. Search engines know this and take it into consideration. After all, search engines want to provide the best possible results.

If you visit a website and scroll to the bottom and see "Copyright 2005," you might think that was the last time the site was updated. Outdated information makes the site look neglected and unprofessional.

5. Comply with online quality standards.
In a nutshell, W3C compliance is an online standard, or set of rules, that, when followed, ensures your website adheres to a strict quality standard. (W3C is short for the World Wide Web Consortium, the main international standards organization for the Web.) When you create your site according to these standards, it tells the world you care about quality and taking good care of your site.

Some of the coding differences can seem miniscule and tedious -- for example, remembering to include a slash at the end of a line of code -- but my own experience as a web designer showed me that when I make the extra effort to follow these standards, my site earns better rankings. If you are not building your own site, make sure that your web developer is applying W3C compliance to all of your website work.

Tips & Tricks - Web entrepreneur

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