Monthly Archives: January 2009

Accidental Freelancer

It’s always interesting to find out how people wound up doing freelance work and my story isn’t much different from others except that I have a few varying twists in my tale. I never considered being a freelancer! In fact, I simply couldn’t imagine depending on chance for a paycheck every week, I really liked the stability of the brick and mortar workplace.  What changed?  Well for me there are multiple changing points in my road to freelancing.  The first occurred in 1991 when I was informed that I had retinitis pigmentosa.  Web MD Says this about RP:  Retinitis...

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Spread your wings!

If you’re a freelance writer and you are looking for (a) additional experience; (b) additional income; (c) an opportunity to build your portfolio, there are some websites that are available to you to help you do this! Here are some examples: Helium – if you’re interested in writing about a wide variety of topics and you want the opportunity to practice your writing, Helium offers you a wide range of topics that include poetry, creative writing, business, legal, family issues and the list goes on and on. One of the nice things about Helium is that you will earn...

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Great American Job Fair Attendance

I’ve attended a lot of job fairs in my day, but I’ve never been so taken back by the number of people who attended a job fair at this hour of the day! I was asked by oDesk to consider manning a table a the Great American Job Fair hosted by Tory Johnson who does the work segments on  Good Morning America. This job fair was going to be held in Boston.   Here’s the catch: We had to be there at 5am and the job fair ran from 6am to 10am.  So here’s my story: First off  I want...

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Why oDesk

Why oDesk

I have heard a lot of comments about various work at home opportunities through blogs that I’ve read, Yahoo Answers, and any other numbers of locations (including Helium) and many of them either (a) are negative about oDesk (more about this later) or (b) don’t refer to them at all as a source of potential work. First I’d like to address some of the negative things I have heard/read about oDesk. 1.  My work is monitored – I am a freelancer because I don’t want someone monitoring my work Let’s start with this one first because this is the...

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Portfolio Chatter

A while back we discussed building up and displaying your portfolio. Many of you may have noticed that my ‘portfolio’ pages have disappeared from this site. There’s a reason for that. One of my clients complained because I linked his items here on my blog and I included work on the site. Make sure before you add a persons work to your portfolio they don’t have issues or restrictions that you need to adhere to as it could create issues for you.  I’ve removed my portfolio completely and am using only generic links on my oDesk portfolio since this...

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Freelance Rates

There always seems to be a lot of discussion about rates that a freelance writer can or should charge.  For most of us, starting out meant our rates were lower than we might like but once we gain momentum we often increase our rates incrementally based on (a) experience; (b) our portfolio and (c) the market. How much is too little It’s pretty difficult to set a ‘low end’ for your freelance writing based on the experience of others.   I am of the opinion that each freelance writer offers a different set of skills and in addition they offer...

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The line between enough and too much

As a freelance writer  one of the hazards of looking for ongoing work is finding the line between enough work and too much work. It’s up to you to decide how many hours you wish to devote to working daily.  If you have regular clients with ongoing assignments for freelance writing it may be fairly simple to keep your schedule on track.  However, if like most freelance writers  you have a combination of long-term and short term clients finding the balance between enough been too much work can be tricky. Balancing your time is critical to your success as...

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SEO Mystery

There seems to be a significant amount of mystery that surrounds appropriate use of SEO and everyone is trying to find themselves at the ‘top of the heap’ as it were.  SEO doesn’t have to be a huge mystery, you simply need to understand the ‘basic’ premise of SEO marketing. SEO in Blogs If you’re trying to get an SEO ranking in your blog you first need to ensure that your blog is relevant.  Let’s face it if you have a blog about writing you certainly wouldn’t suddenly start adding information about sports right? Try to keep your posts...

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Non Specialized Freelance Writing

If you’re just getting started freelancing you might be wondering if you should be focusing on just one field of freelance writing or if you should be expanding your horizons. There is something to be said for both options, let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of both types of freelance writing: Specialized Writing It’s been said by many that freelance writers who specialize in one field (finance for example) often garner higher wages for their services. While this may be true, not all freelance writers have a single base of knowledge that is marketable. Advantages of...

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Reviewing Your Portfolio

With the new year upon us it might be a good time to review your portfolio. As a freelancer, our strongest selling points are our portfolios. So here are some tips to help you review your portfolio: A) How old are the samples in your portfolio? I like to keep my samples in my portfolio as current as possible. I typically will add new items if they reflect a change in topic, style or product. In fact I should be looking at my oDesk portfolio because while I have a lot of items in it some of them are...

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Goal Setting

The beginning of a new year not only allows you the opportunity to set up your new schedule for the year it also allows you to reset your goals. What are your goals going to be this year? A) Make more money than last year - I think 99.9% of us have this as our primary ‘professional goal’. Make a plan to achieve this goal. Set attainable benchmarks to help you along the way; B) Add new clients – are you actively seeking out new opportunities? You can only increase your client base if you’re actively working towards that...

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Planning for 2009

It’s time to think about how to plan your year, especially if you are a freelancer. It’s hard enough working for yourself without having a plan to make sure that you have work throughout the upcoming year. There’s no time like now to begin planning. A) Plan to Succeed - Of course none of us plan to fail. But the fact of the matter is that more small businesses fail after the first year. Regardless of whether you think so or not, your decision to be a freelancer means you’ve made the decision to be a small business! Today...

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