I set up a fan page in Facebook for the specific purposes of promoting work at home and charitable work. I am encouraging you to join us on that fan page! As an added incentive, if you join before 2/28/10 I’ll add your name to a drawing for all fans for the month of February and you can win a $25 gift certificate to Kiva. Kiva will then allow you to use that gift certificate to be a Kiva Lender!

It is our plan to do this contest every month! Have some fun and get involved!

It’s fun, it’s fast and there’s no catch!  Here’s the Facebook Fan page

For those who are freelancing, a blog can be an extremely important tool to help promote yourself. Bloggers who are also freelancers, can not only add to their income, they can promote their businesses more effectively. Blogs are also an important tool in ensuring that you are paid for work that you produce.

Why blogs matter

First, we will take a look at blogs for freelance writers. For those who are freelancing full-time, you probably have numerous clients. Some clients you may have been dealing with for a long time. But for those who are freelancing and pick up the “odd” client here and there, a blog can be extremely important in ensuring you receive payment.

You might be wondering why a blog would have anything to do with receiving payment. It’s actually quite simple. Let’s assume for just a moment that you are hired to do a job and you have agreed with the buyer to be paid after the job is complete. Once you send your written material to the buyer, you have no guarantee of payment. The most effective way to deal with this is to post the material on the blog, send the link to the buyer, and advise them that once payment is received you will remove the material from your blog and send them the files.

continue reading "Freelancing Blogs|Blogs are important for freelancers"

One of the most common complaints among freelance writers and other freelancers is the issue of low-paying positions. This is especially true for those who are involved in online freelance sites such as Elance, oDesk, etc.

This becomes especially challenging when you are dealing with providers with no experience and provide us with extensive experience. The below pay rate war wages on in forums, between providers, and between buyers.

For buyers, it stands to reason that the lowest rate they can pay and still get quality work makes sense from a business standpoint. However, in many instances you get exactly what you pay for. This isn’t to say that those who work for low rates are always low quality. However, if you are not willing to pay a reasonable rate for work, you have no right (in my opinion) to complain about work quality.

For providers (that is a freelancer of any type), their rates must be substantial enough to earn a living, yet low enough to compete with their peers. One of the many challenges is the fact that while $5 per hour may be unreasonable in the United States, in other parts of the world it is more than reasonable.

So how do you win the low pay war?

The first rule of thumb is to always make sure that your buyer understands exactly what he is getting for your higher rate. It’s important to note that with the number of article sites online, there are thousands of pages of available content. In many cases, freelance writers are willing to provide articles for very low rates. Offering value for the money, may be the only way you can stand out.

continue reading "Winning the Low Pay War"

Discussions regularly occur with people wondering how much money is possible to make doing freelance writing. There are some things that are really important to remember first being not every person is capable of making the same thing. Not every freelance writer is capable of creating identical documents. People create their content based on their personal experience, their existing knowledge, and their research.

As if you needed proof of that, I would encourage you to go to Helium’s website and type in the words work at home in the search feature and see what happens. You will find hundreds of articles from hundreds of different writers each with specific experiences, writing styles, and opinions.

A freelance writer who specializes in a niche such as finance, medicine, or technology is far more likely to earn more than somebody who specializes in writing about more generic topics. Clients are not only looking at the level of experience, they are also looking at the type of work that they need completed. While one job may pay $.02-$.03 per word, another job may not pay more than one cent per word. Some buyers are perfectly happy to pay a fair hourly rate, while others will want you to prepare “original, grammar error free, spelling error-free,” articles for one dollar.

One of the challenges often faced by brand new freelance writers is where to set their rates.  As unfair as this may sound, a brand-new freelance writer will have a little more difficulty landing a good assignment than an established freelancer. However, there are things you can do to ensure that you can start off at a fair rate and start fairly quickly.

continue reading "Freelance Writing Earnings"

Although freelancing isn’t for everyone, it does not necessarily have to be something that frightens you off. Simple common sense would tell you that if you currently have a full-time job, you would not leave that job to freelance without having to firm freelance jobs lined up.

The fact remains, that if you are a full-time freelancer, or if you are laid off from your current job freelancing does not have to be frightening. There are many ways that you can ensure that you can avoid some of the things that can make freelancing a frightening experience.

Gaps in work

Regardless of how well-established you are as a freelancer, you will almost always experienced some gaps in your work. This does not mean that you cannot continue earning during this time. There are so many opportunities for freelance writers to earn additional money that gaps in work should be viewed as an opportunity. Some examples of this include a blog that is monetized using AdSense, HubPages, Squiddo, and Helium. Each of these options are literally free to use, and can provide income.

While this income may not be in line with your normal hourly rate, proper promotion, commitment, and exploring all options can certainly help you through some dry spells. The fact remains, that most established freelancers have very little downtime between assignments. In fact, more and more freelancers have opportunities to work for the same client for extended periods of time.

continue reading "Frightened of Freelancing?"