Freelancing

Freelancing and Finances: Maintaining Your Income While Ill

by Work at Home Magazine

Freelancing and Finances: Maintaining Your Income While Ill

Being a freelancer is a challenge for many. You have to deliver a product or service, handle invoices, market your business, and keep things running all by yourself. But things get even more hectic when your only employee comes down with a little more than just the sniffles.

Be strategic with your approach when running your freelance business and try to nurse yourself back to health. When you do, you can minimize the loss of income and the affect your illness has on your business.

Follow these tips to keep your business running and your income coming in while nurturing yourself back to health:

1. Prioritize your time. Figure out items that deserve top priority on your schedule. Give the energy you have to the top items on your list, that way the most important things get done.

* Make a list of the tasks that need to get done, exactly in the order they need to get done. Keep it close to you and, when you find that you have energy throughout the day, cross items off of your to-do list.

* It’s okay if you need to work in random spurts. If you find that you can only work productively for 30 minutes at a time every three hours or so, do so. You’ll be surprised how much you complete within a short amount of time when it gets down to crunch time.

2. Use a laptop. As a freelancer, owning a laptop may seem like a given, but the number of independent professionals without one is astounding. If you can’t afford to purchase one, borrow one from a friend while you’re sick. You’ll be able to work from bed and rest your body at the same time.

* Only work from bed when you’re sick. If you get into this habit when you’re perfectly healthy, your productivity is likely to suffer because a cushy bed is often too casual of an environment to inspire workflow.

* If you’re on a budget, consider purchasing a netbook. A netbook can cost as little as $300 and it’s often free when signing on for a contract with an internet provider. However, keep in mind that a netbook is substantially smaller than a standard laptop. Many times, the screen can measure as little as seven inches.

3. Focus on less intensive tasks. If you’re a freelance writer or designer, your work often requires great attention to detail. But when you’re sick, that attention to detail is more than your system can handle. Unless you have rigid deadlines coming up, put paying work on hold and focus on behind the scenes tasks.

* Consider marketing your services by sending a pre-made email or postcard template to prospective clients. Next, contact your past clients to let them know that you have open availability in the following month.

If you’re feeling sick for longer than you originally anticipated, it’s best to contact your clients to let them know that you’re feeling ill. Most will be very understanding. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s a good idea to spend your sick days trying to recuperate and booking work for the following month.

You can keep your freelance business afloat while recovering from an illness. Use these three productivity tips to keep things moving until you feel like yourself again and can return to a normal workload.

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Moms Working as Press Release Writers

by Work at Home Magazine

Moms Working as Press Release Writers

If you are looking for a way to make money every day doing just a few hours of work, a press release writer is what you need to do. Although, writing a press release takes some skill, if you are a writer, you can learn to write the press release by studying all the materials about writing effective press releases. This is not the same as writing an article. These releases are submitted to pres release directories and detail the news about a new product or the launching of a website.

As a press release writer, you can expect to be paid no less than fifty dollars and as much as one hundred dollars or more. Some customers will ask for this type of writing for less, but if you have the experience and your releases are of quality materials, you should hold out for more than a few dollars. There is a lot of work entailed when writing this type of release. You have to have all the pertinent information about the owner and the company as well as the details about the product or the new website. As long as you have a good writing style, there is no reason to work for less money.

Some customers will pay more money if you submit these press releases to press directories for them. This is a very easy task to do as long as they give you the sites or you have a list of press release sites already. If you do not have a list, you can find them on the Internet by doing a Google search for press release directories. Once you see how easy it is to submit the press release, you may want to include this with your service for a fee.

Moms that work at home enjoy doing one or two press releases a day because they take less time away from the family. You could write one release in as little as two hours if your typing is fast. You should always have the needed information to include in the press release from the customer. Then, all you need to do is write a compelling press release announcing the company or product.

If you do just two a day, you can expect to make at least one hundred dollars a day or more depending on your price. This means that you can make a great income and still have plenty of time for the kids and their activities. Most moms that do press releases enjoy the work they do because they are helping create a stream of visitors to a product or website. They take pride in their work and do not provide anything less than quality releases.

If you would like to write press releases, you need to know what a release sounds like, how it is formatted and how it is used to promote a product or a website. You should look at sample press releases to get an idea about what the length should be and how to start the release. It is important that you do everything correctly when writing the press release. Everyone in the business world will see these articles. They have to be professional.

If you are just starting out writing press releases, you make want to join a forum or two to get some quality information about how to write a press release and what the standards are for charging the client. You want to make the most money for your work.

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How to Turn Writing into a Home Business

by Work at Home Magazine

How to Turn Writing into a Home Business

Your writing hobby can pave a way to enter into a Home Business via online freelancing. You will be able to market your talent and begin a business by writing articles. You may also use your talent as a basis for making a blog or an eBook or ghostwriting over the internet. “Sky is your limit”! It’s within you to make a decision on the distance you go up with your talents. There is pretty large number of options to choose from, in order to turn your writing hobby to a simple home business.

A good market to work with: Choose a better well reputed company or certain outsourcing companies to work in. Keep an eye over this, since you may be even forced to write in an entirely new area and about new field which you may not have experience.

1. Work at Article Directories: Pass on to article submission directories and expose your skill of writing there and submit your best of the content. This will be given a better idea for the people who may go through your content in order to work with them.

2. Link to your Blog site or website: Always make sure you have a good working hyperlinks placed to the bottom of your articles. This will make them to visit your website after reading the article.

3. Find your field of writing: Decide your writing areas with which you are expert with. It may be a blog, eBook or even certain review writing.
Spend at least 1 hour per day: In order to turn the writing to a home business you must be able to spend at least an hour to write contents. How much time will you be spending on TV? And do you really earn best out of it? Certainly not! So, why can’t cut an hour of that time and spend it for writing so that you could early few bucks? Once you are done with many articles, your traffic will certainly increase more.

4. PPC or CPC : Decide on what basis you will be optimizing and publish your writings. PPC – Pay per Click or CPC – Cost per Click. Decide which will be better for your writing and earn your best out of it.

5. Polish your CV: Polish your CV in your website or any of your freelancing bios. This will be helpful in attracting the business people who are in need of your talents and writing skills.

Learning more about how article writing can be used as the basis for all of your home business is essentially an important task. Huge number of people around the world is making a big Home business just by turning their writing skills into a right path.

It is one of an exciting way to make money online and a best home business too. Another easy step to enter into a Home business is to make your writing business by signing up to a freelancing websites. Most of the individuals who have the capability of writing up content have already started to see their profit through this.

Further, in order to start a home business without spending much of your money, you can maintain and build without having a huge over head. This can be achieved through referrals and other recommendations which costs you nil. As you develop experience in writing and build a good reputation, your home business will never die down.

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Freelance Writers Wanted

by Work at Home Magazine

Freelance Writers Wanted

Start your writing career at Suite101. Join Suite101’s network of over 10,000 writers and 30 million monthly readers. APPLY NOW!

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Start a Home Business – Top Ways to Earn From Home

by Work at Home Magazine

Start a Home Business – Top Ways to Earn From Home

Home based business are on the rise. The internet makes it easy for people aspiring to transition from a traditional 9-5 or make some extra money from home. Here are some of the top ways to earn from home.

#1 Freelancing

Freelancing is simply selling a service without a long term contract. You can offer any number of services. Writing, graphic design, transcription, editing, audio creation, photography, and even voice over services can all be offered as a freelancer. Freelancing gives you the ability to pick and choose the projects you work on and whom you work with. It provides you with the freedom to set your rates and to choose when you work and when you don’t.

#2 Information Marketing

Information marketing is exactly what it sounds like, it’s making money by selling information. We’re an information hungry society and we often turn to the internet to help solve our problems. Whether you need to stop back pain, learn how to train your dog or learn how to be a parent to your teenager, we all have problems we want to solve.

Many times information marketers make their living writing books and reports. However, information marketers also create software products, or have them created for them. You can hold teleseminars or offer an online course. The key to being a successful information marketer is finding a topic you’re passionate about and researching supply and demand. There are tons of niches just waiting for a motivated entrepreneur.

#3 Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketers earn a commission on products or services they sell. Generally, affiliate marketers create a website around a niche topic. They use content to build an audience and drive traffic to their website. In their content they promote, review, and link to the sales pages of the products or services they represent.

For example, a person could create a website around pet health and be an affiliate for companies that provide products and services that support pet health. Affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative home based business. Like information marketing the key is to find a niche you’re passionate about and to research supply and demand. You’ll also want to research affiliate products and services.

Other ways to start a home business include direct sales, selling a product, coaching and membership sites. There are a number of ways to make a living from home. Find the business model that’s right for you and enjoy!

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Freelance Writers for Web Content

by Work at Home Magazine

Freelance Writers for Web Content

Working from home is something that most people wish they could do, but most do not know where to start or what they can do. Working at home is convenient for moms and dads that have children at home and want to avoid the expense of daycare. Freelance writing is just one of the many job opportunities that parents have to work from home and still have time to care for the kids.

As a freelance writer for web content, you have the ability to control your pay rate. You can write for webmasters that are looking for quality and well-researched content for their websites. A freelance writer can choose the types of writing assignments that they want. If you choose to be a writer for web content, you should have the basic knowledge of the English language and grammar.

If you have the ability to write compelling content, you could look for work as a freelance writer. Besides writing for clients, a freelance writer can write content for him or herself and publish it on one of the many websites that pay for page views or pay residual earning for page views and Google AdSense. The opportunities for a freelance writer are endless.

Although, writing for the Internet is a little different from copywriting for magazines and other publications, a writer has to have some experience with writing in order to provide quality content. Most people will want to take a free online writing course that is offered by many different organizations. There are writers that offer classes to those that are interested in becoming a freelance writer for web content.

As a work at home mom, you will have the ability to choose the hours that you work. Although you will be working from home, a freelance writing career is just like any other job, you have to do the work and meet deadlines. A writer that works at home must have dedication and commitment to the job. If you have a problem with procrastination, you are going to fall behind and miss important deadlines that could ruin a career quickly.

Many moms work when the kids go to bed at night, but some find interesting things to keep the kids busy while they sit next to them and work. You have to be able to take care of the family and still make an income. You need to be able to research and write an article that is compelling to read.

This can be a challenge when the kids are not happy keeping themselves occupied. Many work at home moms, write in the early morning hours before the kids get up and at night when they go to bed. This can take time away from other things you might want to be doing such as watching TV with your spouse. You have to make some small sacrifices to become a freelance writer with a family and still make a monthly income.

How do you find clients to write for on the Internet? How much do you charge for writing an article? New writers often ask these legitimate questions and seek answers from veteran writers. The answers vary depending on the type of writing you want to do. New writers can use bidding sites to find work or they can offer their services by making a website of their own and advertising. Craigslist and Flex Jobs also have listings in which people are looking for freelance writers.

The prices you charge are up to you, but you want to make it worth your time to write. Writing a 500-word article with research for five dollars is not going add up quickly. If you need to make ten dollars an hour, you could charge ten dollars per 500-word articles. Some freelance writers make up to fifty dollars for a 500-word article, but you have to have some experience before you make this amount of money per article.

If you want to work at home and do something exciting, freelance writing is exciting and rewarding. You can choose your own hours and if there is something you need to do during the day with the kids, you can schedule your work around it. All you need is some ideas to get started and once you make your first paycheck, you will be thrilled.

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Freelancing as a Home Business

by Work at Home Magazine

If an office experience is not to your liking, there’s nothing stopping you from trying your hand at earning as a freelancer. Just keep in mind that two important things that keep your finances healthy, as a freelancer, is resourcefulness and time management. You’d need to keep finding ways to get jobs.

You’d need to know your own mind and body’s work and rest periods, so you complete every job you take, and get enough rest and amusement. In this article are recommended sites where you can get jobs that you can do at home, and more or less on your own pace. Remember, as a freelancer, you lose the routine job hours (and office politics) that a cubicle nine-to-five jobs offers. So it’s up to you to be resourceful.

Below are some resources at your disposal. Go to each of these sites to see what they offer. You can even Google up reviews and feedback about them, just so you’d know what you’re getting into, or missing out on.

GetAFreelancer. Think of this place a market where people who needs things done and people who claim can do them meet and negotiate. People post jobs and job details, and people respond by bidding on those jobs. You’d have to create an account so you can take part.

Sometimes, you don’t get chosen for projects. After all, there are always people who started their careers in web design or search engine optimization or layout and graphics, or web content writing — all earlier than you.

Make sure that when you bid, you highlight your relevant skills and experience, and that you’re respectful and brief. It also helps to know your place, meaning your bid. Don’t bid too high if you’re not that much of a veteran.

Craigslist. There’s almost no one who surfs these days who doesn’t know about Craigslist. The idea of an online classified jobs bulletin board has been replaced by that term. Here you’ll find man’s job postings, most of them related to web design and web work. It also has many people looking for freelance writers as content is always needed.

There are jobs not so related to those design fields, so you can still hunt a bit here. You’ll meet people who are honest and willing to help.

Sriptlance. This website is similar in concept to GetAFreelancer and just as legitimate. Also, anyone who’s been both to GAF and Scriptlance would recommend the latter to any service provider, regardless if you offer web work and design, or SEO and web content writing.

You can even opt in on email services wherein your get notified via email about new jobs. Emails sent like this happen often every three days, and carries notifications on about twenty-five jobs that fit your job category. You even get info in bids and project deadlines.

Forums. Forums are cool places to hunt for online jobs. You can post the kind of service you offer, your past work or portfolio, including your professional fee and contact info, and interested parties will send you word about the jobs they need, either as part of the forum thread or as private message. A forum called NamePros is recommended, as it’s legit. Naturally there are other forums out there. You’d have to try them out and read up on feedback on posting job services there, just so you won’t miss out on things.

Don’t even think that this list as an end-all. There are bound to be other sites on the web where you can get jobs. You just have to be a tad resourceful, and maybe stubborn. Keep trying. Keep building your portfolio of jobs (if you just started).

And keep meeting deadlines and making clients happy (if you’re a semi-veteran). After all, there are no more routine work hours that shackle you. Whatever you do are decisions made based on your capacity to do the work offered and your peak work hours. Enjoy being a freelancer!

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Writing Wahms

by Work at Home Magazine Writing

Working at home as a writer is one of the largest work at home categories. Being a freelance writer has traditionally been a work at home job, and now that working at home is becoming more popular, there have been more writers in the industry. If you like to write and have a good grasp [...]

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