Small Budget Work at Home Jobs:

Like every business, one requires to set up a business. To set up a business, a person would require some finance and other resources. However, there are many people who would like to work at home for a supplementary income, apart from their day jobs, on an experimental basis. Some might not have the requisite financial support to set up a work at home business immediately. However, this does not mean that a person cannot set up a Work at Home business if they do not have the financial resources. Here are some work at home opportunities that do not require even $100 to set up:

Freelance Writing: 

Depending on your capabilities, a freelance writing job may be the easiest of all jobs for you. Freelance writing is required by anyone who requires to advertise their products or services on the Internet. Freelance writing may also be required by anyone who has a website, and requires to either advertise their website, or populate their website on the Internet. 

There are several job boards that offer freelance writing jobs for free.  Also, there are specific websites that offer freelance jobs, and writing jobs all available quite freely on these websites. And the only hardware that you would require to set up a freelance writing gig is  a computer with an Internet connection. 

Medical Transcription Job: 

Medical transcription jobs are another good idea if you do not wish to invest a lot in your work at home endeavor. A medical transcription basically acts as a writer for a doctor. The doctor may record their experiences and ideas in audio, and the medical transcriptionist would have to type up the records. This work is manual and it might not be everyone's cup of tea.  Also, to enhance your opportunities of getting medical transcriptionist jobs, you may have to undergo special training - which is not as expensive as other professional courses. 

Blogging:

Blogging is another great way to make money with your work at home job. If you have a knack for writing, and have experience in any particular niche, or even would like to research a particular niche and provide relevant and unique information, you can create a blog on the same. Once your blog is popular, you can monetize it by either selling relevant products or by placing  Google Adsense links on your blog. 

Customer Service Desk: 

Many small businesses have products and services, but do not have the bandwidth to provide a interaction to the consumer. These companies offer a work at home opportunity, where the person would have to answer e-mails and relevant queries about the product or service that the company or the organization is dealing in.

These jobs require you to have the relevant e mail protocol and in some cases telephonic protocol. Such jobs are not easy to come by, so make sure that you keep an eye open for them whenever they are available and apply.

These are just some of the small budget work at home jobs that are available. You can always search the Internet to find out more low budget freelance jobs. 

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Import Export Code for India

We all have received the email from PayPal, which tells us that we need the Import Export code to conduct our freelancing business. If you are thinking what the Import Export code is all about, read the link below:


http://www.indianyellowpages.com/support/india-export-import-guide/exporters-importers-code.htm

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Work at Home Ideas: Record Keeping Jobs

Apart from the famous work at home option of writing, coding, graphics, and web designing, there are some more work at home ideas that can keep a person afloat. Of course, the money from these activities do not make you a millionaire overnight, but you can at least get some financial support from them until you settle down on the work at home idea that fits your expertise, talents and qualifications. One such idea is the profile of Record Keeping. 

What is Record Keeping?: 

As the name suggests, a Record Keeper would basically keep the records of a company, institution, organization or even a individual. The records may pertain to almost anything that the company wishes, like financial transactions, company facts and critical and non critical data about the company, etc.  The Record Keeper is liable to keep the records in a safe and easily reachable location for a set amount of time. Also, the Record Keeper may be liable to destroy the records after a set period of time, if that is required by the company, organization or the individual.

What do you require to be a Record Keeper?

Well, that would basically depend on what kind of record keeping your clients are looking for. If they are looking for offline record keeping, you would want a place to store all the documents. If the client wishes for a online record keeping service, you would need to invest in a web space, which can be accessed only you or the organization. This would require you to have some kind of basic web designing and web programming skills. Sometimes, the client would require both, offline as well as online record keeping options. Make sure that you have the necessary expertise to handle this kind of job.

Do you require any hardware to take on a Record Keeping Job?

Because of the critical nature of record keeping, the documents have to be in a secure format and at a secure location. Mostly, if the document has been prepared in a word processing software, chances are that you might have to convert the documents into a PDF format. You can prepare a PDF document using a free PDF document converter. Also, if you have the documents in hard copy format, you might need a good scanner to scan the documents onto your computer and then convert the document into PDF format.

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Work at Home: What You Need to do It

With the growing technologies and infrastructure, working at home is becoming possible and lucrative with every passing day. However, not everyone is cut out for freelancing, and there are some aspects that you would need within yourself to succeed in the world of freelancing. Here are some of the aspects that you'd need:

Financial Stability:

Freelancing assignments pay well, but they pay when they pay. It may take a week, ten days, a fortnight or even a week. Then, there is the question of a client not paying you at all, thereby creating a freelance scam, which is an everyday thing in the world of freelancing.

Therefore, it is necessary that you at least have a everyday amount of money to keep you afloat during the initial months of freelancing. Remember, if freelancing is a experiment for you, you should make sure that you have all the resources for implementing this experiment.

Networking Capabilities:

Freelancing is all about having the number of clients. The number of clients can increase only if you have networking skills, and if you are networking well with your clients. Before you think of going solo, you would have to make sure that you have some a strong network of some formidable clients and lucrative clients.

Of course, while you are networking, you should make sure that you network in a way that does not irritate or frustrate anyone.  There are several tips that you could follow to network in a nice manner. Make sure you read up about networking before you embark towards it.

Self Starter:

This may seem a cliche, but you do need to be  a self starter in freelancing. You are your own boss, and there's nobody to ask you whether you have met your daily deadline, have you been shirking work, have you worked to your true potential etc. Therefore, you have to be responsible and try to manage your time as best as you can.

While ensuring that you make the best of your time on a professional basis, make sure that you keep some time out for your personal life and hobbies. As and when a person becomes busier, they tend to ignore family. Make sure that you do not commit this mistake. 

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Work at Home: What is Multi Level Marketing?

If you are working at home, or looking for new assignments while you are working at home, there are good chances that you come across ads that inform you about Multi Level Marketing, or MLM programs that offer you a chance to become a millionaire. MLM programs are quite controversial, and it is a fact that not all of them are viable or even perfect for everyone. If you have been wondering what MLM is, here is a brief lowdown:

Multi Level Marketing:

As the name suggests, multi level marketing means that multiple people market a particular product or service, thereby creating levels or chains of marketing. Every person who wishes to join a MLM member has to make some kind of financial commitment, either by buying the product or the service, or by paying a fee for the membership into the MLM club.  The person who joins the MLM program makes money when they successfully convince other people to join the MLM program, making the some financial contribution to the program. The person who convinces the person to join the program makes an amount, generally called commission even if the person successfully convinces someone else to join the program. 

That sounds easy enough, I can do it:

Well multi level marketing has made some people quite a bit of money, but like every other business, one needs specific talents to succeed in multi level marketing. For example, if you think convincing someone is easy, here's something that you can do to find out how good your convincing powers are:

Take a friend of your's who always has a specific drink in their mind. While you are at the bar with them, try to convince him to drink something that you have decided for him or them. Depending on how easy or difficult it is, you can get a clearer idea about how you could convince a person whom you wouldn't know from Adam or Eve to take up a kind of profession about which they do not know anything.

Well Ok, I actually am good at convincing people. I can do this:

Even if you are good at convincing people, you have to make sure that the MLM program itself is actually the real deal, and there is actually a product or service - a tangible, commercial service that one can logically charge money for - that is provided to the members of the MLM service. If you are seriously intent on taking up an MLM opportunity, here are some aspects to keep in mind: 

The Product: Many famous MLM programs offer products and services that are three times more expensive than any similar product that can be bought over the counter. Make sure you do not fall for these. 

The Maserati is not behind the door:  MLM is not simple, MLM is not easy and it takes a hell lot of resources and skills on your part to make any money out of MLM. In fact, there will be days when you may believe that you would be better off in a different job or line of business while in the MLM business. 

These are some of the aspects that you should keep in mind before you decide to go ahead with a Multi Level Marketing option.

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Your Online Profile is your Greatest Freelance Resource

We would all like to be hired with people just taking a look at our cover letter, but sadly that does not happen - well, at least it does not happen all the time. Today, along with the required capabilities and experience, there is one important aspect that even the most veteran professional sometimes tends to forget - the professional look and feel. Having an online profile is a integral part of  the entire activity of communicating to others the professional touch. Here are some of the reasons why you should have a online profile as soon as possible:

Freelance Online Profile Simplifies the Interaction between Client and You: 

If you are interacting with the client, having a profile simplifies life for you as well as the client. Having a streamlined, simple profile enables you to send the profile to the client as soon as they request for it (which they will, if they are interested in your work) and keeps you free to think about the other aspects of the communication. 

Freelance Online Profile Jots Down Your Achievements and Talents:

Even the most hardcore of professionals sometimes fall flat when asked questions like 'Tell us about yourself', or 'What are your greatest achievements', etc. With a online profile, this is a thing of the past, simply because when you create your online profile, you get time to reflect on your career and find out for yourself what you have achieved and what you have missed on, giving you the right leverage to speak to a client when they are interacting with you.

Freelance Online Profile Helps you in getting new assignments quicker:

If I had a penny for everytime I saw a interesting job but could not or did not apply for it because they wanted my profile, this blog would be a full blown website. Once you are armed with a online profile, you are basically adept to apply for the job with the most paperwork to the least paperwork requirements.

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Freelance Resource: How to Format Your Computer

For most freelancers, the computer is their shop. So, under these circumstances, think about we have to spend time waiting for the neighborhood computer engineer to embark on a epic journey to get your computer back in working condition.  Surprisingly, the computer is not a beast that has to be tamed. And I am telling you this with a rich eleven year experience of assembling cards into CPUs, changing HDDs that have conked out, and playing with software as if they were toys. 

If your computer is not working, there is a big chance that something is wrong with your operating system and not your hardware. Ninety percent of operating system problems and hard disk problems can be solved with a format of the hard disk. If you are wondering how to format your computer, here is a step by step way to format the computer:

Before the Format:

Backup:

If you are using a Windows computer, chances are that all your documents and important work is saved in your C:, which is also the default drive for your computer, which would basically mean that is the drive which will get completely wiped out in case of a format. Therefore, make sure that you take all your data from the C: that will not be infected by the format. If you have only a C:,  it is a good idea to invest in the USB hard drives or a memory stick so that you can at least transfer your important data into a alternate storage drive. 

Once that is done try to remember whether your machine has settings which have to input for certain devices to work properly. For example, your Internet connection would need you to input a IP address,  or have a specific process through which you can make the internet work on your machine. 

Later on, you should check whether you have all the CDs that arrived with your machine. The CDs will be of your Operating System and the required drivers for the internal components, right from your DVD Drive to your Sound Card. Of course, Windows has the generic drivers for almost every hardware component today, but it is always better to have the correct drivers for the component. 

That's it, now you are ready to format your computer. 

Put in the OS CD/DVD into the Drive. 

Restart

If your system is set on 'Boot from CD' you will get a message that the CD is Booting. If the system is not 'Boot from CD' you will have to:

Press the DEL or F8  button during the start up process a few times. This depends on the motherboard that you have.

Scroll down to where it says 'Set Boot Device'. 

Select the DVD drive that you have. 

Save and Exit. 

The machine will reboot. 

When it starts, you will have again have to press F8 to agree to the Windows License. 

It will then start to recognize the number of Windows installations on your machine and will ask you whether you wish to repair the previous installation. Press ESC to pass. 

 If you do not want to go through the process of creating a partition and just want your machine to work, select the C: and it will format the C: and begin installing your OS. Select the NTFS or FAT formatting, which depends on how your hard disk is partitioned.

That's basically it, after this, you have to follow the instructions on the screen to install the OS.

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Learn and Earn: Is it a good idea for a Freelancer?

Being a freelancer is an easy job, provided your profile allows you to be a freelancer, and provided that you keep some other aspects in mind. As a freelancer, you have a lot many options open to you as compared to a person who has a nine to five job.  Many freelancers sometimes get an offer where an assignment that is perfect for their profile is available, but the job requires some other talent that the employer is willing to train you in. Here is my one single suggestion for you about it:

Grab It.

 It Adds to the Profile:

No man is an island, and no profile is perfect in itself. When you worked in a company, you never knew how many other departments were related to your assignment, and how many departments you work would go to before it was finally ready for the client.  It is a known fact that some departments have the easier work while the other departments have harder work. Think about it this way, if the employer wishes to hire two departments, and the work of the other department is simple enough and gets a good amount of money, would you not be interested in it?

I thought so.

Learning another trade while on the job is a very good idea, but of course you should be ready to spend some time learning it, and it would be a good idea to tell the employer where you come from, so that if it does not work out, you still have the assignment, and what you could not do is given away to someone else. 

Once you are satisfied that you have learnt enough about your new trade, you can actually put it up as  a value add to your profile.

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Refusing a Freelance Job: How to Refuse a Freelancing Assignment.

Consider freelance to be a business and you will agree that there are some assignments that are good for you and some assignments that are not. In fact, there are several reasons that a person takes up assignments, some may be financial reasons, other assignments may be taken because it actually interests you, and some assignments are only taken as a favor for someone.  However, there are some assignments that can be a devil for you, and you would not be able to take up the assignment for several reasons. If you ever come across such an assignment, there is a typical way in which you can refuse such assignments. Here are some don't you should keep in mind while you refuse a job:

Never Place a Call about It: 

Giving and taking an assignment is a professional thing, and there may be one or more people who are actually associated with the project. Therefore, when you are refusing an assignment, make sure that you either send them an email or even a written document that tells the same. This is not only a professional manner to refuse the job, but it also helps in the documentation of the assignment for the client. This professional outlook may leave a lasting impression on the client and you might even be contacted for some other assignment later.

Use a Three Step Negate:

No person or organization likes to be negated at the very first step. If you have been asked whether you are free for an assignment,  it seems bad to negate immediately. Make sure that you at least give a professional hi hello and ask them what the assignment is all about. If you are genuinely busy, you can inform the would be client by the third e-mail that you share. 

Give a Genuine Reason:

This actually depends on what kind of relation you have with your clients. I have several clients whom I know for a few many years. If they ask me whether I am free for  a quick job and if I have a hangover, I am frank enough to tell them that I have a hangover.

These are just some of the aspects that you should keep in mind while refusing a freelancing assignment. Remember that refusing a freelancing assignment is quite a critical and serious step. If not done correctly, you might actually lose the chance to work with the client at a later date too

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Holding Fort: Being Professional With the Client.

Freelancing is a finicky business, where you will find many kinds and types of clients all through the day. There is a good chance that while the client is looking for someone who is not affiliated to a company or a firm - and therefore would charge less - they will also expect a level of professionalism in the freelancer that they are hiring. A freelancer should keep in mind that he or she is the only person who would be able to either take their profile and position up in the world of freelancing, or bring it down into the doldrums. It is entirely the freelancer's responsibility to make themselves look professional, so that they are well accepted by the world of business. Here are some tips that the freelancer should consider to have a professional outlook:

Visiting Cards/Letter Heads/ Etc:  

Gone are the days when visiting cards and letter heads would take a month to make a week to give out. With technology, making visiting cards and letter heads is just a half day work, and the impression that a nicely designed visiting card would make on the client is surely worth the trouble.  Also, with digital age printing, you can actually print out a thousand visiting cards or a thousand letterheads within a few hundred dollars. 

Official Phone/Cell Phone: 

You might be working from home, but that does not mean that if your client ever calls you for something important, they should hear Junior's chatter. If you are working from home,make sure that you have a separate phone line, which you provide to your clients so that they can contact you without the hassles of talking to someone whom they haven't been properly introduced to.

Web Presence:

Making a website is no longer that $10000 with $1000 as monthly expenses thing. You can have the perfect websites for small businesses under $100 per year, and what's more, you do not need to be a technical guru to run these websites on your own. Once you have these websites sett up, you can actually run and update them yourself. 

The Right Email ID:

You are forgiven if you have a web mail id like Gmail, Yahoo or MSN if you do not have a proper website. But if you have a website, there is no reason why you do not have a official, corporate sounding email like 'roy@acmecreations.com'.  And make sure that you right the right web mail address, if you do not have any other option but to use it. Try to stay away from those accounts that heralded you as 'bloodysaint@xyz.com. 

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When should a freelancer outsource?

The world of freelancing is indeed a very amusing one for someone who has spent some time in it. In this world, the client becomes the employee and the employee becomes a client with such alarming speed that you are left wondering as to what has just happened. This is simply because freelancers are by and large good sharers, and you will find that many clients also do work, as they are secondary clients.

Basically, the world of freelancing is full of freelancers who outsource the work that they have got from somewhere, and this creates a number of secondary and tertiary clients.  This not only increases the workflow of the freelancer, but it also ensures that the work is completed before or at least in time with the given deadline. However, it is not feasible for everyone to outsource their projects, as sometimes they can create a lot of problem for the freelancer as well as the client. Here are few aspects that the freelancer should consider before outsourcing their work to other freelancers. 

Has the Client Asked for More Workers?

Often, and this is only when the client and the freelancer has a pretty long relationship, it is the client who asks whether the freelancer has more resources who would help the freelancer in completing the work in a quick and efficient manner. If the client asks the freelancer, it is understood that the client is willing to pay more, or even to each of the freelancers if they agree to come on board and complete the work as the client wants it. Of course this would mean that the entire project budget would be cut into the number of freelancers who are coming in, so the main freelancer should consider the cut. 

Can You Do the Work Alone?

Freelancing is a world where the freelancer can easily run away, as simply as the client can, leaving the person who has contract them high and dry.  Therefore, before you take on that big project, make sure that you have dedicated and reliable resources, or that you can do the work all by yourself under the circumstances that the resource's work was rejected and he or she is no longer interested in doing it, or that the resource simply goes AWOL. 

 Is the Resource Ok?

 Everyone wants some money on the side, and therefore everyone is seduced by the idea of being a freelancer, but do you think that the resource can actually pull this assignment out with you in charge? Even if the resource has the required abilities and talents, there are several other aspects that the proper delivery of the assignment from the resource's side depends on, like other commitments, whether the resource has a full time job, etc.

These are some of the aspects that the freelancer should keep in mind before they decide to outsource their work to other freelancers.

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Respite for Indian Freelancers: Use Xoom to transfer money from PayPal

Okay, all of us have faced a lot of problems since the past month because of PayPal's problems with the RBI. Even the guy who runs PayPal's Asia branch can only say it will take 'some time'. But, as we all know that Indians are quite resourceful in solving their problems, we have once again come trumps in this issue. Here is a singlemost, important, and actually working way to get money from your PayPal account into your Indian Bank Account within two working days:

Use Xoom.com

Freelancers in India have positively got their money using Xoom within two working days, right in their bank accounts, or they can even take their money out via the Punjab National Bank outlets.  Once you sign up on the site, you would have to decide which option you would like to go ahead with. You can select bank checks, direct debit into your account, which is currently Axis, ICICI, HDFC and PNB and State Bank of India, and yes, wonders of wonders they also allow HOME DELIVERY of your checks. India, we are no longer a third word country!

So you heard it here friends, before we begin asking the Gods just how much time is PayPal's 'some more time' (pssst someone will tell you that it's more than just a few 'days'), use Xoom.com and now let the Champagne flow.

Also, keep in mind that Xoom charges a heavy amount as charge, something like $10 per withdrawal, but in the light of some information we are getting by a simple phone call to PayPal, it would be simply best to take out the money from Xoom in bulk, (say $500, $1000) together, bearing this one time $10 fee.  Something is better than nothing, baby.

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Setting the Price: How much is that doggie on the window?

As freelancers, we have more control on several aspects of the assignment and our business. Basically, we have a say in the timeframe, the way the work would be done, the resources that would be used, and of course, the price of that assignment. The most important aspect of all these is the price, because of the obvious reasons, and also because the price that you charge for an assignment has more long term effects on your business than any of the other decisions that you would take. Here are some tips that you should keep in mind before setting up a price. 

Prices are Not State Secrets: 

After all the jargon talk of corporate secrecy, professional behavior, and restricted information sharing between  corporate entities, there is one simple rule of that affects all humans: They Talk. 

Therefore, you shouldn't be surprised if you find out that that one of assignment you did for one of your bigger clients almost for free has spread like wildfire in the business world, and the more cheesy sales rep or acquisitions manager will not think twice before telling you point blank that they know that they did this particular assignment for this particular amount. 

Even if they do not, trust me, a HR who has knowledge that you can do this much for less, will never give you anything about that price. its their attitude that changes, not their handling of you. Therefore, you might just be stuck in that same price bracket for months and years, unless you put in some value add into the product.

Keep Different Types of Job Works:

That said, it would be professional, harakiri if you set about in the world of freelancing with a single flat rate plan. Make sure that sit down and prepare a list of products that you would be offering the client, in different price ranges. For example, if you are a content writer, you could break up your products into website content, articles, eBooks, article submission, forums, blogs, etc. With a little bit of technical knowhow, you would be on your way to run blogs or even entire websites for your clients. That could also be a major value add to small businesses who do not have the budgets to hire a full time webmaster for their 20 page website. 

If you are into the graphics designing business, you could break down your work into web work and offline work, and also group your work according to the dimension of graphics that you would provide. For example, you could say that Category One would have three leaderboards and two box boards and one stamp size banner, while Category Two would have five leaderboards, three box boards and two stamp size banners, etc.

If you are a programmer, you could simply close the categories into what language they need the program in, and whether they require web programming as well as flash programming. Flash programming is mainly used to make online games and is quite a lucrative job profile today. If you are a traditional programmer and have abilities to program in ASP as well as PHP, you could anytime set up your price according to the language that you would use. 

Do Some Free Work:

Stupid as it may sound, it is good to do some free work now and then. You could do this kind of free work for anyone, whether it is that solid startup that has verve but no money, or the charitable institution that would love to have a graphic, or a storybook or a nifty little website set up, or even the big client of yours who has been dealing with you since a while.

Doing free work is beneficial for your business too, as that startup will soon have clients, or that charity will be giving our newsletters to their benefactors, and of course, the big client of yours will become a bigger and more loyal client. Of course, there's also this small aspect where you can experiment with your work when you are doing something free for someone as a favor. 

Of course, you would have to be blunt as nails to answer the acquisition officer or HR department of the client that you are dealing with when they ask you for a bargain taking up these assignments.

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Five People the Freelancer should have on their Speed Dial

Freelancing is not a simple job. When a person is freelancing, they not only have to look at their work schedule, but they also have to ensure that their entire outfit is in good working order. Of course, there are several people who are responsible for the smooth running of a freelancer's business.  These people can be considered to be the invisible freelance resource.Here are the people whom a freelancer should have on their speed dial: 

Freelance resource # 1 - The Network Guy:

In many cases,a freelancers business depends on the Internet connection. In other cases, the freelancer uses the Internet connection for interacting with clients and such. Any which way, the Internet connection is quite important for the freelancer. Therefore, make it a point to keep the number of your ISP or if possible, the local person who oversees the Internet connectivity in your area. 

Freelance resource # 2 -The Computer Guy:

Remember, the computer guy is different from your network guy. Call the computer guy if you have a problem in the software, or if you want to upgrade or have some kind of software installed, or even if you want to upgrade on your RAM or storage space, etc. It goes without saying that if your computer conks out there's nobody to help you except the computer guy and you if you have any computer knowledge. 

Freelance resource # 3: The Furniture Guy:

Your furniture needs do not end at the computer table and the computer chair. Sometimes, you will need a file cabinet, or some specific furniture to place an odd shaped telephone or something. Also, if you have already bought your furniture, make sure that you note down the number of the furniture guy, because you have no idea even how the smallest of flaws in the chair or the table that you will be using everyday will irritate you to no end. 

Freelance resource # 4: The Pizza Guy:

Running through deadlines is part and parcel of a freelancer's life. There will be many situations in your freelancing life where you do not have time to cook, but are very hungry and have a deadline to meet in the next hour. To save you from making such unpalatable decisions, make sure that you keep the pizza' guy's number where it is easily visible, so that you can call for pizza during those dire strait times. 

Freelance resource # 5: The Telephone Guy:

This may not seem as necessary, because even I do not when was the last time I took up the phone and called someone for my business interactions, but nevertheless, the telephone is a important part of our lives, and it may cause some kind of irritation if it is not working. 

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Paypal to India Withdrawals Update

Hold the Champagne, the problem is yet not solved. While all of us must have heaved a sigh of relief when we saw our monies into our accounts a week ago, it still cannot be withdrawn. Here is what Farhad Irani from PayPal says:

We were hoping that our merchant customers would be able to start withdrawing their funds at their local bank by today, but it looks like this will still take some more time. I understand your frustration and want to let you know that we are doing everything we can to free your funds.

So, basically it means that the problem is still not sorted out.

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Adult Articles: Should the Freelancer Accept this Freelance Job?

The Internet is a medium that is used by everyone to make a business.The Adult industry is also thriving on the Internet, and they have now begun to understand the power of Web 2.0, SEO and user generated content. Therefore, there are several adult and mature websites that now require the services of content writers for the promotion of their website. This raises the question whether the freelancer should accept an adult assignment or not. Here are some factors that should play an integral part on your decision. 

Is it Legal where you are?:

Of course, there is a difference between pornography and adult themed articles, but you should make sure that your government and the governing institutes understand the difference. If possible, read up some law of your land, and you will get a better idea whether it is legal to write adult themed articles in your country or not.  Even you find out that it is illegal to write such articles after you have been commissioned for the project, you can always contact the client and inform him or her about the issue.

Are you comfortable with it?:

Many a times,a  person is not comfortable with writing a particular topic and category. Under these circumstances, the writer should decide whether the project is actually worth it for them. In the same manner, you should decide whether you are comfortable with writing adult articles and whether you would be able to do them. And with adult articles, we just don't mean sexual articles, or gay and lesbian articles, some of the fetishes that you would find out may be positively revolting for you.  Make sure that you are cool with writing about fetishes of all sorts, before you embark on writing adult articles.

Adult Articles are Not Porn: 

Yes, we all had our share of fun saying to our college friends that we were adult stories writers, well some of us actually were, but that is another matter. Know that most of the good paying article writing jobs for the adult niche will require you to actually know something about the lifestyle, like Cuckoldry or even the fetishes like BDSM, Gor, etc, and you would have to be an extremely talented story writer to actually make some money writing adult porn.

In fact, there are so many fiction writers who would write fiction for free, just so their thoughts and ideas would see the light of the day in the deep depths of the Internet, there is little hope that someone would pay you for writing fiction, but informative articles are an entirely different matter.

Writing Adult Articles is not just Fiction Writing: 

Working in the adult domain is like being a filmstar, everyone thinks you have it cool and only know the kind of work that you are doing. The main thing is that most freelance writers think that working in the adult industry would just mean writing fiction and soft porn, but it is not so. Most individuals would have a website, which they wish to propagate and promote, and you would be writing articles about the website, just like how you would be writing articles about a vehicle.

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Your First Freelance Job: How you should handle it

Everyone has to start somewhere, and even you would have starting as a freelancer with some freelance job or the other. The first freelance job that a person ever does is a learning experience, and depends on how it turned out, it can even be memorable. Here are some tips to handle your first freelance job. 

Inform your client that it is your first freelance job: 

There are many concepts in the world of freelancing that are supposedly known by the client as well as the freelancer. Of course, since you are new to this world, there are chances that you might not know what an escrow is, or you might not know what a timezone specific deadline means, etc. 

Though these concepts are important, there is nothing in them that should make you lose a lucrative freelance job.  If you do not inform your client at the outset that you are a newbie, he or she may take it for granted that you are comfortable with these concepts and it would not be a good picture if the client finds it out later in the day about you being a newbie. Therefore, inform them prior.

Wait for Approvals: 

 Unless expressly notified not to, it is a very good idea to send part of the work for approval, so that both the client as well as the freelancer is sure that they are on the same page. This is very important if you are working on a long term project,  because it saves on a lot of rework for you, as well as it saves the client the trouble of going through the work again and again. 

This does not mean that you get the right to slack off on the job just because you are waiting for an approval on a particular aspect of the job. Continue working on your own speed until the client reverts to you with any changes. Once you receive these changes, make them and then send them to the client as soon as possible. 

Stick to the Brief: 

Of course that thing can be better like that, but the same concept that worked in your job works in freelance, the client is always right. There are some cases where the client will ask for suggestions from your side, or decide you give you a free run on the project, but other than that, stick to the brief.

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Getting that Freelance Job: Some Aspects to Keep in Mind

Once you have decided to become a freelancer, your work day consists of several activities that are different from the actual work that you ought to be doing. With a freelance job, you are basically the sales person, the worker, the boss and the human resources, all rolled into one, unless you work with a team of freelancers. One such activity that we all have to look into in our time as a freelancer is getting that freelance job. There are several ways in which you can get freelance jobs, the main amongst them being your own network, the various sites on the Internet, and several other sources. If you are looking for freelance jobs, here are some aspects to keep in mind. 

Keep a Profile Ready: Freelancing means that you work on an assignment, and move on. Therefore, you would have to show your credentials and previous work for every freelance job work that you have applied for. Therefore, make sure that you have an offline as well as online profile, so that the prospective employer can get a better idea of your capabilities. 

Keep Interacting: Once you have applied for a freelance job, try to keep in touch with the employer, of course, that does not mean that you should bombard their inbox with email, but you can at least keep a two week window between sending them a friendly or a reminder email.  In such cases, thank you emails work the trick a lot. 

Keep in Touch:  If you had applied for the freelance job, but was given to someone else, do not fret and keep networking with the employer. there are every chances that the employer may hit you up for the next freelance gig that they have in mind. In fact, networking is the greatest and strongest tool that one can have in the realms of freelancing. 

Keep Applying: No freelancer writer has ever got the first gig that they applied for easily. If you do not get the first gig, do not lose heart and keep applying for other freelance jobs. Sooner or later, you will hit paydirt!

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Why Freelance Jobs are Low Paying.

There are a lot of organizations, institutions and individuals who have work that they want done on a freelance basis. In fact, go to any freelance website or a website that helps people get a freelancer, you will be exhausted by just going through the amount of work that is available. But as you deeper and deeper into the website, you will see that the freelance jobs that you are looking for are being paid a pittance. In fact, there may even be some jobs available on freelance sites that are very lucrative, but you are put off by the pay that the freelance job is offering. Of course, there are some reasons that are behind freelance jobs being so inexpensive. Here are some of them. 

Most are Experiments for the Employer: I have worked with many employers who either hire freelance for their personal projects, and have a small budget to start with, or at least they try to hire others on a lower budget, so that it is easier for them to cut their losses and grin and bear it.Basically, the project that you are working on is an 'experiment that they are doing' or 'something that they are doing in their spare time', or very rarely, 'it is a hobby of mine, and I want to find out whether I can make some money out of it'. With this being the scenario, you might find it very difficult to get a fat paying freelance job. 

Most Freelance Jobs are Outsourced Jobs: Freelancing was not as hot a few decades ago as it is today. That is simply because the world was a closed economy and the business organizations all over the world did not know that their dollar or euro or whatever has a lot more value in other countries. Due to this, you will see jobs from the UK or the US being outsourced to India in the corporate world. There have been cases where companies in the UK, US, Australia,etc have directly interacted with freelancers all over the world, and they offer prices that are much less than what they would pay to have them done in their own countries.

Most Freelance Jobs are actually Non Critical Jobs:  Most freelance jobs are such that the company or the organization can live without. Like if its a data entry job that is offered, it would make little or no difference to the company if it is not done,all of it is just a matter of due diligence or following the business plan to the T. This simple reason gives the businesses a chance to have a leverage when it comes to paying power and the freelancer. Buoyed by this, the companies begin looking for the most economic freelancer that they might get, and this is from where the ante goes down.

This does not mean that all the freelance jobs available are low paying. There have been many instances where a freelancer has had only one freelance job and it has been enough to keep them financially secure. Mostly, it just about the time that you spend working with your employer.

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Freelance Jobs Vs Office Jobs: Advantages and Disadvantages

Almost everyone I know wants to freelance, well at least they do, but their parents still swear from a proper 9-5 Job  that gets home a set amount at the end of the month, or whenever your employer deems it feasible to pay you.  Frankly speaking, both Office Jobs and Freelance Jobs have their advantages and disadvantages, and these too depend from person to person and situation to situation.

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages and disadvantages of working in an office. 

Advantage of Office Job # 1 - Stability: This may be one of the greatest advantages that one might find in a office job. After all, once you are employed by a company, you become part of a process, there is a probation period, and then you are taken in as an employee, and then you rise from being a part of the process to a important part of the process, from there you move on to become an indispensable part of the process. 

Actually speaking, a company must have already spend at least three months of the salary that it is paying you to just get you into the system, if you count the  day salaries of the people who have interviewed you,  the CTC of the interview room where you were interviewed, etc. Therefore, if you are employed by a company, ti would be safe to think that you are in for at least six months, and if you are proficient in your profile and perform consistently, you are in for the long haul with the company.

Working with a good company that respects its employees has a lot of advantages. There are perks, there is medical insurance, and of course, there is the salary, and a set road of progress where you just have to be good at your job.  In other words, a day job translates into stability, unless you have made a mistake while choosing which company to work for. 

Advantage of Office Job # 2 - Networking: If you are working for a company with a substantial number of people, you automatically become a part of their network. As time passes  your network increases and you become known for your work as well as nature. This opens up a new vista for you, which you can use for your professional growth. Most jobs today are given to people via a network of either the hirer or people who are close to the hirer.

Advantage of Office Jobs # 3 - Telling it as is: Working from home since the past six years has given me one trait - I can finally describe to people what I am doing for a living,without having them roll their eyes or look to a side painting trying to change the topic. When you work with a company, you get the right to name drop, and your social positioning actually increases. 

This advantage might seem trivial, but in some social circles this is quite important, where the value of a person is actually understood from what they do for a living.

Disadvantages of Office Job # 1 - Restrictive Progress: Yes, a job has its own scope of progress, but you should understand that the path of that progress is already written down, unless and until you take a drastic step. For example, if you join a company as a graphics designer, you will grow to become a senior graphics designer, then you will handle a team of graphic designers, and then finally you may come up to the level of a visualiser, etc. 

However, there is little chance that you will have a opportunity to get into web programming, because that is a totally different profile. This may seem to be a advantage to many, but to some individuals, this may hamper their style of working. 

Disadvantage of Office Job #2 - Handling People: Seriously, if you are no comfortable socializing with people you should not think of getting into a office job. In an office, you will meet several people with different attitudes and lifestyles. Of course, you will be meeting these kind of people even in a freelancing profile, but then you do not have to spend the whole day with them, whereas in a office, you will have to spend the entire day with them. 

With office jobs having such advantages and disadvantages, people are looking towards freelance jobs as a formidable option to office jobs. 

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of  freelance jobs:

Advantage of Freelance Job # 1 - You make your own hours: This may be one of the most cliched advantages of freelancing, but it is the truth that with freelancing, you make your own hours, and more importantly you decide when to place those hours in your day. 

Advantage of Freelance Job # 2 - You make a lot of Money: This of course depends on how experienced you are in your profile and what kind of work you do, but spend a considerable time as a freelancer and you will find out that with the right connections and clients, you will be making more money than any office job.

While the advantages of a freelancing post are well known (and thats why there are only two sentences for it) here are the disadvantage of Freelance Jobs:

Disadvantage of Freelance Job # 1 - You are your Own Boss: This might seem all good and nice for the first few months, but in a few months, you will realise what your bosses were actually doing. As a business owner, or a freelance lancer, it is up to you to monitor and oversee all the aspects that are related to getting the work done for the client in the given timeframe. If you slip up on even one of the aspects, you may not face as much success as you would have thought, as a freelancer. 

Disadvantage of Freelance Job # 2 - No Stability: While this is more experienced with people who have freshly come into the world of freelancing, even veterans in the world of freelancing have experienced a lull in their work. And as a freelancer, no work means no money, and that acts as the beginner of many problems. But this cannot be helped, though solved by keeping two or three clients together.

These are just some of the advantages and disadvantages of freelance working. 

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Freelance Jobs: Where to Get the Best

If you have been freelancing for a while, you will know that the more is always merrier. It always pays to have a client on the side when your main client doesn't have many assignments for you, of if your main client is not actually paying you a great amount. Therefore, a freelancer is on the constant lookout for freelance jobs. With the advent of the Internet, it is simpler to look for freelance jobs, because a freelance no longer has to do some cold calling or impromptu visits to companies or individuals who are looking to outsource their requirements. Here is a quick list of where you can get the get the best freelance jobs: 

Bid for Work Websites: 

Whether you are a novice into the world of freelancing or a veteran, you will always require those accounts you made on the Bid for Work Websites. Bid for Work Websites may or many not offer those big assignments that have you all busy for six to eight months, but these websites do offer a consistent flow of assignments. albeit low paying for the freelancer.  

Like every other site on the Internet, you should be careful about what kind of people you are dealing with, and should know that the world of Freelancing is fraught with risks and scams and Bid for Work websites have their fair share of scammers, but more often than not, you will find genuine people trying to make a decent living. 

Job Portals:  

This may seem surprising, but nowadays there are many mainstream job portals that are inviting people to apply for temporary jobs, or work at home profiles that are open in companies. These kind of jobs basically come up when a company has a short time use of a certain profile and are not sure whether they would be able to retain them on a permanent basis. Such a situation sees its roots in the fact that more and more companies are outsourcing some of their services and products to other, smaller known companies.

Networking:

Of course, the best freelance gigs that you can ever get is via networking. This is simply because the people whom you network with will already know the quality of the work that you will or are capable of providing, and therefore the work will already be tailormade for you. With networking jobs, you do not need to bargain, simply because the person know sabout you, and with the right job, it may even become a long time affair.

These are some of the best places where you can look around for freelance jobs. Before going on any of these sites, make sure that you have your profile and resume ready.A crisp resume is sometimes the major thing that stands between you and that freelance job that you are looking for.

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Multitasking: The Bane of Freelancing

Keeping in mind everything that the GUI has given mankind, you cannot but curse the GUI for giving one ability to the entire population of people who use computers - multitasking.  While multitasking has its own advantages and in fact, it is supposed to be one of the best aspects that a hardcore computer can have, multitasking has its own disadvantages for the freelancer. Here are just some of the disadvantages that multitasking can have for a freelancer. 

Disturbance:

Whenever a freelancer works, it is a given that there will be three to four windows open on the computer. If it is a writer, they will have their research sites and the word processing software, a graphic artist will have references and a graphic software, while a programmer will have ten thousand code windows open. All these windows in all three scenarios do not cause problems, but it is the other window that causes a problem. With multitasking, the writer may lose his flow if he decides to play a game of Solitaire, the graphic artist may forget the right color combination while they are busy poking someone online, while the programmer would just have to shut down the computer and walk away even if he loses one component of the code.  It is a well known fact that multitasking can disturb a freelancer, but the level of disturbance can be so high, that the person might just stop working for the day because of something interesting that they found on the Internet.

Distribution of Resources: 

Another important reason as to why the freelance should not multitask is that it simply distributes their important resources like concentration and other physical resources like sight sound, typing etc. Because of the distribution of resources, there is a increased chance of errors or mistakes in the assignments that they are working on. These errors may be as simple as typos that are overlooked, or code that has not been rightly closed down. Seriously, erroneous assignments have ended more freelance careers as compared to non submission of assignments.

Increased Time: 

Basically, multitasking is a lose lose situation for the freelancer in the short as well as the long run. If the freelance starts mutlitasking, they will start spending more time on the assignments than actually needed, and this will actually create a situation where the person has a lot of work, but simply does not have the time to do it.  This will also cause the deadlines of the assignment to 'whoosh by them', which will also cause the ripe assignments to fly away from them too.

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The Freelance Resource: Setting your Own Price

Working as a freelance basically means that you are your own boss, and work when you want it and how you want it. However, there are some disadvantages of being your own boss, and just one of them is that you have to set the price of the services that you offer on your own. There is not Human Resources, no Project Manager, no CEO, nobody. This is just you and the client,and whatever you say will be the final word for the client. Of course, it is after this that the client will decide whether the price that you are quoting is feasible for them or not. Here are some tips on how to set your own price. 

Never Set your Price, but the Price of the Service Rendered: When you are talking to a client, make sure that it is always about the price of your time that you would be putting in for the project, not a general calculation that you offer on a per hour basis.  Of course, you would have to decide on the time on basis of whether you would have to put some more resources to complete the job, and whether how much time it would actually take for you to complete the project, and many other such aspects.

Try to Gauge the Budget that the Client would be Willing to Pay: If you have had a few freelance gigs, you would by now know the type of money that is paid for this kind of work. Try to gauge the amount that is normally paid in the market for that kind of work.  This will not only help you in cracking the deal, but also give you an idea of the market rates for the said project.

Look at the Competition: Another good idea to set your own price would be to look at the competition and find out what they would or are charging. It would be foolish for you to either overcharge or undercharge drastically as compared to your peers.

These are just some of the aspects that you should keep in mind while setting up a price for any assignment that you get as a freelancer. 

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PayPal Update: Freelancers Get their Money Back into Accounts.

When we checked our Paypal accounts today, the money has come back into our PayPal account.  Of course, the problem has not yet been solved, because we still have to find out a way as to how to get the PayPal account money into our Indian Accounts now. But at least PayPal has begun answering the queries of the people all around the world. With PayPal showing the amount in the account of the Freelancers, I can just hear the deep sigh of relief all around India. 

PS: Hold those resumes yet. 

You can read the entire thing here:

https://www.thepaypalblog.com/

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Content Writing: One Good Freelance Profile

With freelancing becoming a lucrative and prominent part of the business world, there are many people with different core abilities that look for ways to freelance. Actually speaking, it is possible for some profiles to work on a freelance basis, and not possible for some. One profile that can work very easily as a freelancer is a content writer. 

So, what is a content writer?

A content writer is basically a person who can put a sentence together that makes sense. Well, more than that, actually. A content writer is someone who writes for the Internet, in many ways. They can be writing articles, website content, blog posts, blogs, press releases, etc, basically every alphabet that you read on the Internet is written by a content writer.

Can a content writer work as a freelancer?

Actually speaking, the content writer post might be easiest to fill up for a company if they are looking for a freelancer for their content writing needs. Basically, a content writer is either a subject matter expert or knows how to research and find information on a particular subject and put it in a concise and simple,web worthy manner. Therefore, the content writer can work from almost anywhere in the planet, home, office, the cafe. etc. 

Ok, but can ALL content writers work from home?

Well, actually what kind of work the content writer is doing also depends on the type of content that they are writing for their client. If the person is writing website content, they may have to interact with the client and even work with the graphics department. so that the website comes up just like how the client is looking for.  However, if the content writer is an article writer, the need to interact and meet would decrease to a great level.

And where does a content writer get the work?

A content writer gets work like any other freelancer. The content writer can first tap their network to look for any people who want some content written, or even look at the job boards on the Internet. There are several companies that require content writing for a short term basis and would not want to invest in a content writer position in their companies. Such companies hire freelancers for a short term basis. 

Also, there are several Bid for Work websites that offer work for all kinds of freelancers, right from freelance coders to freelancer graphic designers and writers.

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