The Freelance Resource: freelance

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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.

Research: A Freelance Writers Greatest Freelance Resource

Freelancing has been proved to be one of the most lucrative professions around today. There are many fields in which freelancing is more often than not a part and parcel of everyday life, one of them is freelance writing. Of course, many people wish to become a freelance writer, but it is not always possible. To become a good freelance writer, a writer has to keep several other aspects in mind, other than the actual profile of writing articles.

Whenever a freelance writer thinks about some of their greatest capabilities and abilities, they forget one most important ability that they have, and which they do not give the proper respect to - research. A freelance writer's ability to research is sometimes the difference between their being given an assignment or not. Here are some tips as to why researching is such an important freelance resource for a freelancer.

Research Never Goes Out of Style: Whatever you research and find out about any topic will never become undone. Of course, there may be some facts which may change in the spate of time, but you can use those as more information for your article, informing the readers about past perspectives and the current scenario.

Researching is Free: All you would need for researching is a computer and the Internet, both of which you already have if you are freelance writer for a website. Also, researching on the net is much more economical than buying or renting books and magazines for finding out the required information.

You get to know facts which you can elaborate on: You may know some aspects of the topic that you are working on already, but there are several other chunks of information available out there, which you would not have even thought of. With the proper research, you will be able to find out such aspects about the topic that you are writing on and elaborate on it.

The Freelancer and Time Management

Time Management is considered to be the essence of a freelance profession. Being a freelancer not only requires to play the role of a employee, but also that of an employer. therefore, it is important that you ensure that your star employee works to their full potential. Here are aspects that you should keep in mind to manage your time to its fullest.

Time Management Tip - Stop Multitasking: Multitasking is a very good ability that we have, but only in some situations. sometimes, having the ability to multi task comes across as your bane while getting some work done. How distracting can be that email you are checking while you are trying to decipher a code?, or how difficult is getting a fresh idea for a business plan when you are avidly watching that video?

Time Management Tip - Stop Social Networking: Social networking is the backbone of several businesses today. In fact, it is quite important for the freelancer, as the freelancer will not simply disappear if they are not in contact with their peers and colleagues. however, there is a time and place to social network and a time and place to work, make sure that you do not mix the two, or you will end up having the worst of both worlds.

Time Management Tip - Take Some Time Off: Come to think of it, why are you getting distracted? Simply because you either you are not interested in the job that you are doing, or that you have spent too much time doing the work that you are doing. Working from home does not mean that you will slave over the PC for days on end. Everyone requires a break, and so do you. Once you take the break, you will find out that you are actually working better than you were previously.

Time Management Tip - Decide your work timing: Working from home does not mean that you are working fulltime. Working from home just means that you are not going to the office any longer Therefore, consider that your home is your office and lay out a timeframe to getting your work done. With this, you have a timeset for yourself, and you might begin to actually get more work done in that time.

How does Scriptlance Work?

Scriptlance is a well known freelance website. The website acts as a platform for freelancers to meet people who wish to outsource work that they have. If you are thinking how you can use this site to make some money via freelancing, read on.

Scriptlance is a 'Bid to Work' Website: Scriptlance follows the Bid on projects model. To bid on projects all you require to do is to make a free account on the site. Make sure that you fill in the entire profile so that the prospective employer can get a nice idea of what services you offer and what your experience is.

Bid on the Projects and interact via PMB: Once you bid on the projects, you can contact the employer via the PMB. In some cases, you can also send a direct private message to the employer.

Wait: Once you have got the confirmation that your bid has been posted, you will have to wait until the project poster decides on it. The wait time is quite less, as the SL community is quite active.

Click Here for Scriptlance.

How does Getafreelancer Work?

Getafreelancer.com is one of the more well known sites that act as a connecting platform between people who are looking for freelancers and people who wish to freelance. The site has been around since a long time and many freelancers swear by it. If you wish to know how to get work via Getafreelancer and how it actually works, read on.

GetaFreelancer is a ‘Bid for Work’ Site: Like every other website, to use Getafreelancer.com to its full potential, you should make a profile on the site. All you need to make a profile on the site is an email id. It is suggested that you take some time out to make this profile, as this is the only information that an employer on Getafreelancer would get to know about you initially.

Once you made a complete profile, you can login and look through the projects that are available. The projects are quite nicely delegated according to the profiles. There are separate tabs for programmers, graphic designers, writers, game designers, and other kind of work.

Once you see an interesting assignment, you can click on it to look at the details. Along with the details, you will also see the username of the company or person who has posted the job.

Communication is the moot point in Getafreelancer: Once you have bid on the assignment, you will be able to access the PMB, or Project Message Board. You will be able to give further details about yourself. This is a good chance to send across any relevant information to the project poster.

Have Patience: Many freelancers would think that bidding for a project is a long and drawn out process and there is no saying when a particular project will be won or lost. However, Getafreelancer is a very active community and things move very fast on Getafreelancer. Depending on the type of the project and other details, you might hear from the project poster within just a few hours.

Click here for Freelancer.

Three Red Flags for the Freelance Scam Artist

For all practical purposes, freelancing is a business. You, the freelancer are the service or product provider and you have your clients. Like all businesses, there is the possibility of you actually being scammed by some of your clients into giving your services for free, with them not paying you. This is a routine happenstance in the world of freelancing. There is no freelancer in this world who has not been duped in freelancing, for amounts ranging from a few dollars to a thousand dollars. However, the good news is that there are several pointers that if you know about before you interact with a scamster, you can walk away from the interaction before you stand to lose money or time. Here are the three red flags for the freelance scam artist that you should be careful about:

Trying to Contact you out of the protocol: This is one of the most common tricks that the scamster may carry, which is mainly seen in the websites that have the 'Bid for Work' model. The scamster will contact you via the website and then lure you to their IMs or the e-mail ids and you will end up doing work for them, which is then dependant only on their good conscience to pay.

Be very careful while talking to the clients on such sites. Make sure that you do not break any protocol and neither do you allow them to break any. Of course, sometimes it may be possible that the person may tell you to contact them via a mail for better interaction and then return to the website when the required interaction is done with.

Giving you a lot of work, immediately: And this would typically end with 'Payment on end of project'. Of course, even this happens, but that is when the project is only for say two web pages, or a single graphic, or even ten articles. Make it a point to ask an escrow or half of the money upfront for any projects that are liable to continue for more than a month or so. You will be much happier this way.

Being Rude: Make no mistake about it, being a stiff upper lip is very different from being rude. Why would a person be rude to you if they actually want to have a long term relationship with you? Some people are of the thought that being rude lets them off many questions, and the freelancer will not question them too much if they are rude. And sadly, this works.

Resources Required for Working from Home

Working from home, or freelancing is quite a lucrative profile. However, you should remember that very few freelancers actually last in this line, and most of them start looking for a stable job within the year's end. This happens due to many reasons, one of them being that a person does not know what he requires to keep his freelancing business sfloat. This article speaks about the hardware requirements that a person needs:

Office Space at home: This is one of the most important requirements to ensure that your Work from Home or Freelancing stint is a successful one. If possible, you should dedicate an entire room of the house as your workspace. Make sure that this workspace is undisturbed and does not disturb anybody else in the house.

A Good Computer: You would also require a good computer to keep your freelancing business on tops. With the advent of the Internet, most of the freelancing jobs are Internet related. They may be about the graphics, or about the content, or even about web programming and programming. Therefore, if you have any of these skills and wish to freelance, you already have a great market. Even if you are not from these lines of profession, a computer is a good idea to keep records, or even to make documents and such.

A Good Internet Connection: The Internet has slowly become one of the most important ways of our communication. The Internet is today used for corporate, business as well as personal interaction. With the advent of e-commerce, the Internet is slowly becoming a huge market for jobs. If you are a programmer, writer or a graphics designer, you would get most of your freelance gigs over the Internet and on sites from the Internet. Therefore, it is necessary for you to have a Internet connection.

How do I become a Published Writer on the Internet?

One of the most lucrative types of freelancing is writing articles for the Internet today. Generally, this is termed as 'content writer' or 'copy writer'. A content writer may have to write articles on any given subject matter or even create the entire copy for a website. A copy writer would basically have to give a copy for a banner, or an advertisement that is doing the rounds on the Internet.

While these jobs are available in plenty, most of them are lapped up by individuals and organizations that have written material to prove that they are, indeed, content writers of copy writers. So, how does a content writer with no prior assignments? The answer is simple.

There are several websites that offer a free platform for writers to write their articles in their name. This not only allows the writer to make their profile on the Internet, but also acts as a learning platform for them to understand the finer aspects of writing for the Internet, like SEO, etc. Here is a list of the best sites that allow for free uploading of articles:

1 Ezine Articles: Probably the most famous of the article directories. The website is allows one to make their own account, select their niche and write articles about whichever subject they are comfortable in. The writer can also prepare a resource box that will give information about the writer.

Ezine also sends a useful newsletter regularly to inform the writer about new trends on the Internet and Internet writing.

2 Buzzle: Another famous article directory that concentrates more on the fact and knowledge sharing aspects of article directories. The user gets to make their own profile and can share their profile with others. No Newsletters.

3 Articleswave: A new kid on the block, but shows a lot of promise. Users can make an account and create a public profile.

There are several other article directories that are more or less popular. Have a look over the Internet and you will find many more.

4 Skimmers Nook: Another site offers writers to write their own content and upload them on the site. This site is directed towards the writers and is one of the few that allows poems, limericks and even jokes to be uploaded on the site.

Freelance Vs Work at Home

A few years ago, freelancing and working at home was considered to be the job of those people who could not face the outside world. Today, freelancing and working at home is supposed to be only for the fortunate few, how the times have changed! However, because Freelancing and working at home has just gained popularity, there are several misconceptions about the two. One common misconception is that Freelancing and Working at home is the same. However, it is not so. Here are some major differences between Working at home and Freelancing.

A company employs you if you are working from home: A work at home position is a job position that is offered by some companies. Working at home is beneficial for the employer as well as the employee.

If you are offered a work at home job, you are employed by the company, getting all the perks and having all the responsibilities of a company employee. You are on the payroll of the company and may be eligible for all the perks that are offered to the other employees of the company, like medical insurance, health insurance, pension, job security, etc.

Also, if you are working from home, it might be illegal for you to work for more than one company. This will generally be cleared in the agreement that you and the company will be signing.

When you are freelancing, you are not bound by one company. You can take any assignments from anyone that your little heart wishes. Of course, the job security in a freelancing job is only as much as you get paid for your assignment.

Three Golden Tips for Freelancing

With the advent of the Internet and increase in communication, freelancing has become one of the most lucrative professions today. There are so many people who have given up their jobs and are working from the comfy confines of their home. But it is not an easy. Here are the Three Golden Tips that you should keep in mind while freelancing.

1) Manage Your Time: The best part of freelancing is that you can work whenever you wish, the worst part of freelancing is that you can work whenever you want. You should be very careful if you are working form home, simply because you might end up sitting at home and playing games while you are actually meant to work. Remember, if you are freelancing, you have no supervisor or peer to egg you on, and you will know the wasted time only at the end of the month - when you cannot pay the bills because you didn't work at all!

2) Know Your Limits: The problem with freelancing is that a person tends to think that they can do anything and everything. If you are in a company, your skillsets are already decided upon and your work responsibilities are given to you within the first week. When you are freelancing, the biggest problem is that you are the only person who decides whether you can do a particular job, and by the time you find out that you cannot do it, it's too late. Therefore, make it a point to understand your abilities and make the best out of them. Of course, this does not mean that you should not experiment. But any experiment that does not sit good in the realms of practicality and logic may not end as well as you would want them to.

3) Have Fun: The basic reason that you stopped a day job is because your life was getting wrecked. Freelancing is good money, but if you continue to be as workaholic as you were during the job, you are not exactly getting all the benefits of being a freelancer. So, whenever you can, take some time off... go with the folks for a picnic in the middle of the week, catch a chick flick or a romcom or a action adventure in the middle of the day - Understand Your Freedom.