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Top 10 Laptop Accessories for the Online Road Warrior

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Fri, 14 May 2010 20:51:00 +0000

Today's online freelance writers can work virtually anywhere. For as long as you have a laptop/notebook/netbook, you can turn any location that has an Internet connection into your own workplace. For this post, I picked 10 laptop accessories that every online road warrior (not just writers) might want to aspire for. These laptop supplementary items can increase your productivity manyfold.

Here they are:

1. Headphone - Some clients find writing too time consuming, and so they relay their instructions through videos or podcasts. However, listening to their instructions through your notebook's built-in speakers can be bothersome to people around you. The best way to keep the voice from the video or podcast to yourself would be to use a headphone.

For the same reason mentioned earlier, you should also use your headphone when watching videos or listening to music during your breaktime. If you work as an online telemarketer, virtual call center agent, or simply need to communicate with your client through voice or video conference, then it would be best to purchase a headset with a built-in mic.

2. Laptop Bag or Backpack - If you want to be mobile, you'll need something to secure and carry your laptop in. Now, although newly purchased laptops typically come with their own complimentary bag, they're only usually built with the bare essentials. If you want to have added storage capacity, superior ergonomics, or better aesthetics, then there are laptop backpacks or bags that can meet these demands.

Road warriors who prefer the rugged look are best suited with backpacks with sufficient paddings that can provide optimal protection to your unit. If you want to look more professional, however, you might want to opt for bags. In either case, one that has multiple compartments for your other accessories would be the best choice.

3. Laptop Car Charger - Unless you own a netbook or the latest MacBook Pro, which can operate for about 10 hours on a full charge, you'll need to pack a couple of spare batteries if you want to be fully mobile the entire day. If you find this too much of a hassle, you should seriously consider buying a notebook car charger.

These devices plug right into your car's power source (the cigarette lighter) when you want to charge your notebook. Just make sure you get the voltages right. Otherwise, you might end up with a melted plug.

4. Laptop Batteries - Of course, if you don't own a car, what use is a car charger? Most laptops only last up to about 2-3 hours; even less if you need to use many applications at the same time or have the Wi-Fi feature on, which are all typical of online freelancers. In that case, you'll really need to have some spare laptop batteries on hand if you intend to spend a great deal of time away from a wall outlet.

5. Extension cable - Ever experienced walking into a coffee shop with an almost fully-drained laptop and finding the power outlet too far from the only available table? How about checking into a hotel room with an outlet that's not reachable from your bed? If only your laptop's power cord was a bit longer.

Well, if you can't do anything about that, you might as well consider adding an inexpensive extension cable to your backpack's inhabitants. The extension cable may end up as the cheapest accessory in this list but it'll certainly go a long way ... literally.

6. Laptop Cooling Stand - I'm pretty sure many of you get annoyed when your laptop's bottom starts to heat up. Even a laptop's built-in fans can do little to alleviate the inconvenience. The solution? a laptop cooling stand. Aside from cooling both your lap and your laptop, these devices can improve ergonomics by providing better height and tilt. This can minimize eye and neck strain.

Most laptop cooling stands are equipped with fans to facilitate continuous airflow. There are however a few models that simply rely on their structure to provide ample cooling. A cool device always works more efficiently. Furthermore, without the bothersome heat, you can work efficiently as well.

7. Memory Cards and Card Reader - Not all notebooks are equipped with card readers. But do you really need them? Well, until the majority of computer users feel secure enough to upload their documents to an online storage service, memory cards will remain the most popular laptop accessory for exchanging files.

As much as possible, go for a card reader that supports multiple formats. CompactFlash (CF), Multimedia Card (MMC), Secure Digital (SD), microSD, and Memory Stick Duo (MSD) are just some of the many widely used memory card formats.

8. Mouse - If you rely solely on your laptop's touchpad (a.k.a. trackpad) for navigation, you may develop RSI (repetitive strain injury). To be less susceptible to RSI, you might want to alternate between your trackpad and a mouse. Besides, mice are best suited for carrying out shortcut functions.

You may go for a cordless laser mouse to do away with tangles and a mouse pad. Or, for optimal comfort, you may opt for an air mouse instead. With an air mouse, you can control your mouse pointer with smooth, effortless motions in the air.

9. USB cellular modem - In the past, my wife and I would make it a point to look for the WiFi hotspot logo each time we stepped into a place we weren't familiar with. Establishments without WiFi zones were then classified as having unfavorable working conditions. That meant we were less likely to stay there long, or in extreme cases, even visit the place again in the future.

That practice has been foregone since we discovered USB cellular modems. With a USB cellular modem, you can plug into the Web wherever your cellular network has a signal. With it, our ideal workplaces are no longer confined indoors. Aside from restaurants, fastfoods, and other establishments that don't have WiFi zones, we can now hook up to the Web on a beach, mountain resort, or even on a barge or boat.

10. Portable Speakers - Who says all of the best laptop accessories should be work-related? Don't stop at sharpening the saw. Get renewed strength and your creative juices flowing again by putting the saw down. Headphones provide some degree of restriction when you're listening to music or watching a movie. Besides, what if you'd like to enjoy them with someone else or a bunch of friends?

Portable speakers can give your listening or viewing experience the needed oomph without compromising your own mobility. Don't expect them to be as blaring as full-blown speakers, but rest assured that they can release enough quality sound to fill a cubicle or a small room.

What are Keywords and Why are They Important?

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 02:15:00 +0000

Most people who look for something on the Web, whether it be a product, service, place, person, or any kind of information, don't navigate straight to a specific website to find it. Instead, they go to a search engine's (e.g. Google's, Yahoo's, or Bing's) text box and enter a bunch of keywords.

For instance, somebody looking for laundry services in Cavite may enter "laundry services Cavite", "laundromats in Cavite", or "Cavite laundry services". These are known as keywords. Experience will tell you that the person searching will normally click only the search results found on the first few pages; in most cases, only those found on the first page!

click image to enlarge

Thus, if you're offering laundry services in Cavite (and have a website), you'd want a link that leads to your site found on the first few pages of the search results. This is where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) comes into play. Your website's pages should be optimized to cater to a certain set of keywords.

SEO specialists tweak the titles, headings, content, meta tags, etc. found on your site to target certain keywords. Since a typical website would understandably have limited content (i.e., text), only a few set of keywords can be targeted.

To increase the range of keywords that a site can target, some site owners add blogs and news sections. The reason is because these sections can be updated often. Each article or post can be optimized for a certain keyword. For example, one article can be optimized for "Cavite laundromats", another for "best laundry service Cavite", still another simply for "top laundromats", and so on.

Since different individuals will use different keywords to find laundry shops, it would be best to cover as many keywords as possible. Furthermore, maybe you'd also like to target people who aren't looking for laundry services now but may be interested in them in the future. So, keywords like "Cavite cleaning services" or "Cavite services for transients" may be possible keywords you may want to be ranked for.

Of course, if you own a chain of laundry shops, then you can either drop 'Cavite' altogether or target keywords that include specific places where your branches are found nearby.

There are ways to find the right keywords; that is, keywords that are actually known to have been searched by people in the past. There are also SEO strategies that can be carried out outside your site. We'll tackle these in future posts.

My First Google Drawing

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:55:00 +0000

You've heard of Google Docs. Today, I've noticed that Google added a drawing feature to their cloud-based office suite. Just like the Document, Presentation, Spreadsheet and Form tools, Google Drawing can be launched by clicking the Create New Menu on the upper-left corner of the Google Docs interface.

Also, just like the other tools, Google drawings can be shared with other Google Docs users, allowing multiple users to collaborate on a single file. That means, one can draw the eyes, another the ears, still another the mouth. Not sure why you'd want to do that though. Anyway, here's a quick Google doodle I made using my laptop's touchpad a couple of minutes ago.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Like the other tools, the features on Google Drawing are pretty limited. However, you can be sure they've integrated the most widely used ones. For instance, there's a freehand tool (named scribble), which I used to draw the head. That cloud was a vector graphic (that means, it can be resized) I grabbed from their Shapes collection.

There are tools for drawing lines, arrows, and polygons, as well as tools for changing the fill and outline colors. You can also change the width and style (e.g. dashed or solid) of the drawing/outline tool. As you can see, you can also add text.

This new addition to the Google Docs suite can come in handy for drawing simple figures. Not sure if we can copy and paste the figure to a Google Docs document though. Will try that next time.

Why so many articles?

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 11:26:00 +0000

When I was still starting out as an online freelance writer, I kept wondering why I was tasked by clients to churn out so many articles every week. Of course, I wasn't complaining. After all, their need complemented mine. For as long as clients needed articles, I would keep on earning.

Still, although my stomach was more than satisfied, my curiosity wasn't.

Hundreds of articles, dozens of varied topics, and twenty-something hires later, the answer became clear: 99% of the articles I wrote were used to bring traffic into my clients’ sites. That leads us to the next obvious question. How can so many articles bring in traffic?

Not all articles are designed to bring in traffic. But if you built a site to earn - by selling something, by enticing visitors to click on ads, or by getting hired, then your site’s content has to possess the right qualities that would drive traffic in. Otherwise, your site would resemble a store in the middle of nowhere.

This is not nowhere. This is the World Wide Web. And this is where millions of potential customers can land on your site in just a span of one month. Yes, millions. One of my clients has twice that number in page views a month, so it is very possible. … but only if you do things correctly.

Why am I still writing for clients and not applying what I know? Because, my dear, I cannot afford to be penniless for a few months just so I could generate a million visitors in one month. Besides, even a million visitors in a mall would not necessarily translate to a million buyers.

However, (all things being equal) the greater the number of visitors, the greater the probability of making more sales, right? Keep this in mind, because this is the force that drives practically all monetized sites (meaning, sites that earn) nowadays.

So again, how can so many articles drive in a torrential flow of traffic?

Think of it this way. After you publish a page on your site, time will come when Google’s search bot (a.k.a. Googlebot) will find it. When it does, your page’s content will get indexed. Indexing is the process that makes web pages easier to find, just like the pages in a book. How do you find a particular word or phrase in a book, say an encyclopedia?

You look it up in the index, that’s how. On the web, you type it into the Google search box.

If your encyclopedia has only one page, say a page that contains this article, then only a few words will get indexed. As a result, the encyclopedia will only be useful to a few readers, i.e., the ones who will be looking specifically for words found in the index.

For your encyclopedia to cater to a large number of readers, you would need lots of pages that can be indexed. The more pages (and words indexed), the larger the audience your encyclopedia can serve.

At this point, it should be clear why clients who own websites require so many articles. If they have many articles, they will in turn have many words indexed for.

So, for instance, not only will you find your way into this site when looking for "why so many articles", you can also land here by way of "how to get an odesk job" or "airtime rates smart broadband".

Smart Bro Speed

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:56:00 +0000

As promised earlier, I would capture Smart Bro speed test screenshots so you would have an idea how fast it really is.

I conducted speed tests on the following online web speedometers: McAffee, SpeedTest.Net, 2Wire.com, and CNET.com. I will also include a screenshot of the Smart Bro interface showing the transport rate, receive rate, and the wireless protocol available at the time of the test.

Here they are:

McAffee Internet Connection Speedometer

SpeedTest.Net

2Wire.com

CNET

Smart Bro

I'm not getting similar results but if we exclude the Smart Bro UI, the download speeds range from about 240 kbps to 500 kbps. Not bad, if you ask me. These speeds were brought to us by an HSDPA connection, so you can expect slower speeds if your location only has 3G, or even GPRS signals.

The varying results could be mainly because the protocol signals change from time to time. In my current location (Baptist Mission Road, Banilad, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines), which is not within the city's main thoroughfares, the signals alternate between 3G and HSDPA. We may expect much faster speeds in the downtown area since the telcos will understandably provide access to faster speeds in densely populated areas.

If you're a web-based freelance writer in the Philippines like myself, these upload and download Smart Bro speed ratings can be sufficient for your needs; unless of course your writing job requires you to watch online streaming videos. Uploading large files during submissions might also be a pain in the ass.

Smart Bro USB - First Impression

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:39:00 +0000

Smart Bro USB is fast. In fact, the fastest I've tried so far.

Here in the Philippines, the top three telcos (Smart, Globe, and Sun) offer USB modems to provide Internet access for people who want to connect to the Web practically anytime/anywhere. My first try on such a device was Globe's product - the Globe Tattoo.

My first impression on that one? - a total disappointment. Not only was the connection super slow in most places I went, it was also super slow most of the time. Since I reside in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, most of my observations have been confined to this area. However, I've also tried somewhere in Iligan City in Mindanao and still got the same poor speed.

When our broadband connection at home (I use Sky Cable's ZPDee) experienced some serious downtime earlier this week, Joy and I decided to try out the Smart Bro USB device a.k.a. Smart Bro Prepaid. So far, it has performed much better than Globe Tattoo. If the web speed meter was accurate, the device was able to breach 500 kbps mark.

I'll try to post a screenshot one of these days.

Of course, I believe the performance of these USB plug-in modems largely depend on the wireless signal in the area. For instance, if Smart has HSDPA or 3G in your area while Globe only has GPRS, naturally you'd experience much faster speeds with the Smart Bro USB device. However, if your location has HSDPA in the Globe network and not in the Smart network, then the performance would certainly be the other way around.

People who need to connect to the Web frequently will find these USB modems quite handy. However, I suggest you still get a regular broadband connection as the airtime rates of these devices are just way too expensive for regular use.

Smart and Globe, for example, charge about PhP20 per hour. By comparison, a Sky Cable ZPDee 1Mbps connection will cost you only around PhP1,800 per month. That's already 24/7 Internet access. Just imagine how much you'd have to pay for airtime if you had to connect via the Smart Bro USB even just for 8 hours per day over a one month period.

I'll have more posts like this in the future, so do keep coming back.

How to Get an oDesk Job

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn joy) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:42:00 +0000

Ever since I've embraced a life online and have found relative success (if I do say so myself) as an oDesk provider, not too few people have asked me, "How do I get a job in oDesk?" While it's not that easy landing one as you'll be competing with thousands of other providers, it's not that hard either. You just need to find the right opportunity, and then go after it. Here are a few tips that can help you get started.

Be a hundred and one percent determined to get a job.

That means being online or on standby as much of the time as you can, looking out for new jobs that might suit you, responding to interviews as soon as you can, and in general, letting employers know that you can make time for them and for the job on hand. After all, landing an online job is not something one can do half-heartedly. If you're not really into it, it would be more difficult to get that first break.

Use your online time wisely.

Don't have a job yet? Then use whatever time you have to polish your skills or learn new ones. When John and I first started as freelance writers, we didn't even know what the term "keyword" meant, or even what SEO stood for. And while we were still fortunate to land decent writing jobs and just learned along the way, the road to online (again, relative) success would have been much smoother had we known what we do now.

Showcase your skills.

The biggest setback that you will have to deal with when looking for that elusive first oDesk job is that you have nothing to show for yet -- no hours worked, no high-rated feedback, no glowing recommendation. But if you've got something that can give you an edge over the others, there's no better time than now to show people what stuff you're made of. Take as many oDesk skills tests as you can, write a blog, or impress them with your resumé. Whatever you come up with, the important thing is to give potential employers enough reason to sit up and take notice of you.

Don't be afraid of rejection.

The logic here is simple. The more jobs you apply for, the greater the chances of your getting an interview. Of course, you could just as easily be turned down by all of them, but really, you've got nothing to lose at this point.

Always be ready for that first job.

Lastly, here's one thing that you should always ask yourself: Are you really ready for your first oDesk job? Nothing would perhaps turn a client off more than anything else than a provider that's been hired but backs off at the last minute, or worse, is unable to complete the job. If you've indicated a certain number of hours in your application, or declared any skills or knowledge about certain applications, make sure you can follow through with that.

Even now, I can still remember the rush that came over me when I got my first Assignment ###### Has Begun notification from oDesk. If you're bent on making a career of online freelancing, then stay tuned for my next few posts where I will share more details on the above tips on how to get an oDesk job.

5 Reasons Why You Might Not Like Google Docs

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:26:00 +0000

I love Google Docs but there are just some things this cloud app doesn't have yet that many MS Word users easily take for granted. And while most of these missing features don't really bother me much, I don't think I'd be speaking for the millions of word processor users out there.

So if you want to know what unpleasant things to expect before you dive right in, here are five things you might not like in Google Docs that I think you ought to know:

1. No Print Layout View - This is easily the first problem that really left me scratching my head ... and still does. If you want to have an idea how your page will look the moment it gets printed, there's no way but to constantly check via Print Preview (and even this is said to be unreliable). This is a total waste of time. I know Google wants to promote a paperless world but the world's not there yet.

2. Extremely limited of fonts - I'm quite content with Verdana, Arial and Times New Roman, but I'm pretty sure many of you out there already find Calibri, Cambria, and a host of other fonts more appealing.

3. Limited image insertion options - All in all, Google Docs lacks a lot of layouting options. The most noticeable is the placement of images. The only options are Left, Right, and Center Alignment. Sure you can wrap text around, but that's it. What if you want a small image positioned a quarter of the way from the left or from the right?

4. No grammar checker - If you're hard up and aspiring to make a living as a freelance article writer, but aren't that good with English grammar (but still want to try just the same), Google Docs isn't the right tool for you. Unlike MS Word, it doesn't have a grammar checker that reminds you if there's something wrong with your sentence.

5. Can't work if you're offline - I know there's the Google Gears feature but it still has a lot of quirks. I tried to sync once but it kept on generating errors. Must have had something to do with the number of files I have in my Google Docs folder. Still, I think that's something the people of Google has to improve on.

So that's it. If you value these features so much, then maybe you should wait a while until these issues are resolved. As for me, I dived right in and have never looked back since then.

Wordpress for Android - A Blogger's Dream App

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:26:00 +0000

Can the new Wordpress for Android be the blogging tool freelance writers-cum-mobile enthusiasts have all been waiting for?

I know I've promised a Google Docs-related article for my next post but I just couldn't resist sharing the latest news in mobile blogging.

Android devices will now allow users to post articles on their Wordpress blogs through the newly released Wordpress for Android app.

Wordpress is the most widely used blogging platform, so this will surely delight a good number of bloggers. Now, aside from individuals who really own blogs themselves, freelance writers (like myself) who work for blog owners might find this app very alluring as well. Of course, we'd have to own an Android device first.

Well, assuming you get a bonus from any of your generous employers and end up purchasing an Android phone, you'll be glad you chanced upon this article.

Apparently, the Wordpress for Android app will allow you to manage and post articles, comments, and images. The video I'm sharing below even shows the app featuring the WP tags and categories field, two of the fields I frequently use for posting at Universetoday.com.

Imagine being able to post or edit articles virtually from any location. A smartphone definitely has much better mobile blogging capabilities than a laptop or netbook.

While laptops or netbooks require either a Wi-Fi hotspot or a USB dongle equipped with mobile telecommunications capabilities (Here in the Philippines, we have such devices - the Smart Bro Prepaid and Globe Tattoo), a smartphone has built-in telecommunications features already.

Thus, you can connect to the Internet in a variety of ways: GPRS, 3G, Wi-Fi, etc.

Now if only Android developers could come up with an oDesk provider client app that can go along with it. hmmmm.

If you want to know more about the Wordpress for Android app, click that link.

5 Reasons Why You Should Shift To Google Docs

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:28:00 +0000

Although I don't recall exactly when it all started, Google Docs has been my preferred word processor ever since I was first introduced to it.

If I remember correctly, it was when I was tasked to write an article about cloud computing by one of my oDesk buyers early in 2009 and I asked my buddy, Nikki, for an example. Anyway, he gave a brief explanation and asked me to check out Google Docs so I could "get a feel" of what it was like to do the usual things I did - but this time, doing them on "the cloud".

As an oDesk freelance writer, there's one thing that I do day in and day out - write. So, I set off to "write on the cloud". Along with a few other MS Office-like applications, Google Docs had its own word processor.

At first, using the Google Docs word processor seemed so inconvenient. In fact, some of the inconveniences still persist, and I intend to dedicate my next post on them to balance things off. For now, it will be all what I like about this cloud-based word processor.

Let's get started.

Data is safe even during power interruptions. I live in a city where brownouts are more frequent than in other places. Thus, unless you have a reliable UPS, you'd have to press CTRL+S from time to time just to make sure your article is safe most of the time. If you work on the cloud, your article stays there. So if a brownout hits, your article remains intact, ready to be retrieved when the power (and the Internet connection) gets back on.
Data is retrievable anywhere there's an Internet connection. If you have a UPS, you shouldn't worry about number one, right? Maybe. But what if your client wants the article submitted in a couple of hours and you don't expect the power to be back up yet by then? Believe me, it happens here.

With a desktop-based word processor, there's no way you can proceed with your work. But with Google Docs, you simply go to the nearest Internet cafe (or a buddy with an Internet connection) and continue working there. There's no need to download anything. You just launch your web browser, login to your Google account, and wrap up that article.
Data is safe from viruses. With a desktop-based word-processor, your file or your entire system is constantly in danger of being corrupted by viruses. But Google Docs is unaffected by such threats. Being housed in Google's secure servers your articles will be virtually malware proof. What's more, if your computer bogs down because of a malware attack, you can easily do what you'd in scenario #2.

Come to think of it, ever since I've been using Google Docs, my once trusty USB flashdisk has now been put to pasture. I don't need any portable device to transport my files on anymore. Again, all my work is on the cloud!
Conversion to PDF is easy. I used to write reports or mini-ebooks for a client, and he preferred them all in PDF. Luckily, conversion to PDF is so easy in Google Docs. You just navigate to File > Download As > PDF. PDFs look more professional when your writing project is made up of multiple pages. Examples are ebooks, mini-ebooks, and manuals.

If you prefer OpenOffice for this particular task, you can also write and store your work in Google Docs then download it as an OpenOffice document. Once downloaded, you can then export the document to PDF in the OpenOffice environment.
You don't have to worry about updates. Since Google Docs runs and is maintained on the cloud, you don't have to worry about patches or updates. You can be sure that the Google Docs application you'll be working on is no less than the latest version. If your system crashes, you don't have to reinstall Google Docs. It'll be ready to use when you run your favorite browser.

Not everything is fine and dandy with this application though. In my next post, I'll compose a 5-point wishlist of what I think Google Docs can still improve on.

So far, was that enough to convince you to make that shift to Google Docs?

Is Firefox 3.5 Fast Enough?

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:16:00 +0000

Since the entry of Google Chrome, I've been shifting between it and Firefox for my main browser. As an oDesk freelance writer, I get to browse lots of websites every day. Thus, the performance of my main browser is important to me. If it becomes too slow, it affects my production - and my mood.

Due to my past experiences with Firefox and Chrome, I developed two clear reasons why I would choose one over the other:

If I wanted blazing fast speed, I used Chrome but if I wanted features, I used Firefox.

Thus, if all I wanted to do was browse, then Chrome it was. However, if I wanted to know certain metrics of each page I visited, e.g. its Alexa rating, PR, traffic trend, etc., then I had to use Firefox.

I always thought I had to contend with this arrangement for a long time. As it turned out, the Firefox developers had other things in mind.

Last week, a friend of mine asked me to visit his photography website. Wanting to get it over and done with, I used Chrome. Surprisingly, it didn't load right away. Out of curiosity, I tried loading it on Firefox and wonder of wonders, it loaded much much faster. After telling him about it, my friend told me Firefox had already made great improvements, including on its speed, since version 3.5.

So early this week, I upgraded to the latest version (3.5.4) installed my most used plugins and gave it a test run. I immediately noticed the substantial improvement, particularly in the speed department. After a quick comparison with Chrome, where I loaded various websites on both, I noticed there wasn't a significant speed difference between the two - even with those plugins installed (I always believed plugins tended to slow Firefox down).

Therefore, even if a more thorough test would show Chrome as faster, I wouldn't think twice in choosing Firefox over it. For as long as Chrome isn't noticeably faster, Firefox's new speed combined with its pluginsgive me reason enough to keep it as my main browser.

Checking for Article Duplication on the Web Through ArticleChecker

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:19:00 +0000

ArticleChecker.com is the easiest and cheapest way to check for duplicate content on the Web. If you're a newbie online freelance writer, chances are, you easily feel intimidated when your client asks you to check your articles for duplicates. Either that, or you simply brush it off as a ridiculous requirement - but it's not.

Many buyers hire multiple freelance writers in oDesk in order to churn out articles for SEO. Compared to other web content, these articles (along with rewrites) are among those that cost the least. But that's also because they're mostly purchased in bulk.

Joy (my wife) and I used to churn out at least 50 of these types every week ... each. We were also tasked to edit about 125 - 250 similar articles for the same span of time.

One of the major concerns back then was about originality. We had to make sure the articles we produced as a team were 'original' or had no duplicates on the Web. Sure, all sources were found on the Web but you had to make sure no other article existed that had exactly the same sentences.

Most buyers require their writers to check for Web duplicates through either Dupecop or CopyScape. Both tools however require you to pay a certain fee. In most cases, clients don't want to shoulder those kind of expenses so you'll have to take the fee out of your pocket.

Fortunately, there's a site called ArticleChecker.com.

To use, you just have to copy text from your Word Document, Google Docs, or any text file, then paste it into that large text box. You normally use this tool after having edited your work for grammatical and spelling errors. If you have a slow connection, I suggest you copy and paste text by batch (about 400 words per batch).

Basically, when you hit the Compare button, ArticleChecker.com will scan the web using either one or both Google and Yahoo. I usually only check the Google option because, for some reason, Yahoo doesn't generate the desired results. When duplicates are found, ArticleChecker.com will indicate the number of duplicates as well as an excerpt of the sentences that had duplicates.

For this example, when I copied text from the 1st paragraph of the 'oDesk' page in Wikipedia, this is what I got:

If there is zero duplicates, this is what you'll get:

Although some clients allow say, 3% total matched phrases, others really require 0%. Now, I agree that sentences like "This part is a no-brainer" are pretty common and should be allowed to match with others like them on the web, some clients just don't want to be hassled with having to check whether a particular phrase is commonly used or not.

Thus, the only remedy is either to delete that particular sentence or, if you're really up to it, to rephrase it even if the new sentence isn't the best fit.

This site acts up sometimes but don't be alarmed. It usually goes back up after a few hours or a day.

That's it. The next time a potential client indicates the need for 'original articles' in his job opening, you might want to mention ArticleChecker in your cover letter. That way, he'll know you're familiar with the trade.

Why Many Freelance Writers Use Firefox As Their Internet Browser

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:57:00 +0000

Firefox is not just a regular internet browser to many freelance writers.

As you'll soon realize if you keep visiting this blog everyday, there are numerous applications out there that we take for granted. Many of them actually have hidden tools that can help you perform better as a freelance writer or blogger. Mozilla Firefox is one of them.

A lot of oDesk buyers (clients) look for writers who are familiar with certain Firefox plugins. These are software add-ons that run on the browser itself. The plugins that oDesk clients typically look for are those that either help in SEO (Search Engine Optimization), marketing, or simply determining a particular site's standing in the World Wide Web.

One particular information that clients usually want to know are sites' Page Ranks or PRs. Let me elaborate on this a little. When you run a search on Google, you'll notice the results span over a great number of pages.

For example, if I search for 'Firefox plugins', I get 20,300,000 results. See image above. Surely, I wouldn't want to read the 20,300,000th result. In fact, any result on the 3rd page would already be extremely lucky if I clicked on it. I'm sure most of you rarely go beyond the first page when looking for something.

Generally speaking, those sites with high PR's are found in the earlier pages. So obviously, site owners (at least most of them - some don't rely on PR at all) prefer to have high Page Ranks.

oDesk buyers who are into Internet marketing will also want to submit articles to sites with high Page Ranks. This is for the purpose of what is known as backlinks (links that point back to their sites).

As a freelance writer, you might also want to write for clients whose sites have high Page Ranks, as that generally means you'll get more exposure. I forgot to mention that high PR sites also bring in more visitor traffic via the search engines than sites with low PR. That means more people will get to read your articles.

So where does Firefox come into the picture?

Firefox allows you to install a plugin that shows the PR of each site you visit. Below are screencaps of two sites having different PRs.

This feature is available in what is known as the Google Toolbar. You may download the Google Toolbar here.

Another nifty plugin is the Alexa toolbar a.k.a. Sparky. Sparky displays the traffic trend, a reach meter representation, and the traffic rank of the currently active site on your web browser's lower right corner. Below are the Alexa displays of the two sites shown earlier.

Just like PR, the information Sparky provides will help you determine the popularity of a site. By the way, a lower Alexa traffic rank indicates a more popular site. Note that that's opposite to PR.

You may download the Alexa toolbar here.

This is just the surface. We'll be featuring more plugins in our future posts, so stay tuned. If you like our posts, do keep on dropping by. Seeing more visitors on the Live Traffic Feed on the right will inspire us to keep on writing.

Have a great day!

Snagit - Screen Cap Tool Every Freelance Writer and Blogger Must Have

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:16:00 +0000

When I got hired to ghostwrite for a website specializing in computer reviews and How-Tos, one of the requirements was for me to integrate screen captures (for the How-Tos) into my articles.

That wasn't the first project where I had to perform such a task. I used to insert screen caps on some of my posts at SteamingOpenCup and APCmag.com. However, the image editor of choice for me then was Corel Photo-Paint. Well, Corel Photo-Paint does have more image editing features than the app I'm about to introduce but using Photo-Paint was just an overkill.

Not only did it take up a lot of time doing certain things you'd normally do on a screen cap, it lacked the flexibility that I needed. When my client for the ghostwriting job I mentioned earlier asked me to put arrows on my images, I initially intended to tap Photo-Paint for the job. But after seeing the example he gave, I realized I had to research more about the floating arrows I saw on the screen caps.
I asked him how he did it. And that's when he advised me to download the 30-day trial version of Snagit.

The first time I saw its interface (after reading the introduction), I knew I didn't have to look any further. I'll show you its opening screen now, captured using Snagit itself.

Notice how you have options for capturing a region, an entire window, the entire screen, etc. Once, I wanted to capture an entire web page. No problem using the PrtSc (Print-Screen) Button if all you want is the portion of the web page that's visible. But good luck if you want to capture the entire page, including those hidden from view, i.e., those you'd have to scroll down to see.

Here's an example of that kind of screen cap on an article I wrote for Robot Reviews. Please click that link. Those portrait images are actually found on one web page. The bottom parts are however hidden from view on a 1024x768 screen. All I needed was Snagit's Scrolling Window option to include all of them on one image.

I'll be talking more about Snagit in the future. In the meantime, I suggest you download and try it out yourself. The interface is very user friendly so I'm sure you'll be able to accomplish a lot in just a few minutes.

Enjoy!

The Risks of Freelance Writing

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:29:00 +0000

It's been a little over a year since I got my first writing job at oDesk. You won't see that on my oDesk profile because the client (let's call him/her "J")ended up paying me outside the oDesk platform. That project, which entailed writing 3 articles, gave me my first income in the dollar currency - a whopping $7. =)

The funny thing was that I ended up writing with the same person under a common client a few weeks later. The pay per article under our common employer? $5. I won't be surprised if J actually outsourced his writing projects to me. And I don't regret having accepted the job either. You've got to start somewhere. I still cherish the moment when I got accepted for that $7-for-3-articles job.

Hundreds of written articles after (I've lost count but I'm sure I breached the 1,000 mark way back), I've learned a lot about this profession. In fact, I've been doing some outsourcing myself. Yup, you outsource the outsourced job. A friend of mine calls it leveraging. Just make sure your client approves though.

Anyway, I'm supposed to talk about the risks of freelance writing, so let's head on to that topic now.

A freelance writing assignment is never a permanent source of income

Last week, my biggest client dropped my weekly assignment allocation from 20 hours to 5 hours. In case you're wondering, you can get writing jobs at oDesk.com that pay by the hour. That basically meant my income from that client dropped to 25%. What does that tell you? Freelance writing, and any freelance job for that matter, is not a 'secure' one.

Still, that doesn't discourage me from pursuing this career. It's not as if that's the first time it's happened. That one's even better because at least I still get to keep a few hours. There were some clients before that really dropped me in a snap because they had changes in strategies, found a cheaper writer, or simply experienced some budgetary constraints.

You just have to move on and find new clients. In fairness to the old clients, some of them do return when they find a fit for you again. So make sure they're satisfied with your job!

Another tip: strive to serve a good number of clients. If one of them slows down, you can always turn to the others. If they like your work (and if it's within their budget), they'll be glad to up your production.

You may not get paid for a freelance writing job

Another risk is not getting paid. I've encountered this bug so many times in the past but experience has taught me how to avoid it. If you're an oDesk provider, you can reduce this particular risk by sticking to hourly jobs. If a fixed rate job is too attractive to pass up on, make sure you break it down to smaller segments. The idea is to bring down the possible loss you may incur.

For example, if the payment is supposed to be delivered at the end of the month, request for a weekly arrangement. I usually request for payment for a batch of 5 articles, regardless of the length of time I take to deliver it. Of course, if you've been with a client long enough for you to trust him, you can increase the number of articles per batch. My oldest clients, Ron and Rhonadale (they're not related) pay me after 10 or 20 articles (recently, even more!).

So despite the possibility of not getting paid and losing jobs instantaneously, why am I still an oDesk provider? ... on fulltime, take note. - Well, after one year, it's clear to me that the pay is definitely worth the risk.

Blogger and Netbook - The Perfect Match

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:29:00 +0000

Netbooks are fast becoming saviors of the computer industry.

While the global financial crisis has driven people to resist the urge to upgrade their desktop computers or notebooks, many of them find shelling out between $300 - $400 for a mini-version of the latter way below what might be considered extravagant.

The price, more than anything else, has made potential buyers curious enough to try out what it has to offer. A closer look and an eventual purchase has apparently turned a good percentage of the curious cats into contented cows. That percentage has been good enough to keep computer manufacturers alive at a time when technology has become a hard product to sell.

That said, I am just curious as to what fraction of that number is made up of bloggers. The reason being that I see this gadget as one that's best suited for them; or us ... although I still have to save up for one.

Let's just have a quick look at their main qualities:

Capable of performing basic blogging tasks - You can install and run basic office applications like word processors and spreadsheets. In fact, if you use Web-based applications like Google Docs, which are readily accessible from the Web, you don't have to perform any installation whatsoever plus. What's more, since your documents will be stored online, you won't be needing high capacity hard disks (although most of them already have them anyway)
Long battery life - With today's models, it would be easy to find a netbook capable of running in full work-mode (that means, you'd be composing an article with WiFi on as you access the Internet) for at least 4 hours. Some are even touted to run up to 9 hours.
Packed w/ excellent connectivity features - Since WiFi is a minimum requirement, you can be sure that you can access your Web-based apps as well as your Web-stored documents anywhere there is an Internet connection.
Portable - Lightweight and literally handy, these devices are easy to pack and carry anytime.
and most of all, inexpensive (considering those qualities)

Put those qualities together, and you've got the perfect blogging device.

Is There An Opportunity for You to Make Money Online?

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn joy) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:26:00 +0000

While the answer to this question would be a resounding YES (duh!), somebody unfamiliar with the myriads of possible careers or business enterprises out there would somehow think twice. Others, even armed with this knowledge, simply don't see the need or lack the sense of adventure to try it out.

When I first started sharing that I had a full time stay-at-home job (well, more like answering friends’ and family’s questions than actually volunteering the information), my answer was met with not too few raised eyebrows and the requisite “uh-huhs”, which I took to mean as “what kind of job is that?”.

In cultures such as ours here in the Philippines, telling people that your main (or only) source of income is from an online job or freelance writing online, or blogging, would really not put you high up on the “professionals” category, but more like on a level higher than being a bum or out of work.

But then again, they don’t know what I know: that you can live a life online that can actually make you well, live, and not too shabbily at that.

Before you all go and quit your jobs though, here is a list of self-assessment questions that can help you determine if you are indeed ready to embrace the life of a netizen.

* Do you possess a certain skill or talent that you are confident about?

While I may be one of those fortunate enough to have been able to find a niche for myself in the online world, I’m also quite sure that there is something out there for everyone. For those who have not yet tried searching for money-making opportunities available in the net, you may get overwhelmed with the sheer variety of jobs and prospects.

Even if you stick to the traditional online jobs as I have on Odesk, there are still so many try out for. From the rather complicated computer programming, to the fairly easy data entry tasks, from jobs for those with the creative sense and an eye for art (web or log design) to those who simply have a good ear for listening and the patience for the work (transcription), all these are just a few clicks away on your pc.

* Are you willing to allocate some or enough time for it?

Just like your usual 9 to 5 job, taking on work online, could just be as demanding. Even if you don’t plan to do this full time, a commitment has to be set and followed.

While you rarely get face-to-face with your online employers, and even phone calls are not too common, these people expect the same degree of professionalism from their “employees” or providers. Failure to meet deadlines or botched jobs would certainly not keep them coming back to you for more.

* Do you have the attitude to start “small”?

I am currently writing for a finance site which pays $8/hour including research time, and gave me a weekly limit of 40 hours per week.

This would definitely be classified as a well-paying job by our standards (and with time to spare) but it hasn’t always been this way. I started out with writing jobs that paid $5 per 500-word article. Including research time and depending on the topic, such a write-up would usually take me around 2-3 hours on the average, bringing my rate down to about $2/hour. If I worked 10 hours or 5 articles a day, that would only give me some $10 per day or roughly the equivalent of twice the minimum wage here in our area. Still not bad for a day’s work but did eat up more time than a regular job usually would.

My point really is that we all have to start somewhere. While one may possess all the talent in the world, yet this talent is unknown to others, then it would be pretty difficult to sell oneself just yet on the basis of this untested skill.

Be humble enough to start with rates lower than you feel you deserve but work doubly hard to earn more. Build up your portfolio and you will soon find better opportunities for yourself. Or, they find you.

Earning Money from the Blog, Not the Ads

noreply@blogger.com (johnV) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:35:00 +0000

Some people earn from their blogs through the ads they put on them. I don't. But that does not mean I don't earn at all; it's just that my earnings don't come from the ads.

You might want to read on especially if you're a newbie and you want to monetize your blog but don't have the traffic to do it through ads.

Last July, I signed up for an account in Odesk. Fast forward a month later, after taking tests, writing what I thought were pretty impressive cover letters (apparently, the buyers didn't agree), and applying to multiple writing jobs on a daily basis ... still I didn't have anything to show for my efforts.

Not even a single interview.

Then it hit me. The buyers were not interested on high Odesk test results; at least not as much as they were on experience. They wanted to see something in my portfolio. The problem was, I had nothing to show. I wasn't a professional writer nor have I taken any formal writing lessons but I knew I could write. Not that I could churn out Pulitzer-quality outputs, but I knew I had what it took to write the articles required by most Odesk buyers. So I thought, how could I show them that my writing skills were sufficient enough to cater to their needs?

That's when I thought of putting up a blog. I figured that if I could show them at least three posts, that would give them enough to assess me on.

A few days after I started including a link to the blog in all of my cover letters, invitations started coming in. I added one more post and another and another. Now I have 12 posts at Steaming Open Cup. Not much, but enough to get me a steady flow of writing jobs from clients at Odesk.

Earlier this month, when I read the book written by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett, Problogger - Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income (which I highly recommend), I realized I was headed in the right direction. In the book, Darren and Chris placed this approach under the topic Indirect Income-Earning Strategies. In fact, ChrisG takes it a step further in his blog: practically zero ads!

To date, what I've earned from writing jobs (which I still attribute to what potential clients see on Steaming Open Cup) far outweighs what I earn from the ads on my blog. To be honest, I haven't generated any substantial income from those ads yet. It's but understandable because I don't have sufficient traffic. Until I get that steady traffic, I'll just hone my writing skills, submit more posts, and hope those jobs keep coming in.

That's it. Thanks for reading this far. I hope to see you on the next post.

You might want to read Joy's post, A Not So Rude Awakening. In that post you'll get an idea why we ever thought of putting our hopes on an online job in the first place.

A Not So Rude Awakening

noreply@blogger.com (carolyn joy) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:04:00 +0000

Much as I would like to relate that my foray back into the world of writing and my first ever encounter with blogging was borne out of a passion for writing, and that its wiles were beckoning at me from my seat in the entrepreneurial world; that sadly, is not the case.

Alas, my story has so much more of a familiar ring to it that you hear almost everyday: how somebody stumbled upon something out of the age-old need for survival and made it big. Necessity after all, breeds ingenuity. While I’m no genius, and definitely nowhere near the path of making it big (yet), I did find a way to survive.

An unlikely lifeline

Flashback a few months ago, times were hard, business wasn’t doing good, and was in fact, nearing the point of extinction if you know what I mean. I needed a fallback and an alternative source of income – fast.

A visiting friend Nikki (whom I now see as a Godsend), told us in passing about the opportunities that could be had in online job communities like oDesk (www.odesk.com). At that time, my interest in checking out the site was more out of curiosity than actually believing I could make it a full time career. Guess I wasn’t that anxious at that time.

So I went through the motions of opening an account by disclosing just some very basic info and signing up for daily job alerts. Initially, I was thinking more along the lines of virtual administrative assistant tasks because I was no programmer, web designer, or network administrator.

Writing what?

Then I stumbled upon some article writing jobs which led me to think that there was a place here for me after all. Well, the job posts did mention looking for someone familiar with SEO articles, keywords, blog writing, social networking etc. – terms and concepts which I absolutely had no idea about.

But then again, writing was still writing, right? While I’ve been pretty much out of touch on what the world of writing has evolved to these days (as it apparently has), I figured it couldn’t have grown in such leaps and bounds as to altogether revamp the basic rules of English grammar.

Turns out I was right. But what I found out in the process of updating myself in the writing world was more than I bargained for. My initial readings about blogging and SEO writing made me realize that writing has indeed evolved into a completely new environment as I have never known before.

Blog writing in particular caught my eye as it simply amazes me that people are apparently paid good money just to write about what they think and feel, and simply share what they know. Goodbye stiff editorials and critical reviews, hello blogging!

Taking out my good ole writing pen

For someone who has attempted to climb the steep steps of the corporate ladder, and gave a good (if failed) shot at making it in business, the idea of taking on a career that simply depended on one’s talent, discipline in meeting deadlines, and determination to succeed is quite refreshing.

Of course, you can apply all these so-called virtues to other professions but the sheer burden of having to adjust to other people’s inefficiencies and dishonest intentions would eventually weigh you down. Take it from me – the “burn” expert.

Now, it’s just me and my proverbial pen, the keyboard. No excuses.