There are a few ways that bloggers make money:

(1). The most common way for bloggers to make money is through ads. When blogging first started, Adsense and Blogads were the way to create income. But since that time loads of other ways have emerged. Some of these are Chitika’s eMinimalls, Adbrite, Adgena, AVN, and many more.

(2). Sponsorships are another way to earn money with your blog. Once a few bloggers and a few companies figured out how lucrative this could be for both sides, it was on from there. They found it was an excellent way to advertise and to sell.

(3). Another way is through affiliate programs. By signing up with affiliate programs like Amazon or Clickbank, you can advertise and sell their products on your blog for a commission. If you’re a good marketer, this can be a very lucrative way for you to go.

(4). You can sell and advertise ’services’ as well and make money. These would be things like eBooks and tele-seminars or marketing courses.

(5). You can write for other people’s blogs. Lots of people who have blogs don’t do their own writing. You can write and post for them and earn yourself some money that way. If you’re good with SEO (Search Engine Optimization), then it might pay you to look into this.

(6). Some blogs operate strictly on a ‘donation’ basis. They leave it up to their visitors to leave something if they find any value in what they read or their experience on the blog. They put on a lot of free stuff, and then depend on charity for how much they own.

(7). Then you can sell retail. Blogs have become a popular way of selling retail items. Anything from T-shirts to kitchenware can be found on a blog. A blog is just a dynamic way to advertise practically anything.

(8). Consulting is another form of revenue earning on blogs. If someone is an expert on something, then they can set up a blog and interact with people and give advice and charge a fee. Most bloggers always try to come across as an expert in their niche, so keep an eye out for the so-called ‘experts’ in any given field.

Anyway, these are just a few of the ways you can make money blogging. If you’ve never tried blogging you owe it to yourself to see if you’re any good. Who knows, after a while you may be able to quit your regular job and make a better living blogging, and have more fun as well.

I took a look at TaskCity, one of the newer platforms for matching professional freelancers with outsourced projects.  This free market for freelancers and employer services is focused squarely on the following categories of work:

• Web Development
• Software Development
• Networking & Information Systems
• Graphic Arts & Design

I didn’t really find any projects related to writing, marketing or administrative services, so please note that this platform is not suited to every type of freelancer at this point in time. From browsing the site, the greatest number of existing project listings appear to be technical in nature.

When you first use any project-matching service, it pays to describe your best professional and personal attributes in your profile. Promote your relevant education, training and experience, upload samples of your work, link to your portfolio, and even speak to your working style and personality. By perfecting your profile, you will increase your chances for winning your first project within the service. And once you do score that first job, each additional project will be easier to win, since you’ll have some new credibility via favorable ratings and referrals from project employers.

Once your profile is set, searching for projects on TaskCity is quite easy. From a usability point of view, the interface is clean and it provides good flexibility for searching on a number of important dimensions. Once you find an appealing project (there are over 1500 open projects at the time of writing), you can submit your bid and proposal. If all works out well, the employer will choose your services and pay through TaskCity’s escrow-like payment system. This payment method provides a level of credibility and trust to the system, and is crucial when matching people who probably have not met face-to-face or interacted previously.

There is no cost to register for TaskCity, and the only fees are related to actual transactions between buyer and seller. If you’re a technical freelancer looking for new avenues to find work, it couldn’t hurt to give this service a test run to try and win new business.

How It Works
Install is a quick and painlessly delivered through the Adobe AIR system. Just a couple clicks and less than a minute later, we’re ready to go. When you startup the software, GTime asks you to enter your Google account login credentials. From there onward you can create new timesheets or access existing ones. For a website redesign project I’m working on, I found it best to correlate one ‘timesheet’ to that unique project and client. This timesheet is stored on Google’s servers as a spreadsheet, and its individual records are accessible either through the GTime software or direct on the web in your Google account.

There are two options for creating and categorizing a timed task, which I did today for creating a new website logo for the project. The first option and easiest for my style is to use GTime’s simple start / pause / stop timer. The ’start task’ button helps you track timed tasks as you work on them, and immediately lets you enter that time record into your timesheet when you click ’stop’. The entry I made showed the date, hours spent (1.45), and let me add a category (Graphic Design) and a task note (logo redesign for client X). The second option is to view all task records for a timesheet, and manually create and/or update the record of your choice. This works well for recording time spent away from your computer, like at a client meeting.

One of the nice features that I enjoy is the reporting module. For each project, you can get a weekly or monthly view of how much time you’ve spent within each category of work. For my web redesign project, I know that coding isn’t my strongest area of work, and it’s hours are disproportionately large vs. my graphic design category. With this report, I can use accurate time data to make an informed decision on whether or not to outsource development for future projects.

Recommendation
Overall, this utility does the trick for me – it saves me time from my current spreadsheet-input process, and is much cheaper than the competition at $20 USD for a single lifetime license.

I definitely recommend this tool for the individual freelancer who needs a better way to manage their time. Whether you’re billing clients by hour, or merely want to see an overview of where your time is spent in a given week, the 14-day trial of GTime is definitely worth a shot. You can download the free trial at http://gtimetracking.com and give it a whirl.

Product Features

• Software works on PC, Mac and Linux platforms
• Very fast install with no server software
• Secure and reliable, with smooth usability
• Start / pause / stop tray timer for recording tasks
• Immediate and automatic synchronization between Google and GTime
• Lowest-cost option vs. the competition
• Leverage all the features offered by Google Docs
  • Export your timesheets from Google to Excel, Open Office, PDF, CSV, HTML, Text
  • Ability to share timesheets publicly, or privately with other Google users
  • Automatic timesheet backup and versioning

If you’d like to learn more about the author of GTime Tracking, check out freelancer Nicholas Bilyk’s blog.

1. select categories, wait for a page to load
2. select a subcategory, wait for another page to load
3. check out products
4. click to go to desired product

The typical web user only wants to click once or twice to get to the product they want. And if clicks are unavoidable, make sure page loads are minimized! The more clicks and the more page loading they have to go through, the higher the risk they will get lost and never come back to your site. The good news is that you can achieve a good navigation menu that reduces page reloads.

This article is an in-depth tutorial on how you can achieve an expandable navigation menu using valid xhtml coding, valid css and a bit of javascript.

The concept

In order to achieve a fully functional menu for our huge website, we need one that will enable users to choose a category or subcategory in a timely manner, then browse hassle-free for the product they like. In Part 1 of the tutorial, we will create a horizontal bar that contains all the main categories of the products our customer is selling. This menu bar will expand so users will see all sub-categories. In Part 2 of the article, we’ll create the functionality where clicking on a sub-category will trigger an overlay that displays a list of the individual products.

In the image above there’s a sketch of what the site layout should be. We have the menu bar, right under the menu comes a header that can contain images, paragraphs of text, news. You get the picture. Then comes the content area. The menu will expand and push the header together with all elements that come after it down the page, as you can see in the following image.

Sneak peak at what we’re building here

Just in case you cannot wait for the end of the article, just check out the demo over here.

Coding the HTML and CSS

The navigation bar will consist of an unordered list. I have chosen this tag because menus contain lists, therefore an unordered list is the best way to go for this. The part of the menu that will slide will be contained by a div, each item in the navigation menu having a separate div for its information. We will have the header and the content section also contained in a div. Here’s a view on the XHTML structure.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd”> <html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” xml:lang=”en” lang=”en”> <head> <!– head meta tags, css , javascript links will be here–> </head> <body> <div id=”wrapper”> <!– used only for cosmetic purposes. IE: The site background image in the top –> <ul id=”menu” class=”all-rounded”> <!– the menu ul I talked about. all-rounded class will round the corners –> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>home</a></li> <li><a target=”_self” >cleaning</a></li> <li><a target=”_self” >cooking</a></li> <li><a target=”_self” >gardening</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>about us</a></li> </ul> <div class=”menu-extend cleaning”> <!– extended menu div –> <ul> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Pressure Washers</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Pressure Washers Accessories</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Hoses and Water Fittings</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Water Pumps</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Dry Vacuums</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Wet Vacuums</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Industrial Vacuums</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Specialist Vacuums</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Vacuum Cleaner Bags</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Steamers</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Scrubber Dryers</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Buffers</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Floor Care Chemicals</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Carpet Care Chemicals</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Carpet Cleaning Machines</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Trolleys</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Household Cleaning Chemicals</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Vehicle Cleaning Chemicals</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Cleaning Equipment</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Brooms and Brushes</a></li> <li><a href=”" target=”_self”>Interchange System</a></li> </ul> <span class=”clear”>&nbsp;</span> </div> <div class=”menu-extend cooking”> <!– same as above div –> expanded menu goes in here for cooking <span class=”clear”>&nbsp;</span> </div> <div class=”menu-extend gardening”> expanded menu goes in here for gardening <span class=”clear”>&nbsp;</span> </div> <div id=”header”> <!– header div with an image –> <img src=”images/header.jpg” width=”900″ height=”200″ alt=”Header” /> </div> <div id=”content”> <!– finally the content area –> <h1>Fancy menu</h1> <p> Fancy menu info goes here </p> </div> </div> </body> </html>

I chose to round up the corners of the menu. To create this effect we will use some CSS level 3 and browser specific markup. The navigation bar will also have vertical separators between the items. The separator is consisted of two different lines, each with a custom color. We won’t use images for the separators. Instead we will use the css border property. Each list item in the navigation bar will have a 1px solid left border, and a 1px solid right border. The first element in the list and the last one won’t have the left border, and right border respectively. Here’s the html markup of the modified list, to reflect that there won’t be the above mentioned borders, and the css code:

<ul id=”menu” class=”all-rounded”> <li class=”no-left-border”><a href=”" target=”_self”>home</a></li> <li><a target=”_self” >cleaning</a></li> <li><a target=”_self” >cooking</a></li> <li><a target=”_self” >gardening</a></li> <li class=”no-right-border”><a href=”" target=”_self”>about us</a></li> </ul>
.all-rounded { border-radius:9px; -moz-border-radius:9px; -webkit-border-radius: 9px; } /* these are the rounded corners */ #menu { display:block; margin:0px auto; width:898px; border:1px solid #DD4CAB; height:48px; background:url(’../images/menu_bg.jpg’) repeat-x; color:#DD4CAB; } /* ul style */ #menu li { display:block; width:178px; height:48px; line-height:48px; float:left; text-align:center; border-right:1px solid #DD4CAB; border-left:1px solid #AD3B87; } /* li items style */ #menu li.no-left-border { border-left-style:none; } /* no border as we said */ #menu li.no-right-border { border-right-style:none; }

Because I chose to round the corners of the menu, there are some issues while hovering the menu items, so the links that are held by the li items will have to have rounded corners as well. The first link in the menu will have rounded corners on the left side, while the last one will have rounded corners on the right side. Here’s the code for that:

#menu li a { display:block; height:48px; color:#DD4CAB; text-decoration:none; } #menu li a:hover { display:block; height:48px; color:#DD4CAB; text-decoration:none; background:url(’../images/menu_bg_hover.jpg’); } #menu li.no-left-border a:hover { border-top-left-radius:9px; border-bottom-left-radius:9px; -moz-border-radius-topleft:9px; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft:9px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius:9px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius:9px; } #menu li.no-right-border a:hover { border-top-right-radius:9px; border-bottom-right-radius:9px; -moz-border-radius-topright:9px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright:9px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius:9px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius:9px; }

Coding the behavior of the menu using jQuery

I am not going to reinvent the wheel here, but jQuery seems to be the best javascript framework out there. If you’re not familiar to jQuery you can find some great tutorials and examples over here.

Javascript for menus? Are you insane!

Some people out there say you must not use javascript for navigation under any circumstances. I am sorry guys, but if you write your code professionally, using javascript for menus can seriously enhance your site’s functionality. The trick they’re talking about is what do you do when javascript is unavailable in the visitors browsers? Well, you have to code your menu in such a way it has progressive enhancement and works just fine if javascript is off. And yes, this menu achieves progressive enhancement. If javascript is turned off, the menu will be directly visible, including the part that should slide when needed. Nothing is inaccessible. Moreover, search engine’s bots will see the site just as if they were a visitor without javascript, so search engine optimization is preserved if using this menu.

Let’s get down to the jQuery

jQuery uses html IDs and classes to identify elements in the html page that it needs to work with. Our menu currently has unique ID, but the “cleaning”, “cooking” and “gardening” links don’t, so we add a class for each of them. The classes are unique too.

<ul id=”menu” class=”all-rounded”> <li class=”no-left-border”><a href=”" target=”_self”>home</a></li> <li><a target=”_self” class=”cleaning-but”>cleaning</a></li> <li><a target=”_self” class=”cooking-but”>cooking</a></li> <li><a target=”_self” class=”gardening-but”>gardening</a></li> <li class=”no-right-border”><a href=”" target=”_self”>about us</a></li> </ul>

In order to achieve progressive enhancement, we must first disable javascript and load the menu page. So far, due to our code the menu displays in its entirety, including the part that in a few minutes will slide beautifully if javascript is on. But if it has to slide, it has to be hidden first, and this is the trick we pick out from our sleeves. The first thing we’re to do with jQuery is to hide the sliding part of the menu. By doing this, people having javascript turned on will not see the menu until they click to expand it. They will only see the menu bar. Here’s the jQuery code needed to achieve this:

$(’.menu-extend’).hide();

The rest is simple. When you click one item in the navigation bar, you are taken to a page. This happens for the Home and About us links. When you click one of the links in the middle of the menu, the menu will slide and reveal the contents. If there’s another menu visible, clicking to expand one other item will make the expanded section slide back under the navigation bar, then the required content will slide back out. How cool is that?

jQuery code step by step
There’s a bit of jQuery to be written here, so you can take a peak below to the full source code, then continue to the part I dice the code in pieces and explain what I’ve done.

jQuery(document).ready(function($) { // start the magic // if javascript is on, the menu will work ok. // Therefor we hide the expanded menu $(’.menu-extend’).hide(); $(’.clear’).height(0); // if the “Detailed menu” button is clicked, fade it out and fade in the “Close menu button” // also slide the expanded menu into place $(’.cleaning-but’).click(function () { var isVisible = $(’.menu-extend’).is(’:visible’); var isVisiblecleaning = $(’.cleaning’).is(’:visible’); var isVisiblecooking = $(’.cooking’).is(’:visible’); var isVisiblegardening = $(’.gardening’).is(’:visible’); if(isVisible) { if(!isVisiblecleaning) { if(isVisiblecooking) { $(’.cooking’).slideUp(”1000″, function() { $(’.cleaning’).slideDown(”1000″) }); } else if(isVisiblegardening) { $(’.gardening’).slideUp(”1000″, function() { $(’.cleaning’).slideDown(”1000″) }); } } else { $(’.cleaning’).slideUp(”1000″); } } else { $(’.cleaning’).slideDown(); } }); $(’.cooking-but’).click(function () { var isVisible = $(’.menu-extend’).is(’:visible’); var isVisiblecleaning = $(’.cleaning’).is(’:visible’); var isVisiblecooking = $(’.cooking’).is(’:visible’); var isVisiblegardening = $(’.gardening’).is(’:visible’); if(isVisible) { if(!isVisiblecooking) { if(isVisiblecleaning) { $(’.cleaning’).slideUp(”1000″, function() { $(’.cooking’).slideDown(”1000″) }); } else if(isVisiblegardening) { $(’.gardening’).slideUp(”1000″, function() { $(’.cooking’).slideDown(”1000″) }); } } else { $(’.cooking’).slideUp(”1000″); } } else { $(’.cooking’).slideDown(); } }); $(’.gardening-but’).click(function () { var isVisible = $(’.menu-extend’).is(’:visible’); var isVisiblecleaning = $(’.cleaning’).is(’:visible’); var isVisiblecooking = $(’.cooking’).is(’:visible’); var isVisiblegardening = $(’.gardening’).is(’:visible’); if(isVisible) { if(!isVisiblegardening) { if(isVisiblecooking) { $(’.cooking’).slideUp(”1000″, function() { $(’.gardening’).slideDown(”1000″) }); } else if(isVisiblecleaning) { $(’.cleaning’).slideUp(”1000″, function() { $(’.gardening’).slideDown(”1000″) }); } } else { $(’.gardening’).slideUp(”1000″); } } else { $(’.gardening’).slideDown(); } }); });

The first jQuery code is $(’.clear’).height(0);. This is used to set the height of the clearing div to 0. We added a clearing div to each of the expanded menu’s divs because all content inside them floats to the left, and would therefor cause the expanded menu div to collapse. By adding the clearing div we avoid that, but we also add 20 unnecessary pixels to the expanded menu’s height. We fix this problem with the code mentioned above.

Then, we have three different onclick functions. Each one does the same thing, but is triggered by a different element in the menu. I will explain the first one. $(’.cleaning-but’).click(function () is used to trigger clicking on the href tag that contains the link to cleaning menu. That link is identified by the cleaning-but class we added previously. When that link is clicked we don’t have just one behavior, so everything has to go inside a function.

var isVisible = $(’.menu-extend’).is(’:visible’); is used to check if there’s any menu currently expanded. The variable will hold either true or false values. Here, the expanded menu is identified by the general class used for it menu-extend. We will use the same process to check what expanded menu is in fact expanded, be it the one for cleaning category, or another one. We will identify those by their unique classes cleaning, cooking and gardening.

We first check if the menu is visible. if(isVisible) will return true if there’s an expanded menu, or false otherwise. If false, we will simply slide down the menu using $(’.cleaning’).slideDown(); located on the else side of the if. If there’s an expanded menu, we check to see if it is exactly the one we clicked. If it is the same one, we will slide it back up using $(’.cleaning’).slideUp(”1000″);. If it is another one, we slide up that div using a similar piece of code, then slide down the one needed. $(’.cooking’).slideUp(”1000″, function() { $(’.cleaning’).slideDown(”1000″) }); slides up the cooking expanded menu, and after that process is completed, it slides down the cleaning menu. The syntax for such a process is $(’identifier’).slideUp(duration, callback event – the one triggered after first one is completed);

Here’s a live demo version of the menu. Zip archive download will be available once we publish the second part of this article!

In the concept part we said that the contents of the expanded menu are in fact subcategories, and clicking on a subcategory will reveal the products located in that category. But that is another story and we will discuss it in the second part of the article.

Coming up next
Part 2: Displaying menu items using overlay

While compiling a proposal for internet marketing consulting, I knew I had a couple excel reports from a previous job that could be repurposed for this project. Unfortunately, I hadn’t opened the documents in a couple years and couldn’t remember or find the password. Obviously, contacting my previous company for the key was not an option.

Maybe Microsoft can offer an online service to securely store user passwords for documents? I’d love the ability to submit a “forgot password” request and receive a new one via email, much like every online login service in the industry. Oh well, until then we have to use utilities and cracks to access our forgotten files.

I ended up finding a good solution with step-by-step details and a free download for excel password recovery at Petri IT Knowledgebase. Their guide simply shows you how to use the utility’s two available options for recovery, and didn’t take more than a few minutes to complete. Give it a try if you ever find yourself in a similar (embarrassing) predicament as mine.

In 2009, Netflix awarded a $1 million USD contest prize to researchers who could significantly improve their proprietary recommendation engine. In theory, the more Netflix DVDs that customers add to their watch list, the longer that subscriber will remain with the service, since new movies will just keep coming. The prize may seem hefty, but Netflix was so impressed with the results that they granted the prize and immediately announce that there would be a sequel to the recommendation competition.

So how can a freelance web developer implement an enterprise-quality recommendation engine for your smaller e-retail clients? You may think that you’d have a tough time competing with Amazon or Netflix on functionality. However, low-priced service providers are now focused on enabling that process of discovery for small-site shoppers. These engines have low monthly costs, can be easily implemented in an afternoon, and work on the idea that you need to incorporate behavioral targeting in addition to monitoring a customer’s previous purchases.

Strands Recommender provides one of the low-cost recommendation engine options. Their engine suggests products of interest based on a specific customer’s purchases, visits, searches, wish lists, and other behavior. The system is quite flexible as well, with back-end capability to configure your recommendation display widgets. The retailer can also create rules and product filters for each widget, where results can be previewed prior to being applied to the site.

Click for more detailed information on Strands’ eCommerce solutions. They can help make your eCommerce clients successful, and strengthen your site proposals by creating additional ROI.

The timing might be good – the slide into recession for certain countries is making people think about moving abroad in an attempt to escape. Also, you can emigrate to countries perceived as offering a better quality of life and lower cost of living.

After scouring the web for more advice on working visas, I found quite a few services that assist independent workers in navigating the complexities of immigration and visa law. Global Visas is one firm, and they offer services for both private individuals and corporate organizations to acquire Canadian visa, UK or US visas. From their site, it looks like they’ve had some good press mentions, and they offer some free guidance on their site about qualifying for various country visas.

Feel free to comment below on your experiences with these companies, or offer any advice you may have for taking the leap into a foreign land.

You ask your readers a question, and the response is a resounding silence. You need to find ways to gain exposure for your young blog.

And guest blogging is one of the most powerful ways of doing that.

When I first started Zen Habits, I faced this challenge, just like everyone else does. “I’m writing great stuff,” I would say to myself, “but no one is reading it. What do I do?”

I tried guest blogging, and it paid off big time. I now regrettably have to turn down requests to write guest posts elsewhere, just because I’m so busy writing. I wish I didn’t have to, because every time I do, I miss an opportunity, but there’s no question that guest blogging has been a major part of my success.

There are many things you can try, but I can tell you that most of them will flop if you don’t have many readers: submit a story to Digg, and it’s not likely to go anywhere. Submit a story to a major blog, and you could get lucky, but they get dozens of submissions a day, and can only link to a few.

But if you’re a good writer, you could get the chance to write a guest post for a more popular blog. Here are some reasons you should make guest blogging one of the main parts of your overall exposure strategy early on:

• Increased likelihood.
  While another blogger might not be that willing to give your young blog a link, he might be more likely to give you a guest blogging spot. Why? Because it gives his blog varied content and fresh ideas, and it gives him a small break from writing. Now, not every blogger will allow you to write a guest post for him, but if you ask 10, you might get a couple to say yes. Be sure to be friendly, positive, polite, enthusiastic, and offer him the chance to write one for you in the future. Also show him some of your best writing — that helps seal the deal.
• Helping out a blogger.
  By giving this blogger a little break from writing, you are helping him … and that’s one of the best ways to improve your standing in the blogging world. Never turn down a chance to help another blogger (assuming it’s for a legit reason) if you can possibly spare the time. Why? Because you’re building a blogging relationship, one that could pay off in the long run. And whether it pays off or not, you’re forming connections that could help form more connections … and that’s the best overall long-term strategy.
• Increased traffic.
  If you write a guest post for a bigger blog, with a link back to your blog, it will almost certainly increase traffic to your blog, at least for a couple of days. How much traffic will depend on how much traffic the other blog gets, but hey, any little bit counts in the early days, when you’re not getting much at all.
• Increased exposure.
  Aside from the direct benefit of increased traffic for a few days, you are also exposing your blog (and your name) to a new audience — and helping to brand your blog and yourself in the process. Sure, most of the readers of the other blog won’t follow the link to your blog … but they might notice the name of your blog, and your name. And the next time you write a guest post for another blog they read, they might notice your name and the name of your blog then too. After a little while, they’ll start to take notice. “Hey, this guy is everywhere!” They’ll also start to remember your blog’s name — that’s the nature of branding. And soon, they’ll decide that they just have to find out what this new blog is all about. Constant exposure is a good thing.
• Best advertising there is.
  You can pay to put an ad on another blog. You can beg for a link. You can get dugg and get 40K visitors in a day. But those all pale as methods of advertising compared to a guest post. Why? Well, an ad on another blog might contain a few words and a link … but many people will ignore it, and it doesn’t really highlight the best points about your blog. And it costs money. A link has the same problems (although it doesn’t cost money), in that it’s just a few words, and doesn’t do much to promote the blog.

  A Dugg story is great, but most of the people coming to your blog are probably the wrong audience, and will leave quickly, never to return. But with a guest post, people get to read your writing in depth, and can see what amazing stuff you have to offer. If they want more, they’ll click on over to your blog … and that’s the best kind of traffic possible, because these are people who are already interested in what you write, in the topics you write about, and they’re looking to read more. They’re the most likely to stay, read a bit, and even subscribe.

• New audiences.
  This is related to the above points, but I wanted to emphasize it: if you already have a readership, even a small one, it’s likely you’ve tapped into a portion of your potential audience. But imagine that there’s a much larger pool of potential readers out there, people who haven’t even heard of you yet, and they are contained in different pockets all over the Internet. Your job is to find these pockets, expose your writing and your brand name to them, and hope to attract them. The more of these pockets you can find, the better. So by guest blogging on different types of blogs, each containing different pockets of potential readers, you are find more and more of that larger pool of potential audience all the time.
• Future reciprocation.
  A great thing that could happen if you do a guest post for a bigger blogger is that they will agree to write one for you in return. Now, you can’t expect it to happen, but definitely make the offer. If they consent to write a guest post for you, be grateful! This reciprocal guest post is great for two reasons: 1) your readers are treated to some excellent writing from another blogger, possibly one they admire, and it’s fresh content that’s varied from what you provide; and 2) if you’re lucky, the bigger blogger will link to the guest post from his blog, thereby sending more of his readers your way. Win-win!

When I started out freelancing, the thought of having clients was quite scary … though the thought of having no clients at all was even scarier! Something about the word clients implied that they’d be demanding, ultra-professional, and intimidating.

Of course, it was nothing like I’d feared: my clients have all been very human, warm and friendly! However, I have found that there are seven easy ways to really impress clients, and to guarantee that they’ll want to work with you or refer you in the future:

1. Dress Professionally

I’m most comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt – but when meeting clients, I make the effort to smarten up. Business people can sometimes have slightly negative stereotypes of “freelancers”, and looking like a professional is a great way to make a great first impression and dispel their fears.

Think about it this way: if you had the choice between an assistant who turned up wearing cut-off jeans, scuffed sneakers and a slogan t-shirt and an assistant who wore smart trousers, a nice shirt, and clean shoes – who would you be more inclined to hire?

2. Anticipate Questions

Once you’ve been freelancing for a month or two, you’ll find that clients will keep coming up with the same questions. These will vary depending on your industry. When I started out making websites for very small businesses, I had some clients who struggled with emails, and knew they needed a website but didn’t understand much about the process. They wanted to know things like:

• Why do I need to pay for hosting when I already have a computer?
• What’s a domain name?
• Can you put the link to our website at the top of Google?

…and so on. My clients weren’t stupid – they were successful small business owners – but they had little experience of the web. Get a feel for how much your clients typically know, and try to anticipate the questions that they might have. This will help reassure them that you have their interests in mind, and that you’re not trying to sneak in extra charges. (My clients often didn’t understand the need to pay for a domain name and hosting, for instance.)

You might consider creating an FAQ page for your website, or a document to give to new clients, which answers common questions. If you’re just starting out, this can help add credibility by indicating to your clients that you have a lot of knowledge of your area.

3. Communicate regularly

Most clients will like to be updated on a regular interval about how things are going. Just sending an email once a week to reassure them that the project is on track is enough to make sure that they feel taken care of.

Don’t send them huge amounts of detail – just keep it brief and succinct. This indicates that you value their time, and it also reduces the chances of them getting confused about any of the details and emailing you back with questions!

If you have a client who bombards you with emails, try leaving a time delay before replying. Unless it really is urgent, don’t answer till the next day: this reduces the chances of ending up in a game of email ping-pong, and it’ll encourage your client to save up all their questions for one email.

4. Over-deliver

Something that will really impress your clients is to over-deliver on what you’ve promised. They’ll be all too used to delays, excuses and problems. Give them a great experience by hitting milestones early, or by throwing in a small extra.

Clients will often be pleased if you take the initiative: perhaps mentioning something that they could update on their website, or explaining that you could help with one of their other projects, and I’ve often had clients complain about previous freelancers or employees, saying that they “never made any suggestions.” You do have to be a little careful with this – the last thing you want to do is accidentally end up slating the wonky-looking logo that the boss designed himself – but thoughtful feedback from an outside perspective are often much appreciated.

5. Go the extra mile

Following on from over-delivering is going above and beyond the call of duty. You might not want to do this with every single client – but on long-standing clients, or ones who you know will be good for plenty of repeat business, it’s a great way to win their loyalty.

For example, I’ve sometimes received emails from clients at 9pm with a small request, and have carried it out there and then. It only takes me thirty minutes or so, but it leaves the client feeling grateful! I do have core hours, and I could charge overtime, but I find that a strong client relationship and repeat business is worth far more.

6. Send a “thank you” or small gift

This is common advice – but how often do we take it? Spending a few minutes and a few dollars choosing a nice card or gift for your client is a huge step towards creating a lasting impression. Try to make the gift something thoughtful; perhaps something that relates to one of their hobbies or interests, or that will conjure up a smile.

Many freelancers like to send out holiday cards to clients, and this is another nice way to stay in touch. You may find that your card lands on the desk at just the right time, when your client is thinking about a project that they could use some help with. If your name’s in their mind, chances are it’ll be you that they call.

7. Offer a discount

If you’ve had a good working relationship with a client, let them know that you’d be interested in continuing to work with them – and offer them a discount. You might like to simply have a standard discount for ongoing work, or you might prefer to frame this as a special offer just for them (“It’s been so great working with you…” etc).

A discount makes people feel special, and it makes them feel that they’re getting a bargain. It’s also a great technique to use if you want to up-sell: telling clients that, for example, you can write a press release as well as their website copy.

How do you make sure that your clients are so impressed that they want to recommend you to all their friends? Do the above tips work for you, or do you have some of your own to add?

It’s no secret that the internet is a very saturated place. According to Archive.com, if you are planning to put some sort of content on the internet you have 85 billion competitors! Today’s internet users are nothing like the past, gone are days when the internet was used solely for informative purposes only. It should be no surprise to learn that today’s internet users want to be not only informed, but entertained as well.

So if you would like to learn a couple of outrageous marketing techniques that can keep you afloat while others are drowning, then read this article. But if your happy with the hopeless feeling you get when you check your web stats and don’t mind sinking to the bottom of the internet ocean, then why don’t you go ahead and click the red x button in the top right corner.

1. Content

This is by far the most important aspect of getting traffic to your site, I know I know I said outrageous but before you call me a lair let me explain myself. Writing great content is marketing on its own, imagine someone accidentally stumbles on to your site and instantly like whats on it, then its referred to someone else and it starts a chain, then this people often comeback to see if you’ve posted anything to inform and entertain them again. That’s outrageous!! Remember the average internet user has no patience, so always try and keep it has short and interesting as possible

2. Ethical Mind Control

Here you simply create a top list or award in your niche, you can allocate a page for this or simply make a blog post on it. I’ve noticed that most people who write content are often focused on themselves, by focusing on your competitors you are appealing to their egos and insecurities, which they will perceive subconsciously and in return, they will link back to you in some form.

3. Start Page Programs Or Traffic Exchange

This is a technique that even experienced online marketers have forgotten about, these are free programs that will allow you to advertise your site to other members, all you have to do is view other members site. Simple enough and more outrageously its free advertisement!!

4. Killer Headline

Have you been to the grocery store lately? precisely the checkout aisle, well somewhere in between the colorful array of packets of gum and the chapstick you’ll find the tabloids.You cant miss it, glossy finish and outrageous headlines, if I could get all the money I spent on these while waiting impatienly to pay for my groceries; you probably wont be reading this. I spend a fortune on those you know why? Cause the headline gets you and you want to read the juicy details. Your headline should create the same curiosity, force your readers to read the rest of the story.

5. SEO

Search Engine Optimization, well I dont know to much about this to be honest, but the key thing you should know is always tag keywords and have a decent URL and maybe someday you’ll be recoginsed by google. Outrageous right?

The information contained in this article does not guarantee your success, it is purely a guidline to help you with your online success. Ultmately, it is you who will decide if your are to become successful or not, so don’t come knocking at my door when you end up back at your 9 to 5.