There are varying business models used to explain how a business gets customers. A company’s value proposition is the reason why customers would even want to use a service or purchase a product. Every company has its own kind of value proposition, but it will be up to you as your own personal brand to establish what that is and what the term means to you.

When you are trying to establish your company or brand, you should focus on what you know about your customers. The key in all of this is understanding your customers. The more you know and understand about them, the more value you can offer. If you are offering value to your customers then why wouldn’t they want to spend money on your product and/or service?

You see this with many of the top bloggers who have branded themselves. Their value proposition is dictated directly by their interaction with those who read their blogs, follow them on social media websites and in return, purchase their products/services. If they didn’t offer something valuable to those that interact with them they wouldn’t have followers or be at the top of their game.

Essentially, rather than looking to what others are doing in your niche, you need to start worrying about what you can do, for your customers. If you sell a specific item, ask yourself why would the person buying this product want to use it. Instead of looking at similar products that are sold by your competitors to see what they don’t offer you should focus on why a person uses said product in the first place. If you focus on that you will create a better product for your consumer.

The same can be said about offering services. Why worry about what your competition is offering? Who cares if they offer a similar product? You need to focus on the customers not on your competitors. By focusing on your customers and their needs you’ll discover how to improve your service all on your own.

A great example of this stems back a few years to when Ashtyn and I ran a commercial chat website. We had been chatting for years, and we looked to all the other websites with similar chats to try and see what they didn’t have, so we could add those services. We wanted the biggest, best chat on the web. That way we’d be the most popular chat site, right?!

Wrong!! Adding on game sections, Myspace style features and other cool things didn’t increase our membership count. Sure, we had the most features of any chat in our niche, but that didn’t mean we had the best chat site around. People continued to go to the other chat sites because they didn’t like our chat rules or their friends owned the other sites or a million other reasons. Instead of thinking of our chatters we thought of your competitors and tried to out do them. Well, that ended up backfiring on us!

Like our chat business, any business that changes how they do business based on their competitors with little consideration to the customer is doomed to fail. If nothing else, loss of business will lead to failure because the customer and their needs are not being considered. Nobody wants to buy a product or use a service that isn’t going to help them. Show your consumers how you can help them through your product and service and you will be the one getting the business.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to create value for your customers. Look at all the businesses offering discount pricing. Knowing the economy is weak, these businesses are trying to give their customers much needed price cuts. As a result, these are the businesses that are becoming the most valuable to consumers.

This is, of course, just one way to create more value for your customers. If you put your customers, readership, followers and web visitors first then you are creating a higher level of value. In the end, this will be what allows your business to grow and flourish the most.

Technorati Tags: value proposition, marketing, customers, first, business, help, value, company, services, provide

Since then, we’ve seen the introduction of social media, ROI marketing in an online setting, and many businesses have brought their advertising to the web. As the Internet becomes such an integral part of the lives of humans, it only seems natural that advertising and business promotion would turn to the Internet. Frankly, I believe that if your business isn’t yet on the Internet you’re a step behind your competitors. That’s not going to change any time soon.

With so many practices so new, the way to market online isn’t locked on a set form of marketing. Right now, there is no one right way to market yourself or your business. Truthfully, nobody is a true Social Media or Online Marketing expert because not every method will work the same way for different people. Truthfully, you have to have a combination of things if you want to find success on the Internet, and not everyone has those things.

Sure, you will find moderate success by following certain marketing models that have worked for successful marketers. However, if you lack the connection they share with their audience (be it due to charisma, a helpful nature, or some other magnetizing factor) then you will never see the amount of success that they have.

I’ve found that so many people are just out to make a quick buck. They’ll guarantee their marketing plan will work, if that’s what they’re selling. Everyone seems to be a Social Media expert these days, and they’ll sell you their soul if you are willing to pay for it, plus five easy installments of $29.99 so you can learn the right way to participate in Social Media and be just like them.

These are the people who post every single message on their blog, Twiter, and Facebook as a link to what they are trying to sell. They don’t have conversations with anyone and won’t answer any questions unless you provide your credit card number to them. These aren’t the kind of folks you want to look to for marketing help.

The true marketers will talk to you. They will guide you. They will engage you. They will make sure you know how to better help yourself. These people don’t claim to be the experts. Sure, they excel in the field, but they also realize it’s too early in the game to know everything about it. These are the marketers you will want to follow into the new millennium.

You see, times are changing. I’m from the generation who grew up using computers. Look at how we’ve changed the Internet?! Well coming up is a generation that’s only known the Internet. They’ve been using it since early childhood. They’re experts at it. They can’t remember a time without the Internet. These will be the ones who will take the Internet to the next level.

The marketers I mentioned above, the ones you want to follow, know this. They know change is inevitable. They know the more people are involved in technology the more they will want to immerse themselves in said technology. Just look at the evolution of the television and how it changed marketing, for the better. I don’t see television becoming obsolete. In fact, it too will also become more high tech. That being said, advertisers and marketers will be using both television and the Internet equally to promote and market brands, people, products and just about anything else you can imagine.

Marketing in the new millennium is going to be like the ebbing tide. You have to be willing to go with the flow. You have to be willing to accept the changes this new, wired generation is going to bring. Otherwise, you are bound to be left behind.

We’re already embarking on one wild ride and as online marketing develops it’s just going to keep getting better.

Note: I don’t claim to be an expert or know what these changes will bring in the new millennium. I just know I’m ready to hop on board and ride with the tide, as the Internet (and online marketing) changes and evolves.

Technorati Tags: marketing, media, new millennium, new generation, high tech, wired

That being said, grammar does play a role in the success of your readership. If you have numerous grammar mistakes and run-on sentences it becomes harder for people to read and enjoy your body of posts. What you say might very well be of use or importance to someone, but without smooth flowing grammar they aren’t going to be able to get through your post to find that out.

Let me give you an example. I have only done basic editing on what I’ve written above. I ran it through Word and read it aloud to make sure nothing sounded awkward. Now let’s look at what you’ve just read sans grammar rules.

It’s been said that you do not have to be a decent writer to run a decent blog, I can agree 100% with that statement, I do not feel that blogging is about grammar as much as it is getting the message out there and making a positive connection with your audience, that is the most important thing and I don’t think anything will change that.

That being said grammar does play a role in the success of your readership if you have numerous grammar mistakes and run-on sentences it becomes harder for people to read and enjoy your body of posts. What you say might very well be of use or importance to someone but without at least some grammar they aren’t going to be able to get through it to find that out.

Let me give you an example I have only done basic editing on what I’ve written above I ran it through Word and read it aloud to make sure nothing sounded awkward Now let’s look at what you’ve just read sans grammar rules.

I didn’t do too much to the above post. In fact, funnily enough it still checks out as fine in Word, even though it’s not. I put commas in the place of some periods and removed periods altogether in other areas. I refrained from the misspellings of some words, though adding those in with bad punctuation would have just continued to make things worse (and prove my point a little more).

So, what do you do if you do not have basic grammar skills and are worried about it affecting your blog? The good news is that you don’t have to be a literary genius to write successfully in a blog. You don’t have to be good at English at all, in fact. You just have to be smart about what you are writing and how you are writing it.

Consider the following tips:

-Read, Read, and then Re-Read your post. Don’t just read it; read it out loud. Even if you aren’t good with grammar you should know when something sounds funky. Chances are, if it sounds wrong when you read it then it is wrong. Change it to something better and you’ll be fine.

-Use the Breath Between Comma Rule (and periods). When you place a comma in a sentence you stop, take a breath, and continue. If you’re stopping in a place that doesn’t sound logical when spoken, then that comma probably doesn’t need to be there. Likewise, if you’re reading and running out of breath, then you either need to chop your sentence down to size or you need to add a comma if it fits.

-Spell Check Everything! I cannot emphasize this one enough. The two things that I notice the most and that annoy me the most are run-on sentences and spelling errors. I can see if it’s an occasional thing (not everyone can catch every mistake), but if it’s obvious that you’re not spell checking and the typos are frequent, I cannot stand to keep reading.

-Don’t take things too seriously. There are a lot of rules to grammar and most bloggoers will forgive you if you make a mistake here and there. Just try to stay in the same tense throughout your articles and make sure that basic grammar is upheld and you should be fine.

Grammar isn’t as hard as you think. Write things how you would say them and make sure to read them out loud to make sure they sound good. If you do this, you should be coming up with great posts in no time!

Technorati Tags: Grammar, Blogs, Writing, Blogger, Run-on Sentence, Writer, Read, Reader, Spell Check, Edit, Comma

The real topic has to do with writing a title that is going to get attention and cause people to click on/read your post. I don’t recommend going as far as I have here, but we will get into all of that in a minute. The reason I decided to talk about this today has to do with the stats on one of my smaller blogs.

My personal blog doesn’t get very many visitors/page views currently, though that is because I haven’t put enough time into it. However, the other day I wrote some posts and apparently they had the right headlines because my visitors/page views more than tripled in one day! The posts weren’t anything that I thought would get much attention. I thought some people would notice them, but I wasn’t expecting more than three times the amount of people I normally get. It’s amazing what a title can do.

Are your titles larger than life? You want something that catches a person’s eye and really convinces them to click. If you’re writing something about turtles and you name the title “The History of Turtles” that may be what the post is about, but it doesn’t guarantee someone will click unless they are looking for the history of turtles. However, if you take a fact or something interesting from your article and build the title off of that then it will catch the interest of more people.

So how do you get a reaction out of someone based on your title? Well, that depends on what you’re writing about. Here are some tips for you.

-Consider your subject matter and say something controversial. One of the articles I wrote was about Sarah Palin. I called the article “Shut Up and Go Home, Bitch.” I was frustrated with the ignorance of the self-proclaimed hockey mom and certified moron, so I showed that in my title. However, if you love Sarah Palin you might have a title singing her praises like “Africa is My Favorite Country” or “Goddesses are Just Mom’s with Hockey Sticks and Lipstick.” These are just made on the fly, but I know I’d click on them just to see what the person was talking about and comment if need be.

-Write something that You would want to read. Writing for your audience is important, but if you don’t take interest in it yourself then no one else is going to be interested either. If you’re bored writing it or reading it once you’re finished, then you’re probably on the wrong track.

-Twitterfy your title. Using Twitter teaches a person how to communicate in short sentences. You only have about a sentence or so (give or take) to say what you need to and make an impression (if you want more followers) so people try to use that space well. Do the same with your title. Grab a reader’s attention and they will likely continue reading. If they really like what you have to say, these people will not stop at just that one article!

-Explain the type of post you’ve written. If it is a question to your readers, a poll, or a rant consider labeling it as such. This gives people a better idea of what they will be reading and whether or not they want to read it (some avoid rants, for example). Some readers might see this as an honest courtesy and will cause them to look around your site even if they don’t want to read the newest article.

-Craft the article first and write the title last. This will give you the freedom to build the article/post without the title looming overhead. It will also allow you to come up with a more accurate and engaging title.

These are just some ideas for creating the perfect title. If you have some of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Technorati Tags: Title, Article, Sarah Palin, Blog, Post, Creation, Writing, Blogging

Without further ado, here are the top ten plugins that could help new bloggers to succeed in the blogosphere. Don’t see an important or useful plugin listed? Feel free to leave a comment and let us know what we missed or forgot!

Adsense-Deluxe
Why it’s important: Whether you’re using it as your sole means of monetization or not (I’d hope not) Adsense is used by the majority of blogs and bloggers in the sphere. Adsense Deluxe makes it easy to pop an adsense ad into your post or sidebar. You can set up different sizes with channels in your admin panel and then use a small code wherever you want the adsense banner/link to appear. It doesn’t get easier than this.

All in One SEO Pack
Why it’s important: If you’re writing a new blog and want it to succeed then having some readers (any readers) would be a good thing. SEO is important if you want on search engines such as Google. Unfortunately, most blogs aren’t set up for individual SEO on every post/article you write. All in One SEO allows you to write specific titles, descriptions, and keywords (among other things) for each blog post. This can help you to get indexed on the search engines faster and gives you a competitive edge over the blogs in your niche not using this method of SEO enhancement.

Brian’s Threaded Comments
Why it’s important: Once you start getting comments you may begin to notice that you have to @ specific people or comment based on the comment number they were if you want to respond to them. Brian’s Threaded Comments allows you to comment to a person under their comment, starting a comment thread. This allows for a neater look to your comments section and offers a better chance for discussion since it’s easier for people to keep up.

Commentluv
Why it’s important: This isn’t so much important as it is useful. This allows people who put in their blog URL to have their latest post title and link appear under their comment. Depending on your blog, this may help to up comments and even if it doesn’t, it will offer some link love to your loyal commenters, which is never a bad thing.

Contact Form 7
Why it’s important: If you don’t have a contact form then people cannot get in touch with you for any reason. Even if they can contact you, the contact form makes it a much easier and more anonymous (they don’t show your email address) process. In my search for a contact form this was the easiest one to use and set up. Just set up the form (you can create multiple forms), create a page, and then pop in the content form code, as well as any associated text you want. This plugin is also highly customizable so you can make various forms to use as surveys or other submission style forms. All that’s left to do is link to the page you’ve created with your contact form on it and you’re all set up.

FeedBurner FeedSmith
Why it’s important: Feedburner is the ultimate RSS delivery system for Word Press and other blogs. Feedburner allows you to design your feed the way you want it, monetize it (should you wish to do so), and create an email delivery list for those that don’t use RSS. More importantly, it tells you a great deal about your RSS subscribers, what they are clicking, and how they subscribe to your feed. Wordpress RSS doesn’t offer these options and if you’re not using them you’re missing out. All you need to do is set up a free account at Feedburner, claim your feed, set your options, and install this plugin. It’s well worth the few minutes that it takes to set things up.

My Link Order
Why it’s important: This one isn’t absolutely necessary but it can make things easier. When adding in links for your blog roll, WP does the first come, first listed thing or alphabetical (I forget which?!). That’s fine, unless you add things and then want to move them around. My Link Order allows you to arrange your links as you want them, not as you put them in.

ShareThis
Why it’s important: If you want to be listed on Digg, Delicious, Myspace, Facebook, or any other social networking site, having something like Share This makes it a lot easier. If someone likes your post they click the words “Share This, a box pops up with social networking links, click on a social networking link of choice and this will immediately log them into their account and bookmark or post your article/page/website on it. It’s one of the most highly recommended plugins on the list.

Sociable
Why it’s important: Sociable is similar to Share This except instead of offering a trendy drop down box of links you have a line of small social networking icons at the bottom of each post. Sociable offers more social networking sites than Share This, so it doesn’t hurt to have them both and utilize them in a way that allows you to list a maximum number of sites to ensure that all your users have an option they prefer, and you end up on more sites as a result.

WWW Redirect
Why it’s important: WWW Redirect allows you to use the URL that you prefer for your site, the way you prefer it to be used. For instance, we purchased i-don’t-pay.com. If you enter it without the WWW it does not matter. It will still appear the way we want it to appear. This was created to insure that when a site is indexed on search engines, it was not indexed in various forms (with and without the www, etc). This tends to make things a lot easier on you, your visitors, and the search engines.

Technorati Tags: Top Plugins, WordPress, New Bloggers, WWW Redirect, Sociable, Share This, My Link Order, CommentLuv, Feedburner Feedsmith, Contact Form 7, Brian’s Threaded Comments, All in One SEO Pack, Adsense Deluxe

Each one offers pros and cons that we are going to discuss. In the end, we did what a lot of people do. We built a clientele and got the hell out of dodge. However, if you’re in a pinch, just starting out, or feel more comfortable working through a site like these then the following information might be of help to you.
We started out on RentaCoder back when we had no other choice but to launch a freelance career. Up to that point it never seriously crossed our minds. You’d be surprised the things you decide to do when starving. Working for a site like this becomes an option in your life. RentaCoder is a free site that let’s you sign up to bid on work. Once you get a job and are paid for it, RentaCoder gets a fee and based on a certain schedule, you get whatever else is left in your account. This does not differ because all of the major sites charge a fee for getting work on their sites.

RentaCoder charges the most of the three companies we’re profiling at 15% of your project price. So, if you charge $100 for the service you offer, they take 15%. While this can be seen as a major downside, it is free to test out so you do not lose anything by signing up and giving it a chance. Once you have done a few jobs though you might find your interest in RAC waning. Considering the percentage they charge and the low quality of jobs that are available, RAC makes a fair starting point but its not a place where you want to continue your career once it’s moving ahead.

I like to liken RAC to freelance welfare. The reason I say this is because the average project goes for a low amount of money. People don’t want to pay a lot of money when they post bids on RAC. In fact, the average post involves a lot of work and little money. The average article will garner you $5 or less for about a page or more. Now, if you’re just starting out doing some SEO articles for $5 a pop might be good for experience building, but you are bidding for the job and more often then not the lowest bidder gets it. A person will often try and save a buck by picking a non-English speaking writer or designer because these freelancers can charge less money. The unfortunate thing is that they offer communication barriers, as well.

I should note that we made a lot of our money and gained a lot of clients this way. When a client wouldn’t pay our fee and would go to a writer from another country, nine out of ten times they would end up coming back to us. At that point, we would get our fee and then some.

After we left RAC, we took a few of our clients with us, and headed to eLance. At the time they charged a monthly fee plus a percentage. We haven’t worked there in a while, but it now appears you can get a free or paid membership. As a free user, you only get to bid on three jobs a month and would need to pay for additional services. The paid membership is $9.95 per month and allows you 20 jobs per month. From there it appears you can purchase more slots. eLance makes you pass a test before becoming a publisher (freelancer). I went ahead and tried it out to see if I could pass without studying. I did pass and I have to say, if you need to study for that thing you might want to look for another job.

The deficit to eLance in comparison to RAC is that you can only sign up for one job type. If you’re a writer and a designer you have to choose one area to work in unless you want to pay to be in both. This leads people to sign up for the area they are the best at, which isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but it does cut their options if they are able to handle more than one specialty at a time. We stayed at eLance for the least amount of time of all three site. Now that they offer free plans they charge for things like allowing a free freelancer to add LinkedIn or Facebook to their profile. I find this to be a little ridiculous. When we worked there the site offered a fair amount of jobs and we did get some good paying work, but in the end I just wasn’t in love with the process.

I didn’t like their work area and the added fees put me off. Not only do you pay to be a member, you also pay a per-job fee that is roughly between 4-6%. I have also heard that the quality of jobs has fallen significantly, though as we haven’t been a member in some time, I wouldn’t know for sure.

The final site we tried out, and the longest one we stayed at was Guru. This is the only site that we actually went back to after leaving all of these types of sites. What we found the second time around though was that quality was less than we remembered and it was no longer worth using. Guru costs the most to join though they do offer a free membership, as well. The free membership means that you can only bid on certain jobs and they will take 10% of your project earnings. If you pay (prices vary but average to $75 for 3 months) you still pay a project percentage fee though it ends up being 5%.

Like the other sites, you bid on jobs, communicate through message project boards and upload your work on site. The reason we liked Guru, though we were originally hesitant to pay the fee, was that the quality of jobs were higher (this seems to have declined) and we were able to make fair rates for the work that we did. Prior to leaving, we were in the top 25 highest rated and paid writers on the site.

There are pros and cons to all three of the major sites. However, if you’re just getting started these are a good way to get things rolling if you’re looking for design or writing work. Craigslist and freelance job boards are other options, though the security offered by the big three are helpful when you begin working online, before branching to just your own site.

Technorati Tags: eLance, Freelancing, Guru, RentaCoder, RAC, Pros and Cons, Writing, Design, Job Board

This woman was sent a few different websites with tutorials on how to change her URL, but none of them were complete, concise and comprehensive. None of them had full instructions on how to accomplish what she wanted. This is why I decided to make this tutorial.

First, I should probably explain why this tutorial is not only necessary, but why it is also important. When Search Engines crawl a website, they don’t just crawl for content. They also identify terms in the title, description, other meta tags and in the URL. When you first set up a Wordpress blog, each article/post you write is assigned a numerical value. This is to separate one post from another.

So, let’s say you have a post. The URL for that post might be: http://www.YourUrl.com/?p=12345

That URL isn’t going to help you when it comes to the Search Engines. If your article/post is on making money online, and someone uses the phrase ‘making money online’ in a search on Google or Yahoo, you might be noticed because your article title and meta tags include the term, making money online. However, the more examples you have of said term in your search entry, can help to determine where and/or how you rank on the search engines. You can slip the phrase into your listing once more by making it a part of your URL.

A Search Engine friendly version of:
http://www.YourUrl.com/?p=12345

would be:
http://www.YourUrl.com/making-money-online

You can’t just change your URL though. You have to set up your Wordpress blog to allow you to make the end of your article’s/post’s URL whatever you want. This is where this tutorial comes in. I’m going to explain step by step, how to make your URLs more SEO friendly.

Note: PLEASE click on the images to see it in an expanded form. This expanded form will literally highlight exactly what you do in this tutorial.

Step #1 – Log in to your Wordpress Blog Admin Area, also called your Wordpress Dashboard.

Look to the right side of your Wordpress Dashboard. Find the panel labeled Settings and click on it.

Step #2 – Look at the row of links on the Settings page and in the middle there should be a link that says Permalinks. Click on Permalinks.

Step #3 – Choose how you want the end of your URL to be structured. You can choose the default, which includes the number structure that is the default for the URL (you don’t want this – its the structure already in place). You can choose from Day and Name, Month and Name, Numeric or customize the how you want. I typically choose either Day and Name or Month and Name. Which you choose is up to you, but you must choose one of these two options.

*Note: Don’t look at you page just yet. It might appear broken until you complete this entire tutorial.

Step #4 – Once you choose which structure you want, select the bubble dot next to it, to fill it in/select it. Then scroll down near the bottom of this page and click the Save Changes button.

Step #5 – After saving the changes refreshes this page, scroll down this same page again, until you get beneath the Save Changes button (don’t press it this time). You will see a box filled with code. Use your Cut/Copy skills to copy the code within the box (the code should start with the line < IModule mod rewrite.c >).

Step #6 – Open up a notepad document. Paste the code you copied into the notepad document. Go up to the File tab in your notepad document. Click on it and then click Save As.

In the box beneath the File Name box (it’s called Save as Type), use the drop down to save the file as All Files, not just as a txt file.

Step #7 – Using your favorite FTP program, upload your newly created .htaccess file to your main wordpress file. This is the place where you will upload files when you upgrade your Wordpress version.

Now you can go to your blog. You will be able to name your blog URLs in a box above the main text box where you write your article. Each article can have its own, individual name of your choosing.

Hopefully now, this process won’t be difficult and you too can take advantage of the benefits of using SEO friendly URLs for all your Wordpress articles.

Technorati Tags: SEO friendly, URLs, Permalinks, Settings, Wordpress Tutorial, How to, blog, Search Engine, htaccess

Starting out as a freelancer isn’t easy. You won’t see instant results. You won’t be making a lot of money to start. Many have to keep traditional jobs until they start making an active, productive living by freelancing. This is difficult merely because freelancing is time consuming. In those early months, you’ll need to be doing all you can to build up your portfolio and that sometimes means making sacrifices monetarily.

I’ve worked with and competed for jobs with a wide variety of freelancers. I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work for them. I also know what has worked and hasn’t worked in my own situation. From there, I’ve compiled a list of five mistakes I’ve seen many freelancers make.

1. Not Taking Low Pay/No Pay Jobs to start

If you’ve never written or designed anything for anyone other than yourself, you’re going to need to start getting a portfolio ready. One of the easiest ways for you to start out your business and bulk up your portfolio is to accept jobs. There are a variety of freelance websites, where you can bid on jobs and make money if you’re chosen for said job. This is the ideal type of place for a new freelancer to start out. However, you won’t be able to charge excessive amounts of money for your work. In fact, you might even have to take low paying jobs, in an attempt to stuff you portfolio. Of course, the positive thing about this is that you can almost always get a recommendation/testimonial from the clients you work with on these jobs.

I don’t often recommend taking no pay jobs. I do believe that, on rare occasions, no pay jobs have benefits. In these situations, they really aren’t no pay jobs. You can work with clients and even other freelancers. If you’re a writer, for your writing services, you can get links back to your website, credit for your work, or other services to promote yourself and your own freelance services. If you work with another freelancer, such as a website designer, consider having them design your website, in exchange for writing their web copy. There are many creative ways to get your name out there and fill your portfolio at the same time.

That being said, once you’ve become successful, you should raise your rates to reflect your experience. It doesn’t help anyone out if you’re offering services for less than they’re worth. While some companies choose to go with lower paying services, no matter what you charge, if your work is good then you’re going to find clients. I often had those same clients come back to me, having wasted money on a freelancer working for a nickel. Those freelancers did a poor job. I had to fix their mistakes and these clients were more than willing to pay my rates. Essentially, it just goes to show that you get what you pay for when hiring a freelancer.

2. Not Having a Website

I don’t care if you have a free, hosted portfolio, a free website on geocities, a freelancer’s myspace/facebook or a free blog. You need your own website. With your own website, you’re in control of what prospective clients know about you. You can send these clients to see your portfolio, which you can set up in any way you like, give them access to email you privately, offer them the chance to read your about you page, which can include information on your experience and a list of who you’ve worked for, and send them to a place filled with testimonials from other clients who you’ve worked for in the past.

For more information on why you need a website, please check out my article on Why Freelancers Need Websites. This article is much more comprehensive and I don’t want to repeat myself completely.

3. Taking On Too Much

Freelancing is hard work. I’ve found that anything worth doing takes work. When you’re starting out, you may be compelled to take as many jobs as you can. You need to get samples for your portfolio. You won’t be making as much as you will once you’re seen as a successful web designer/writer/etc. Taking more jobs means more money. It also means a bigger headache, all of your time devoted to working and you will get burnt out. Start out slow and only take on what you can handle.

4. Using the Wrong Samples

Freelance web designers need to show off the websites they design. Graphic designers should post professional looking graphics. Writers need to show their writing samples. The key is to make sure that the best samples you have are placed on your samples page. This means that the web designer shouldn’t proudly display his Myspace background design, his geocities designed website or any other less than stellar designs. Graphic designers won’t want to feature shoddily done animation or anything they did as a beginner when their work was filled with flaws,

The same could be said for writers. If you’re writing articles, you aren’t going to want to put your poetry samples up (unless, by some rare chance you write poetry for a living). There is a little more leeway for writers though because it is possible to list both creative and technical writing samples on the same website, if you offer both services. Either way, try to make sure your samples look/sound professional, show off your best work, and make sure your samples are relevant to what you can offer.

5. Expecting to Get Instant Results

This is, by far, the biggest misconception freelancers have. I’ve heard so many unsuccessful freelancers say something to the effect of, “I quit my job to work on the Internet. I was prepared to spend all day in my pajamas, sipping lattes and working for clients of my choosing. When I was not seeing results within a month, I had no choice but to return to the 9 to 5. Freelancing really doesn’t work.”

I can be the first to tell you this isn’t true. I once had a job writing for one of the top real estate sites on the web, making a lot of money. I wrote for the company on an on-again, off-again basis. I have made money freelancing and if you’re excellent in your field, you can, too! This isn’t any type of get rich quick job. Freelancing will reward you, but you have to plug away at it to be successful. What you put into it will be what you get out of it.

I’m going to be honest. Freelancing isn’t for everyone. I don’t know how many times I’ve told people what I do for a living and they say back to me, “Oh! I could do that!”

I usually just politely nod and think to myself, no you couldn’t. While I know that perhaps some of them could, the vast majority of them won’t have the patience to stick with it, until they become successful. I also do not believe every person is capable of having a freelancing job. You have to be creative enough to write creative works or design websites and graphics aesthetically. You have to have practical knowledge of applications and coding to be a programmer or developer. Without these skills (and I’ll be the first to admit I am no developer/heavy programmer – too much code gives me a headache!) you won’t succeed in these freelancing fields.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you cannot find another way to work online or for yourself. You can start your own business with your own skills and talents at the forefront.

Being a freelancer is hard work. It is time consuming, but it is also very rewarding. If you avoid making these mistakes you will find that your freelancing career will have a better chance of succeeding.

Technorati Tags: freelancer, mistakes, freelancing, writing, work from home, graphics design, web design, samples, website

I write this to you, from the bottom of my heart. Now is the time to take the initiative. The Internet and all its capabilities are at your fingertips. As Americans, we might not have a job tomorrow with a company that could possibly take a nose-dive. How many jobs are at risk? How many are currently unemployed? I don’t know the official statistics on this, but I do know the number is high when it comes to unemployment. Something has to be done.

The government bailout bill that was “supposed to make everything right” has failed. Who do we have to rely on? Not the government. Not the state. We’re on our own and that’s why it’s time to act. Only you can determine what happens next in your future. Only you hold the keys to your success during these dark and dismal days. Are you willing to do what you have to do to make yourself successful? It’s up to you to decide.

You know what the good news is? You’re not alone! There are many people out there who want to try and make their living online. The nice thing about this is that you’re the only boss you have. If your company tanks then it is you who made that happen. If you notice something isn’t right, you have the control to fix it and keep yourself afloat. Essentially, you determine your destiny.

Being an online entrepreneur is not without sacrifice. You will be spending a lot of time building up your business, but success is worth it. With not much available in traditional job settings what do you have to lose? But you have to act now. You have to get things rolling while you can. If this keeps up, I’m beginning to wonder how many people are going to be able to afford the Internet. You don’t want to be one of the people who is out of their home, their job and their ability to find self-made success.

So, by now I’ve probably got your interest peaked. You want to know what to do and how to make yourself successful. Truth be told, over 95% of online blogs are unsuccessful. Freelancing has similar statistics. Over 50% of Freelancers will fail within their first year. I’ve been successfully working online since 2003. I haven’t had to take on a traditional job in over five years. I’m one of the lucky ones, so I want to share with you how I’ve made it possible.

Being honest, if you can live comfortably by working online then you are a success. Not everyone is going to become a millionaire. You should work towards making enough to live off of each month. Keep your goals small and don’t expect to become an Internet Rockstar over night. In truth, don’t expect to become an Internet Rockstar period. Be modest and realistic and you’ll be more likely to succeed. Setting small milestones will keep you grounded. By setting unrealistic goals, you will become frustrated. You will be more likely to quit because you won’t be seeing the results you desire. Success comes in time! Just don’t give up and you will see results.

Study those who have been successful before you. Get to know those people in your online field who are obviously making money. If you own a store, what are the stores in your niche doing that you aren’t to get more business? Study other websites similar to yours and compile ideas of how you can improve. If you’re a blogger, read the advice of top bloggers. Many of the most successful bloggers all write about how they were able to be successful. These tips are invaluable. Freelancers should look at other freelance websites. Make sure you’re accessible, interactive, proactive and willing to take chances with your business and your online presence.

Make friends online and you can turn them into clients/readers. One of the biggest ways to get noticed is to be accessible to others. If you have a online store that sells photography equipment, why not sign up to photography forums? Make friends, share your photography knowledge, and sneak your URL into your posts through your forum signature. If your posts aren’t about your business, but actually show you are knowledgeable about photography then those people on the forum who click your link might just be willing to buy their equipment from you.

If you blog in a certain niche, such as fashion, you can find fashion forums, groups about fashion and entire communities through social networking sites. Many of the people in your niche might just have their own blog, too. You can find a way to share link love, find new readers, and help pass on your link through Internet word of mouth (email, other bloggers mentioning your site) by those in the groups. They key to this is not making anything you write about your business. You need to establish yourself as a professional. If you do that, you’ll gain respect and be seen as an expert that people can go to for advice in your field.

The key to success online is traffic. You need to make sure you do everything in your power to get traffic to your website, no matter what your website is about. Make sure you utilize SEO, a variety of marketing methods, advertising, and keep your website simple. By that, I mean have a clean design. Don’t bog it down with too many ads. Make sure those who visit your website can find things easily. In short, try to make it attractive!

I will be writing future articles on all of these topics. I will discuss how I’ve utilized all of these things so my website is visited, noticed and a visible contender in relation to other websites in my niche. Being successful isn’t going to come easy, but it will be worth it.

I implore you to consider what you’re good at. Make a business plan. Lay it all out now. You have the control to be a success. You have the control to be your own boss. You have the control to not let this economic crisis harm you.

I wish you all luck and hope that we will all get through this crisis, as unscathed as we can.

Technorati Tags: blogger, business plan, economic crisis, destiny, self-employed, bailout plan, success, work at home

I make it no secret that I am in a wheelchair. For just a brief snapshot of who I am, let me tell you that I have a progressive muscle disease, Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type III. I walked until I was 16, when I went into a wheelchair, full time. I was in college for Theatre (I was quite the performer and singer back in the day) with a minor in Political Science when tragedy struck. During a routine transfer from wheelchair to shower chair, I fell and fractured my tibia. My life was changed in an instant.

I moved, with my girlfriend and our son, from our apartment at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio to a house she owned with her mother in mid-Michigan. This served two purposes. Her mother had been recently laid off by a company now stationed in Mexico. For the first time in her life, she was unemployed. For us, this gave us time for my leg to heal, which took more than a year. In the meantime, we had to find a way to put food on the table. The only thing we had luxury wise was the Internet and this gave Ashtyn (said girlfriend) the idea to find a job online.

We made a list of our skills. Ashtyn has always been a prolific writer. I wrote excellent, well written papers in college. I also can be anal retentive when it comes to grammar. So, writing and editing were at the top of our list. Add in slightly above basic HTML skills on my part, and a desire to teach myself graphic design. You have our basic plan to finding a job. While it wasn’t an easy road, within a year, we were on our way to becoming successful freelance writers. It was our hard work, perseverance, and ability to work our way up to high paying freelance jobs that made us successful.

Now that you know a little bit more about me and where I am coming from, let me throw another statistic out at you. A year ago, I read a study by the government that said 77% of disabled Americans are unemployed. I’d wager to say that due to the job and financial crisis’, that number has risen to somewhere around 85%. This means all disabilities, ranging from physical to mental or emotional disabilities such as Autism, Downs Syndrome and even Bi-Polar Disorder. For some, they simply can’t work. Others have faced workplace discrimination.

What’s surprising is that over half of those who have disabilities and also college degrees, are still unemployed. This is absolutely staggering! The issue is so big that disability rights organizations have turned to lawmakers/politicians for help. This includes finding out proposed plans for the disability unemployment rate by presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama. While Obama has outlined his plan, as of recently, McCain hasn’t had a thing to say on the issue. This issue isn’t going to be easily solved nor is it going to go away. That is unless we, as disabled individuals, take it upon ourselves to better our lives!

I’m 27 years old. This was not the career path I had in mind when I went to college, but I’ve made it work. I love what I do and I love all of the people I’ve met through blogging, writing and designing online. Along the way, I’ve met many other disabled entrepreneurs. Many of them had similar disabilities to my own.

Why is it working out so well for those of us with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (in particular?)? I think it is because, while many other diseases may affect the brain, SMA only affects our bodies. Our minds are whirling with ideas and plans for businesses and ways to be successful. That by no way means that anyone with a disability cannot do what we do. It just means those with other disabilities have us to rely on, to help pave the way towards success.

Do you know that nearly all of the disabled friends I have who are successful, are Internet entrepreneurs? Even the ones who have other career paths dabble at the prospect of making money online. But, why? I’ve heard that question many times in the years since I started working online. There is a simple explanation.

First, the Internet allows people access to a global audience from any location. I can work from home in my pajamas. I can lounge in bed and type if I really want to. I can work without having to go out in yucky weather. For those with disabilities, snow, rain, and high winds can all be treacherous conditions that prevent trips outside the house. Working online makes work convenient, so weather rarely ever gets in the way!

Second, the Internet allows people access to a global audience! I know I said that already, but think about this logically. You can sell products, offer services or write your life story (a la blogs/websites) and know that people from all over the world could potentially see what you have to say! How cool is that? A global market means you could be working for anyone from Japan to England. It also means that you can make a lot more money than in a 9 to 5 job.

I’m sure that by now you’re probably asking yourself how do you sign up? I should make it clear that working online (for yourself) has many amazing rewards. There is no boss to tell you what to do. There is no need to tell the clients you work with about your disability. The Internet allows for such anonymity. Besides, who really cares what you abilities are, so long as you can get the job done? Working for yourself online also allows you to make your own schedule. Work when you want, as you want. How often you work and what you put into your online career will determine how much money you end up making.

So, if you’ve read this, you’re raring to go and you’re certain this is the career path for you, follow these steps to be on your way to becoming an Internet Guru.

#1 – Determine What you Want to Do

You can offer a service or products. Do you want to sell things online? Do you make your own jewelry or weave baskets? You can sell products online by getting your own webpage. If your item becomes popular, you may even get retailers to sell it. If you determine you want to offer a service, think about what services you can offer. Some services that you can provide include: writing, sound work (sound effects – music files) web design, virtual assistant positions, SEO advice, tips and specialty, marketing, software development, graphic design, web design, game design, and more.

Another option is running a blog. Do you have an interesting life? Are you an expert at something? Do you have a particularly interesting hobby? Write about what you know. Show you’re an expert, promote your blog, and you’ll be on your way to one day (possibly) living a dot com lifestyle.

#- Make a Plan

Decide how you’re going to go about making your company/yourself successful. Maybe you’ll hire an SEO/Marketing firm to help. You can also research SEO and marketing on your own. Read excellent blogs about online marketing and making yourself successful, such as Shoemoney and Pro Blogger. They have great tips and plenty of advice concerning being successful online.

Once you have your plan, follow it through. You made this plan for a reason, so stick with it. Still, don’t be afraid to try something new. Consider following the advice of others who’ve paved the way, for you, by being successful online.

#3 – Tweak your Plan to Make it Work for you

Not every work plan is going to be successful. Re-Evaluate your plan a few months down the road to see what is working and what isn’t. Consider changing your plan to suit your needs. I’ve had many failures before I’ve found success. You just need to be consistent. If you know your plan is a winner, keep at it! Money isn’t made overnight. Well, at least not initially.

Having a disability does not have to be a barrier when you try to make yourself successful online. The Internet is your oyster. Now, all you have to do is dive in head first to find that pearl.

Technorati Tags: disability, internet, oyster, job, blogging, writing, entrepreneur, business, work online