teecup limited

Latest Google update changes SEO keyword positioning strategy for writers

2012-04-30T05:00:00.000-04:00

Google did it again.

It wiped out a lot of sites from the organic search results just a couple of days ago.

If you're a freelance writer who mainly crafts web content for a living, here's a heads up for you: You can cut some slack on canned content and exact keyword positioning, and give natural writing a big welcome hug. Hurray!

The Old Way

For quite a while, search engine optimization (SEO) specialists managed to game the system and manipulate search results by:

using key phrases in the exact same order -- even if they do not make sense
using formatting techniques (bold, italics, underlines) to emphasize the key words
positioning the key phrases "strategically" so that they appear in the title, in the body, and in the last paragraph

That was how things used to work.

The New Way

Today, the web is abuzz with a new technique called partial matching, which appears to favor natural writing and which will hopefully change the quality of freelancing content creation assignments that you receive from your clients.

The following are now allowed (and even encouraged):

transposing or changing the order of words in an assigned key phrase
using punctuation and other words in between the key words
using only a partial combination of words

More Variations, More Legroom

Exact keyword matching is strict with the sequence of the words. You and your readers have no choice but to make sense of some unheard of phrases in the exact same order as they appear.

As you can see in the following examples, partial matching allows you to produce several variations of the key phrase. This gives you a lot of legroom for creative expression.

Key Phrase

make money online freelance writing

Exact Match

You can make money online freelance writing for clients at Guru and Elance.
I don't know how to make money online freelance writing. How do I even begin?
Quit wasting your hours on Facebook. Take our advice: Make money online freelance writing.

Partial Match

Freelance writing is one of the quickest ways to make money online this summer.
Writing online for money can make you rich - only if you do not sell yourself short.
Freelance. Make your online hours count by writing for money.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, there's no telling when Google will change its search and quality guidelines again. No matter how much and how often SEO rules changes though, there is one thing to be happy about: Quality content is and shall remain king.*

Why Canned Content Sells

2012-03-25T13:15:00.000-04:00

Is creativity underrated?

Writing, fine arts, and music belong to the realm of creatives, and typically, many creative people spend hours just brainstorming how to produce their next masterpieces.

Does this sound just like you? If it does, then you're probably not going to like the current landscape. Imagine pumping articles, videos, and logo designs under time pressure just to meet weekly or monthly quotas.

Very few creatives actually get to enjoy the opportunity of working in an environment that truly promotes careful thought processing. These days, the demand for canned content has overtaken the need for well-conceived output. Here's why:

Product vs. Process

Writing and related activities are theoretically both a product and a process, but most people fail to realize this. Even though you're a fast worker, you don't just spend 100 percent of the shift on actual writing. Part of the work involves research and organization too.

So, between product and process, employers would rather see tangible proof and pay for the product only rather than spend their cash so you can brainstorm the hours away. The rare exception would be consultancies where businesses give you money for your professional opinion.

Profiteering with Passable Content

Time is gold. Every second wasted is profit lost. Just try to scan job advertisements. You're bound to find plenty that mention the need to "populate websites with content." These clients are not so big on quality as long as the article passes for unique content under Copyscape.

Apparently, unique and generic writing is quicker to produce and costs much less than an original masterpiece. Start-up websites require only passable written work to begin wooing the search engines. To distinguish between original vs. unique, don't miss the post on freelancers' jargons.

Markets for Paraphrasing

It's no hoax. There are paying markets for rehashed ideas that require good paraphrasing skills and nothing more. You don't have to write from scratch as there's a ready material for you to work on.

The output: Canned content, of course. You see; no matter how well worded, paraphrased work basically conveys boiler plate ideas, and they could be needed for:

Split Testing Websites. Businesses often use and compare two or more versions of the same website to find out which performs better in search engine ranking, lead generation, or conversion.

Some design elements and features are changed, but in most cases, the content remains the same. It's not unusual to be asked to rewrite "About Us" and "Privacy" pages, for instance.

Link Building. Yes, Google Panda slapped a lot of sites, especially the known content mills. However, there are a number of marketing directories that survived the updates: Ezine is still a PR 6 site, and Article Pros is still a PR 4 directory.

So long as these directories remain in business and maintain their page rank, companies will continue to submit canned content and link these back to their website.

Private Label Rights (PLR) Books. Establishments that are into selling PLR books (which come with the license to distribute, resell, or modify the materials) normally offer rewriting services too.

With few exceptions, PLR books hardly contain in-depth, good-quality write-ups. Companies still buy the stuff though to get an overview of possible writing topics and to make easy money by re-branding and reselling the materials as part of a "new and improved" PLR collection.

All in all, these directions are changing the game plan, the attitudes, and the quality of writing professionals that you meet online. If you're a creative or if you write for a living, how do you feel about these developments?*

Blogging Hiatus - How Come?

2012-02-17T23:25:00.001-05:00

Year 2011 was a prolific year for Teecup Limited. After 140 posts, great friends, a nice page rank boost and steady payments from the blog advertising network, who wouldn't be in a roll?

This year, the blog didn't exactly begin with a bang. However, Teecup intends to get back in the game -- but not without touching a bit on blogging hiatuses.

A hiatus is synonymous to a break or an interruption. Sometimes, long hiatuses can lead to the death of a blog site. Sometimes, they are so short that you won't even notice a blogger's absence.

Call them excuses, alibis or justifications if you like. There are plenty of reasons that bloggers go on a hiatus.

The whys range from the most mundane such as forgetting passwords and finding yourself too sleepy to write because of medications to the most serious such spending time in the hospital and surviving a tragedy.

By far and as experience goes to show, the most common causes are:

A Full-Time Job. People have got to work. Regardless of whether you found a day job or entered into a freelancing agreement for clients on a fixed schedule, work hours are hours you cannot spend posting new content to your blog site.

Some bloggers argue that you can always sneak in a blog post or two while on the job. Work ethics dictate that you don't. Clients pay you to work for them and not to maintain your blog.

Besides, if you're familiar with Elance and Odesk hourly jobs, you've got trackers to deal with. The trackers not only record your time; they also take a snap shot of your active screen every few minutes to let clients know how the job is progressing. Save yourself from the embarrassment.
Blogger Burnout. Did you post too frequently that you ran out of fresh ideas? Were you too stressed to even recall you had a blog? Were you frustrated that blogging for you did not turn out to be as profitable as your friends predicted?

A sudden drain of inspiration and creativity can plague the most brilliant bloggers. If this happened to you too, you're not alone. (Luckily, there are ways to deal with blogger burnout.)

Needless to say, unless you're actually employed to maintain somebody else's blog site, don't force yourself to create content just for the sake of keeping the blog site alive. Poor and irrelevant content not only takes a toll on your credibility; it can also have a detrimental effect to your fan following.
Personal Time and Ties. Blood is thicker than water. When loved ones begin to complain that you're "more married" to your computer, that's a serious sign that you need to lay back and cultivate on your social relationships.

Like blogs, friendships require maintenance too. The only difference is that you deal with more than just content or a good conversation; you need to meet expectations and let people feel that you're there and that they're still important.

The list isn't exhaustive. However, the reasons cited bring to mind a couple of realizations:

First, bloggers who are able to continue the craft for years deserve a medal. Though it's easy to string words and write about what you want whenever you want to, it takes a lot of discipline to keep the faith and sustain the momentum.

Second, online users are very utilitarian. Reading audiences can decide to stop patronizing a blog site once they've gotten all the info they need. In the same way, blog owners can choose to go on a hiatus because they have other priorities.

More importantly, the time you spend on something defines your priorities. If something really matters to you, you will find time for it. As a blogger, you will find a way to overcome your blogging challenges.*

Blog advertising network Adgitize closes

2012-01-07T01:04:00.006-05:00

Following the demise of CMF ads, Adgitize is the next blog advertising network to bite the dust.

"Costs to run the business were more than the revenues generated," explained the founder, Ken Brown, in his December 27 announcement.

photo credit: vdaiga

As such, all types of Adgitize members would stop receiving points (converted to cash) after January 1st this year, and by January 10th, payouts and refunds will have been sent to those who indicated valid PayPal addresses.

Adgitize had been in business for 3 years and was lauded by blog advertisers for the network's ability to deliver world-class advertising on a blogger's budget.

For a flat fee of $14 a month, advertisers enjoyed instant traffic correction and rebates for page views and blog visits. Publishers who did not spend on advertising were also given point incentives for updating their blog, visiting other member's sites, referring advertisers and posting on the forum.

The shut-down of Adgitize is sad news for the owners behind the 17,000 registered blogs in the network, but it did not come as a surprise. Keeping the fees low and the incentives generous was simply not feasible for the long-term survival of Adgitize as a business entity, pointed out Plin, an Adgitize member and the author behind My Frugal Ways.

In November 2009, Adgitize increased its monthly advertising fee to $24 but when many advertisers opted out of the service, the network rolled back the fee to $14 a month after. In July 2011, points for forum posting were removed.

In September 2011, prices for second ads were reduced in an attempt to entice members to advertise more blogs with the network. Adgitize needed at least 200 ads to make the system work, revealed Brown. This target was never reached. During the mid-2011, there were fewer than 170 ads running in the network.

By December 2011, Brown announced that Adgitize would be shutting down.

Bloggers are now unsure where to turn to next for cost-effective advertising. One thing is for certain though: Adgitize and Ken Brown will be greatly missed.*

Thursday, blogs got slapped by Google Panda

2011-10-06T03:48:00.001-04:00

This is not a regular blog post for Teecup Limited. This entry does not discuss freelancing, writing or working from home. Consider it a sporadic burst of emotion.

Something weird happened today... apart from the fact that Apple's Steve Jobs passed away (may his soul rest in peace).

Is it just us or did Google Panda decide that the blogosphere is a pet peeve?

We were doing our rounds on Adgitize when we noticed that not just one -- but all of the blog sites we checked out lost their page rank from 1, 2, 3 and 4 to a measly N/A - ours included, of course.

Out of disbelief, we snooped into ProBlogger, the Huffington Post and Technorati. Surprise, surprise. The blogging giants also lost their precious PR. Even Cat versus Human, which had a fabulous book launched yesterday, was not spared of the PR stripping.

What could have happened? Was it just us or did you smell something fishy too? Did your blog get slapped by Google Panda? Or is this all a bad dream?

We're going bonkers! Violent reactions, comments and rebukes - post them in our box. We're eager to know what you think.

XOXO,

Teecup and the Kitty Gang (Vanilla, Munchkin and Cookie Boy)

P.S. The kitty pic comes courtesy of Kitty Stampede. Kawaii (Cute)!

How much is the charge for writing a 500-word article, blog post or sponsored review?

2011-10-03T06:42:00.000-04:00

There have been numerous standards published online on what should be and how much freelance writers should charge for their work.

Sad to say, there is a huge divide between the ideal rate and the actual rate that freelancers receive.

It's about time that we set the record straight, and find out how much or how little money you can really make from online writing.

If you have worked online or have received monetary compensation for writing web content (general articles, blog posts, sponsored reviews, short essays), can you participate in the poll question please and select the figure that best applies to you? The poll question is found at the bottom-most part of the sidebar and appears immediately after the Classic Subscription Box.

The million-dollar question is: On the average, how much were you paid for writing a 500-word article? The word count is approximately equivalent to one page of content.

Your answers will be of great help to aspiring writers and freelancing newbies who need a realistic estimate for quoting projects. Thank you ahead for your participation.*

How to Set Your Freelancing Fees

2011-10-01T00:19:00.000-04:00

One of the inevitable questions that freelancers will encounter from potential clients has to do with money. How much do you charge to get the job done?

This blog post will walk you through the basics of setting your freelancing fees. No exact figures will be given. That part is for you to decide.

There are basically two ways to charge your client: by the hour or by the project. You may often hear the terms being referred to as "hourly jobs" and "fixed price jobs."

By the Hour

Some freelancing positions entail a variety of tasks and outcomes. Because the required output changes from day to day, clients pay you for the time you spend working for them. Many will expect you to commit to a few hours everyday to receive instructions. Most virtual assistant positions and data entry work are paid by the hour.

The advantage of working on hourly jobs is that whether you can "deliver" or not, you will receive compensation. You need to convince the client though that you are a fast worker, and not a slacker. Most hourly jobs start out with a trial period.

By the Project

Freelance work that requires a specific output are often charged by the project. Examples of the required output include videos, articles and web content.

Charge per word. The cent-per-word payment method used to be a standard among freelance writers for conventional magazines. The same method is now being used by a number of freelance writers who supply web content. Depending on how good you are and how you market your skills, the charge may fall anywhere from 1 to 75 cents a word.
Charge per article. Online article writers usually charge per article or per page. The assumption is that a "standard" article contains between 400 and 500 words, excluding the title. The going rate for article writing depends on the community or bidding site that you belong to.

In Freelancer for instance, clients expect to pay only $1 to $3 an article, which is not much really when you consider the hours you spend researching the topic, writing the article and proofreading your work.
Charge per minute. Not to be confused with hourly work, the per-minute rate pertains to the duration of a final video. The time it takes to produce such video will of course range from a couple of hours to days and weeks. A lot of animation artists charge a fixed price for every minute of video or animation produced.

The fixed-price arrangement is more advantageous to the client than to the freelancers, because the customer pays for the finished outcome - regardless of the number of hours spent to accomplish the work. As a freelancer, you will not receive payment until you are able to turn over the output to the client's satisfaction and within an agreed due date.

Keeping You and Your Client(s) Happy

Setting your freelancing fees requires that you strike a delicate balance between the value that you can give to your client and the value that you assign to yourself and to your work.

Although cheap has long been associated with poor quality, it is not correct to assume that charging steep fees will guarantee the best quality either. You will just have to find a sweet spot that will keep both your client and you happy.

As you ponder on how you should charge for your work, don't forget to check out the post "Pricing Advice for Freelancers." *

Elance minimum rates down from $50 to just $20

2011-09-30T06:05:00.001-04:00

A Delayed Commentary on Elance Minimum Rates for 2011

This may sound like sour milk to Elance providers, but I was shocked with the major changes to the Elance minimum rates for 2011.

The company apparently lowered the minimum from $50 to just $20 for fixed jobs, and from $5 down to $3 for hourly jobs.

The changes took effect some time August 2011 this year, so this commentary is a delayed reaction. I was away from the system for a long time to do a couple of off-line projects. I logged back in yesterday. Never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate one of the most popular job bidding sites online to take such drastic measure!

Like Opening a Can of Worms

The minimum $50 was already a pain to begin with for a lot of freelancers from the United States and Europe. Lowering the amount by $30 more was just horrible. It's just like opening a can of worms. How so? Read on.

More projects are being posted indeed, but majority of the openings are small-time jobs - the same tasks you will find listed on sites such as Microworkers, Freelancer and Craigslist.
Vacancies tagged with higher amounts almost always come with a catch. Read the project description, and you will notice a number of potential clients demanding "high-quality" articles from "native English speakers" at $1 to $2 a piece.
The impression that there are now more jobs on Elance has attracted an unhealthy influx of providers who would do almost anything just to get hired. You'll notice American providers low-balling their way and some Asian freelancers gaming the system by indicating a geographic home base in the US or in Canada.
Elance has some serious branding issues to take care of. The pattern is becoming all too clear: "reasonable" becomes "economical" becomes "cheap."

Justifications, Justifications

Elance attributes the direction to market pressure. One of the company's goals is to allow clients and providers to meet. If it cannot attract enough paying clients, then Elance will not be able to stay in business.

With a job minimum requirement of only $20, the system is clearly attempting to attract the small-time businesses into the fold, allowing employers who are out to "test the waters" in order to discover the "best" freelancer for the job to post smaller projects.

Fearless Forecast

That part I get, but I'm still not a happy camper.

The Elance minimum rates for 2011 will do more harm than good over long term. Smaller jobs will populate the job boards. Employers will use the limited job scope and budget as their bargaining chip to hire only the cheap freelancers. Decent providers will get ticked off by the insulting rates and leave. Low-ballers will take over.

Sooner or later, Elance will become just like Freelancer. Scary. *

Quick Fix - Google+ Not Showing on Social Sharing Buttons

2011-09-28T20:40:00.002-04:00

Good news: If you're on Blogger, you can easily show the Google+ button with one click. All you need to do is enable the Social Sharing buttons.

photo credit: Geek Yard

Bad news: The technique works only for classic templates - the good but limited stuff including the ethereal, watermark, classic, and simple styles.

For those of you using different themes and modded templates (like Teecup Limited's theme from Dzignine), the Google+ button will not appear along with the rest of the social sharing buttons.

You need to edit the HTML design to fix the problem. Below is a proven effective, step-by-step guide shared by Blogger Plugins. I suggest that you visit the site directly so you can view the illustrations, and copy and paste codes with ease.

Step 1: Enable the social sharing buttons if you have not done so yet.

From the new Blogger dashboard:

Click "Layout."
Look for "Blog Posts" and press "Edit."
Check the "Show Share Buttons" and save the changes.

From the old Blogger dashboard:

Click "Design."
Look for "Blog Posts" and press "Edit."
Check the "Show Share Buttons" and save the changes.

Step 2: Edit the HTML design.

From the new Blogger dashboard:

Click "Template."
Select "Edit HTML"
Press "Expand Widget Templates."

From the old Blogger dashboard:

Click "Design."
Select "Edit HTML."
Press "Expand Widget Templates."

Step 3: Add the following code:

<div class='post-share-buttons'>
<b:include data='post' name='shareButtons'/>
</div>

AFTER any one of these lines:

<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'>
<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'>
<data:post.body/>

Preview and save.

Step 4: Replace the Share Button code.

Select the code from <b:includable id='shareButtons' var='post'> until </b:includable>
Replace the selected code with a new includable block.
Preview and save.

Step 5: Insert a script.

Look for </head>
ABOVE IT, paste the following code:
<script src='https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'/>
Preview and save.

That's it! You may have to do all 5 steps for Google+ to appear along with the official social share buttons on Blogger. Note that the Google Buzz icon is gone. In its place should appear your Google plus button.*

A Day in the Life of a Freelancer and Her Cats

2011-09-24T07:30:00.003-04:00

This is a scheduled blog post featuring my favorite entries from the blog site Cat versus Human. The comic strips pretty much paint an exact picture of how cats and freelancers (and their partners) co-exist:

While you enjoy the comic strips, don't miss these two relevant posts on Teecup Limited. Caution: You might actually need to love cats in order to be "in the zone."

Cats and Writers and the Great Connect

Cat-Inspired Writing Tips to Speed Up Your Work

Enjoy!

Is DoNanza any good?

2011-09-21T20:04:00.005-04:00

Is DoNanza any good? Can you trust it? Is it legit or a scam? There were no complaints and violent user reviews (yet), so it's safe to say (for now) that you can include DoNanza in your circle of trust. The few reviews posted online only discussed the background of DoNanza. What is known:

DoNanza is a job search tool for freelancers.

It gathers postings from different established job sites, so that you can browse online opportunities without limiting your search to just one or two platforms. Once you find a work-from-home opportunity that interests you, you will have to register with the respective site before you can apply for the job. So, the "Do It" button is really more of an "Apply" or "Sign me up" button.

DoNanza is a passive income earner for bloggers.

Bloggers need only to register with DoNanza and display a customizable widget on their respective blog sites. As a blogger, there are two possible ways that you can make money from DoNanza:

First, you earn some commission or referral fee whenever a reader finds and gets a job displayed on your widget. The calculations are not really clear though.

Second, you earn some money whenever someone posts a job advertisement through your widget. As opposed to the first method, the paid advertising option has a set monthly fee that you can decide for yourself.

So, is DoNanza any good?

For job hunters, definitely a yes.

For bloggers, it is best that you manage your expectations. It is possible (but not guaranteed) that adding the widget will lower your bounce rate, keep readers longer on your blog site and even encourage a few to keep visiting.

If you're keen on the money component though, then DoNanza might disappoint. The minimum threshold is $50 before bloggers get paid via PayPal. The site does not discuss any specific amount or calculation on how much you will actually receive for successful referrals, and nobody has blogged about getting paid yet.*

Pricing Advice for Freelancers Considering Long-Term Work

2011-09-20T13:30:00.002-04:00

Many freelancers dream of landing a long-term stint with a favorite online client some day. When the chances comes however, very few individuals are prepared to answer one very crucial question: How how much should you charge for freelance work?

Today's blog post will not discuss specific rates but will arm you with some tips on how you can reach a price that will keep you and your client happy.

First Projects

Always charge the full price on your first projects. Whether you like it or not, long-term clients do expect discounts for future work. Giving them such incentive is one way to bring in repeat business.

Another way to phrase the advice is: Never low-ball your way to win a regular project. You start low. You'll end up receiving less over time. Stay financially safe by anticipating a slice price cut when you commit for more work.

Revisions and Consultations

Be very clear about your pricing expectation for consultations and revisions. Plan a system that is mutually beneficial to your client's and your own interests.

For easy projects, you may offer to include revisions in your asking price already. Doing so affords the client some peace of mind that he will not be short-changed on the quality. At the same time, you are able to keep a tab on your schedule by accepting revision requests within an agreed time frame only.

For difficult projects, it is best that you set and inform the client of your professional fees. Brainstorming, planning and troubleshooting require your expert advice and time. It is only fair that you get paid for them. Charge by the hour, and make sure that when you are chatting with the client, you stay on topic.

Submission and Payment Milestones

Keep the working relationship smooth by paying your respective dues on a regular basis. Clients want to see output. Freelancers like you want to get paid.

Remember to give and take often. Do not wait for a month to update each other. You can give daily status reports and then turn over some work at the end of each week for partial payment.

By chopping your schedule into manageable sub-parts, you are able to iron out potential problems early. The payment will motivate you to finish the work on schedule. Clients will feel assured that you are indeed working on their project.*

Some Factoids on Writing and Procrastination

2011-09-19T12:20:00.000-04:00

Writing is one unique activity that sets the human race apart from the higher forms of animals, and yet it is also a dreaded exercise in the academe... a necessary evil in offices... a chore for many.

Does this sound familiar? You bet it is. It's not surprising that 9 out of 10 people procrastinate with their writing work - professors, bloggers and freelancers alike. On his May 5 entry at the APA Style blog, author and psychologist Paul J. Silvia explains why:

Procrastination is hardwired among human beings. It is part of man's nature to procrastinate. You cannot shake the thing off completely. You can only manage it to a healthy degree.
Writing does not come naturally. It is for the most part unpleasant and painful. Since the activity requires conscious effort, you tend to experience a sense of "relief" (and not joy) whenever you complete a piece of work.
The act of putting off things to another day is part of the creative process - that is on the assumption that your diversions are productive. Interrupting the writing process in order to cross-check facts is one example.
To manage procrastination, you need will power, a personal contract to reward yourself for writing, and a determination to make writing a habit. You might also fare better if you joined a writing group and set goals together.

As you can see, procrastination is a universal experience. Just don't allow yourself to indulge in it for too long or you will lose the race to other freelancers. News stories, books, articles and reading materials get published everyday and all of them around tight deadlines and definite due dates. The publishing industry won't wait for you.*

Protecting your work from content predators

2011-09-15T15:09:00.002-04:00

It's a crying shame that the world never runs out of copy cats. For blogger, artists, writers and freelancers alike, nothing can be more disheartening than to find your work stolen right under your nose.

Posting banners that read, "Do not copy" or "Do not plagiarize" eat up valuable space and do not often work. So, what do you do? You give the copycats a hard time stealing and claiming your precious content.

If you must create a sample write-up, then craft a teaser only. Teasers are not full-length pieces of work. On the average, 150 to 200 words should be enough to show your writing style.
Do not e-mail customized samples to a prospective client. Publish the work first on your online portfolio, and then give only the link.
Make sure you include a by-line and a date to your blog posts. A by-line is a one-liner text that mentions the name of the creator of the content (you).
Mail the blog posts to yourself right away and save the e-mail for future use. (Subscribing to your own feed is a fine way to automate the process). The e-mail will serve as proof that you were first to create the entry and hence the original author.
Disable the right-click and copy-paste functions of your blog site. The measure will deter manual copy-pasters from stealing your blog entries. Check out HyperGurl's site for HTML codes, Javascripts and detailed instructions.
Go easy on RSS feed readers. While these are meant to be shared and enjoyed by loyal readers, some people will tap on full RSS feeds to pirate your content. You may want to set your feed reader to syndicate your content partially.

Note: There are no-fail-safe measures to protect your work from content predators but by making copying difficult for site visitors, you discourage people from trying. Individuals who are too lazy to create their own work will most likely just move on to steal the content of the next unsuspecting target.*

How to Stretch Time on Tight Deadlines

2011-09-13T12:22:00.005-04:00

How do you stretch time so you can beat tight deadlines? Quick answer: You can't. There's no logical way that any freelancer can extend 24 hours to become 30 or 60 or 100. Luckily, there are a number of ways that you can get a good head start with your project:

photo credit: Mr. Puffin of That Cute Site

Begin early. "Do not put off until tomorrow what you can do today." Even when you cannot start writing yet, then at least start by planning how you can accomplish the work and by anticipating what may be needed along the way.

Set a working schedule and stick to it. It doesn't matter whether you work only 2 to 3 hours a day as long as you're really doing stuff related to your project. No TV breaks, chatting and Facebooking in between.

Think of the money. Sometimes, freelancing is not always about the money... but most of the time it is. Wouldn't you agree that money is a good motivator? The earlier you finish your work, the faster you can get paid.

Take advantage of the adrenalin rush. Do tight deadlines thrill you? Then think of everyday as your final day to turn over the work. You'll be surprised with how much you can really do in such a short time.

Declare a holiday from the house. Unless you really have no other choice, set aside strenuous household chores. The dishes, laundry and bills can easily shorten your head start. Delegate these responsibilities to someone else while you're busy pounding your key board.

Stay well fed. Don't memorize, skip or delay meals. Eat them on time. Your brain will need fuel to work efficiently. The last thing you want to happen is to get sick.

Follow these practical tips, and you'll get used to beating tight deadlines in no time. In fact, maybe you won't even notice the pressure anymore. All it takes is constant practice to get your freelancing groove up and running. Do you have anything to add to the list?*

4 Ways to Manage Your Freelancing Expectations

2011-09-08T12:08:00.005-04:00

"Manage your expectations." Many listings of second-hand items carry this all-around piece of advice, and from one freelancer to another, I'm all for it too.

I'm on to the final leg of one of the most difficult writing projects I have ever handled. I really feel like I could drop dead anytime. I can hardly wait to get the task off my chest. It's high time I get my perky little self back!

While a non-disclosure agreement prohibits me from discussing the nature of the work further, suffice it to say that the project took a toll on my health and sensibilities. I'm not whining. All I'm saying is that I learned 4 valuable lessons from my ordeal. As you can guess, they all relate to how you can manage your expectations as a freelancer:

Prepare for the worst. Balance your optimism with a proper dose of Murphy's Law: "If anything can go wrong, it will." Keeping this kind of mind set will help you stay on track. It will help you plot a work flow chart -- complete with back-up plans and all -- for problems that you anticipate with your client, with the work flow, with the skills needed to execute the project and with payment.
Know yourself fully. Affirmation is important. However, do not let other people impose their beliefs on you. Deep inside, you know fully well what you can and cannot accomplish. To work on your weaknesses is all fluffy and nice, yet it does not always apply to real-world freelancing. You'll end up messing the schedule, compromising the quality, and short-changing the client if you accept jobs that you find too difficult to handle.
Think of yourself as a human being, not a machine. You're not always at your peak. Real people get tired over the long run. As such, allow a few days or a few weeks of leeway on your quoted delivery date. If you feel that you can finish something in 3 days' time, tell your client you'll have the product ready in a week. There are no rules penalizing early submissions. Missed deadlines are a different matter.
When all else fails, accept the reality that crap does happen. Out of 10 attempts, only 6 or 7 are hits; the rest are misses. This is how life works. Regardless of how much you strive for perfection, there simply is no fail-safe way that you can avoid freelancing mistakes. Be careful, and yet be ready to take blows as they come. More importantly, make the most out of your mistakes. Learn from them. Grow from them. Be a better freelancer on your next project down the line.

Freelancing should be done with zest... If it's beginning to sound like a chore, it means you're close to the burnout meter. *

Freelancer Unrest with PayPal to Unionbank Delayed Transfers

2011-09-05T11:24:00.002-04:00

Breaking news. There's trouble in paradise. Freelancers are fuming mad.

Check Unionbank's Facebook fan page and in the discussions board, you will unearth a mountain of complaints and rants regarding delays in PayPal to Unionbank transfers.

Where before it takes only 2 to 3 days for your PayPal funds to be reflected on your Unionbank statement, the processing period has lagged to 5 days and even 2 weeks for many.

What is strange is that whenever reports and issues of a similar nature are raised, Unionbank stays mum. It is understandable that newbies who are not familiar with the PayPal verification process may have (1) failed to indicate the correct bank code (2) mistaken the ATM card number for the bank account number or (3) used incongruent names for the PayPal account and the Unionbank account.

The fact that the rants stem from old users indicates that something is amiss.

Haters are now threatening to cross over to other banks. One user wrote, "Better na bumalik ako sa dating bank ko... kasi kahit may charge, na-rereceive ang funds on time. (I am thinking of reverting to my old bank because although it charges a service fee, I can receive the funds on time.)"*

Free Advertising Platforms for Online Entrepreneurs

2011-09-02T05:38:00.006-04:00

Blog shops are not fly-by-night businesses. You need to tend to them with care and consistency as you would any regular blog site.

If you feel that you're not yet ready to set up your own web store and blog site in one, then one of the easiest ways to begin selling and making money online is to take advantage of free advertising platforms.

Unlike blog shops which require some commitment to writing and updating, typical online advertisements are easier to craft, are not text-intensive and normally expire within 30 to 60 days' time. A lot of them resemble brief landing pages where you are expected to post all the necessary details that:

- would convert readers to buyers

- gain the trust of prospective customers
- tell the audience how to contact you and how to make a purchase
- inspire buyer confidence in the product that you are trying to market (e.g., posting actual photos)

Ebay aside (since it deserves a blog post of its own), here are some conventional blog shop alternatives where you can list your online ads for free:

Sulit.com.ph

"Sulit" is a Tagalog term that means "value for money" or "good buy." The site is fairly easy to navigate and is monitored by administrators who are quick to take action on complaints against bogus sellers and suspicious members. There is also a forum where buyers, sellers and moderators can interact.

You are assigned points for any of your activities within the advertising platform: commenting on an ad, leaving seller-buyer feedback or simply logging on to the site. To advertise for free however, you need to reach a certain benchmark of points. You can upgrade your membership for a fee, which rewards you with points that you can use to post and renew ads.

Pros:

- good feedback system
- active forum
- responsive moderators
- clear rules and penalties
- preview of member's activity stream within the site
- targeted traffic (most who visit the site are seriously planning to buy or sell stuff)

Cons:

- the lowest price almost always wins
- no buyer protection although reported bogus sellers can be booted from the site
- membership upgrade is necessary if you plan to advertise many products

OLX.com.ph

Resembling Craigslist a lot, On Line Exchange or OLX.com.ph is a typical virtual classifieds site where "For sale" and "Looking for" ads may be placed and categorized according to type, geographical location and price.

The registration process is pretty painless, and once you've verified your account, you can immediately post an ad. You cannot expect to see the ad go "live" right away though. By default, your ad stays active for only 30 days. You will then need to enter your credit card information in order to "promote" and "feature" your ad. Doing otherwise basically means that the ad might sit at the bottom of the search results.

Pros:

- easy registration process
- some buyer protection offered if you link your PayPal address to the payment section of the ad
- you can upload your XML feed and this makes sense when you have many ads to post
- the site lets you sponsor links through Google adwords

Cons:

- no feedback system
- no clear rules or published penalties for reported offenders, spammers and scammers
- the search button is unwieldy and does not return extensive or helpful results
- site traffic, member activity and conversions are not that impressive when compared to Sulit.com.ph
- payment needed to "feature" your ad

AyosDito.ph

In English, "Ayos dito" stands for "It's cool here" or "It's all good here." True to its name, the site is uncluttered and indeed easy on the eyes. Buyers get to select the geographic location where they can view "For sale" ads. The catch: The ads are displayed on a last-published, first-to-appear-on-the-listing basis.

The sort by price option is your only redeeming factor to get noticed. This means that if you want to sell something, your price needs to be competitive enough to catch the prospective customer's attention. Considering that some items sell for only P1 or P15, it does appear very remote that you can pull off some sales for merchandise in the P1,000 price tag.

What makes AyosDito slightly different from Sulit.com.ph and OLX.com.ph is that the registration process has been combined with the ad placement procedure. You must write your ad first. To confirm the ad as fit for publication, you will need to tick a box that authorizes AyosDito to own the contents of your ad placement. The final step is to click on the verification link sent by the staff to your e-mail. The waiting time required for your ad to show up is approximately 3 hours.

Pros:

- easy layout
- your ad stays active for 60 days
- posting an ad is absolutely free, no top-ups whatsoever

Cons:

- the site owns the contents that you post: pictures, advertising copy, basically everything
- your ad is easily displaced by newer posts; you rarely get to enjoy page 1 exposure for long
- no feedback system
- search listing function allows only posts to be sorted by date or price
- site traffic, member activity and conversions are not that impressive when compared to Sulit.com.ph

Have you tried any of the three? Which one do you find most effective: Sulit, AyosDito or OLX? We'll discuss more advertising platforms soon, so stay tuned! *

The Blog Shop Bandwagon - Where Do You Begin?

2011-08-30T05:03:00.002-04:00

Take a look at Multiply sites, and you will see that the place has evolved from a mere blogging platform to a thriving online marketplace. People are posting less of personal photos and uploading more pictures of merchandise for sale. A lot of Facebook users have become hybrid traders on the social networking site.

Setting up a blog shop these days seems like a painless process. Even teens and college students have eagerly ventured on the blog shop bandwagon with little apprehensions. If you want to join the fun, then nobody's stopping you. Here are some general guidelines and hints to help you out.

Know what you want to sell and are capable of selling. Do you want to market goods or services or both? If blogging is something that you don't really enjoy or have time for, then you may want to set up a conventional web store instead of a blog shop.
Consider your role in the market place. Are you a direct seller or a reseller? Buyers prefer to transact business with direct distributors over middlemen, but it's a given that the number of resellers far outnumber direct suppliers. Make your role clear to your potential buyers.
Select where you want to put up your shop. Many considerations come to mind - Is the platform secure? Is it user-friendly? Does it allow you to customize the look of your shop or integrate other software? Is the site scalable? Are there any restrictions? We'll look into these options in the next blog post, so stay tuned.
Choose an advertising medium. When you're just starting out, you don't have to think right away of paying for advertisements. Some communities allow ad posting. Oftentimes, the best way to start spreading word about your shop would be through friends and referrals.
Anticipate your needs. As a seller, you might require order forms, shopping carts, vouchers, a phone line and flexible modes of payment. You might even want to upgrade your PayPal account from a personal account to a business account. At any rate, putting yourself in the shoes of the buyer will really help you anticipate your needs better.*

Blog Shop - A Lucrative Venture for Sellers Who Love to Write

2011-08-22T23:50:00.003-04:00

Teecup Limited has been pretty quiet for a couple of weeks -- this is all for good reason. I've decided to take a detour from pure web content writing to a fun and lucrative venture called online selling. Simply put, I opened a blog shop.

The Defining Elements

So, what exactly is a blog shop? To put it bluntly, a blog shop is a hybrid of a web log and an online shop. It slightly differs from your typical e-commerce sites in at least two ways:

The blog is the heart of the blog shop. Fresh content takes the center stage. Without the blogging element, the site can easily pass for a traditional online store where you see shopping carts and photos of products for sale.
The home page of the blog shop is not static. Depending on how frequently the seller updates the site, the home page typically reflects your latest posts. Majority of the blog posts reflect the publication date, so that readers are assured that the shop is not one of the virtual white elephants.

If you love to write and know how to sell things using your flair for words, then setting up a blog shop might be just your thing.

You need not limit yourself to selling tangible products. You can also sell your services and use the blog shop to strengthen your online portfolio for a number of lucrative web content writing thrusts such as ad copy writing, product description writing, blog posting, and regular article writing.

Judgment Call on Content

Generic e-commerce sites all follow a similar pattern. Apart from the standard "About Us" and "Contact Us" pages, majority of the online stores devote a huge percentage of their space to displaying the items for sale, including the prices, shipping charges and a "check out" shopping cart.

Blog shops may also have all of the above-mentioned features. When it comes to content creation, the seller has full creative control. It's not enough to include just the price updates. There are plenty of other things that you can do as a writer and seller:

Include informative articles. Doing so can assure customers that you know what you're doing. Articles also help to build your credibility as a seller and help prospective buyers to get to know the product fully before making a purchase.
Elaborate on the products for sale. One-liner descriptions are okay, but if you are selling electronic products, don't just copy and paste the specs. Write a convincing user review, especially when you have had first-hand experience with the gadget you're marketing.
Give your potential buyers a choice. Press releases and testimonials are fine, but be careful of sounding too aggressive. Provide your customers the information they need to come up with a decision by themselves. Stating the mall price and your selling price is a very effective and subtle sales pitch.
Establish your online presence. Provide a paper trail of feedback, as this builds buyer confidence in your blog shop. Respond to inquiries in a polite, timely and comprehensive manner. Responsive online sellers are twice more likely to succeed than individuals who stick to just text messaging.

Profiting from Your Blog Shop

Physical stalls and mall space all incur steep overhead costs for rental and maintenance. With a blog shop, you cut these operational expenses. Furthermore, by combining your online selling and web content writing activities, you benefit from the blog shop in the following ways:

You get to hone and test your web content writing skills: ad copies, online articles, blog posts, product descriptions, user reviews and sundry. You will even develop the discipline to stick to the topic and to a schedule along the way. Your best critics are your own prospective buyers.
You get to reinforce your online portfolio. There is no better testament to how good a copy writer you are than by showing to prospective clients that you run your own shop and that you've made a handsome amount of money by selling products with your crisp and convincing copies.
You get to diversify your income stream. Churning out pure web content for clients may burn out even the most passionate writer. Online selling lets you take a fun breather from heavy deadline-oriented projects and allows you to make money from the web all the same.
You get to socialize and network with netizens who share your interest in the same products. Depending on how open you are to making connections, you might well be on the way to establishing your own circle of trusted business partners, resellers and friends.*

Why Freelancers and Banks Do Not Jibe

2011-08-05T20:46:00.005-04:00

If the world were free from robberies, break-ins and all sorts of criminal tactics, there's no doubt that freelancers would choose a good old piggy bank over a real bank.

Sad to say, the latter has become an integral part of any transaction imaginable.

Whether you get paid for freelancing or for reporting to your day job, your earnings eventually end up in your bank account.

Even PayPal funds are not exempt. To note, one of the primary reasons that you want to verify your PayPal account is not only to lift the spending limit but also to allow you to move your PayPal funds to your ATM or bank account.

Financial Suicide

The sense of necessity and the false assurance of security that comes when experts hold your money for you make the banking institution the necessary evil that it is. Other than these, entrusting your entire earnings with the bank is financial suicide:

When you think of it, the bank gets to use your money for free but will charge exorbitant rates to individuals who want to make a loan (out of the money you just deposited). Not fair.
Penalties are everywhere: from average daily maintaining balances to dormancy fees and annual service charges, and God knows what. You're always on the tiptoe, because the bank is ready to cash in on the slightest misstep you take.
Each time you move money, the bank slaps you with charges and fees of all sorts. There's no such thing as a free lunch, but can you imagine having to pay the bank a huge cut of your check deposit or incoming remittance from abroad? Even the oh-so-convenient online banking system is ruthless in this respect.

Most banks will still ask you to pay up for inter-branch money transfers initiated online. For instance, from one BPI account to another, 150 pesos (for peso transfers) or 6.50 US dollars (for foreign currency transfers) from the receiving party will be withheld by the bank as service fee deduction.
Use the "wrong" ATM, and you get charged for every transaction you enter with the machine - be it in the form of a balance inquiry, an electronic fund transfer or a withdrawal. The average deduction ranges from 10 to 12 pesos per transaction type. This does not include other fees for international card holders and sundry.
Have your card "eaten" by the ATM machine, and get ready to shell out 100 to 150 pesos for a replacement card. Some banks follow a strict schedule for claiming the card and will destroy all unclaimed cards by the third day. You are at the bank's entire mercy.

When the bank files for bankruptcy and folds up, you're the last to know. You might not even know unless you read the headlines and until media will make a ruckus out of the event. As most depositors attest, getting your money back from the insurance company PDIC will be a long and tedious wait. Imagine having to wait for years to get your money back. Draining.

Local Fund Transfers from ODesk - Hyped

In April this year, ODesk stepped up with a workaround: the local fund transfer (LFT). For freelancers signed up with ODesk, doing direct bank transfers may turn out to be pocket-friendlier than taking the ODesk-to PayPal-to your bank account route. The bidding site lowered the withdrawal fee from 1.99 dollars to 99 cents, and your first withdrawal comes free.

News has it that ODesk to PayPal to bank fund transfers normally incur a minimum charge of 1.99 dollars, excluding the exchange rate by the third-party vendor and bank fees for remittance (zero actually from PayPal to EON). With the LFT, you are able to cut off PayPal (and its exchange rates and fees) as the intermediary. Your two worries would boil down to:

revealing your bank account information, which is risky when it reaches the wrong eyes
dealing with your local bank's inbound remittance fees

So, as you can see, the LFT eliminates only the middleman. In exchange, you would need divulge to the site your bank account details. The LFT option does little to resolve the freelancers' issue with the bank and its outrageous incoming remittance fees. To note, the following incoming remittance charges were reported by ODesk freelancers at a local forum:

Banco De Oro (BDO): 200 pesos
China Bank: 200 pesos
Land Bank: 50 pesos
Metrobank: 77 pesos
Philippine National Bank (PNB): 250 pesos
Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC): 100 pesos
Unionbank: 50 pesos

Yes, you read it right. The bank expects you to pay every time you put money to your account. The fees are no different actually when you transfer funds from PayPal to your bank. The only exception appears to be Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) which does not charge any incoming fee for local fund transfers. This privilege can only be enjoyed under the umbrella of ODesk. Under normal circumstances, the bank is notorious for its steep 150-peso incoming remittance fee.

Things to Remember

If you're using PayPal, the only bank which collects no remittance charge is Unionbank.
If you're doing local fund transfers from ODesk, the best choice would be BPI.
Don't let all of your money sleep in the bank.
To move your freelance earnings, choose the lesser of two evils.
Always research your options before transacting business.

Note: The photo of this piggy kitty of a bank comes from People's Daily Online. To view more photos of the adorably fat feline, check out the February 17, 2006 story. The feline is unnamed. What is known is that the super fat cat belongs to a Chinese man named Xu Jirong. *

Cutline Writing - 8 Winning Tips

2011-08-03T19:57:00.005-04:00

In Teaching by Principles, Brown compared writing to swimming. Not every human being can swim. Similarly, if you want to learn how to write, you've got to study, practice and hone the skill.

You have got to do things the right way, because perfection is not achieved by constant practice alone but by correct and constant practice.

Next to creating a humorous feature story, crafting a good cutline is one of the most difficult tasks for a serious journalist.

It is true that people publish photos everyday. A very small percentage of the images comes with effective cutlines and captions.

We already covered how you can write good photo captions last week. This time, we'll move to cutline writing. You'll need 8 tips to do the job right. Are you ready to think inside the box?

Mind the facts. Fact-check and spell-check your cutline. Any information you include must reflect the details published in the main story. Be careful about gender references, civil status and spelling of names. You want to be as accurate and as consistent as possible.
If the photo is an accompanying artwork, be a tease. Don't reveal all pertinent information in one blow. Remember that your main purpose is to hook the audience to read the full-length story. Visualize the image and the cutline as the appetizer. You want readers to proceed to the main course.
If the image is wild art, make conciseness your primary objective. Wild artworks are stand-alone images. They do not come with a full-length story. As such, it is essential that your cutline be as complete as possible.
Do not repeat the headline. Oftentimes, a single line or a short phrase is enough to help readers make the connection between the image and the main story. Don't risk writing a sloppy cutline for the sake of just having a cutline.
Edit out your opinion. Traditional mass communication is very strict about objectivity, so you might want to omit adjectives, interpretations and fictional allusions. Include only the facts. It's not surprising that the journalistic cutline reads a lot like straight news.
As with the case of writing good photo captions, do not mention the obvious. This will waste space and make your readers feel dumb. "As shown in the photo" "as mentioned" and "shown here" are common examples of trite wording, which is best avoided.
Add context. Shots of emotional events and facial expression tell a number of stories. It is wise to mention a related detail which led to the emotional outburst. For instance, if you publish an image of crying women, talk about the catastrophe in the cutline to help explain what the picture does not tell.
Keep it concise. You don't have to use more than two statements. Express the first in present tense, and the second one in past tense. Experts also suggest that you establish the timeline so as not to confuse the readers.

How do you like the list? For an extra treat and more insights to cutline writing, please do read Professor Malcolm Gibson's site Making Words Work.*

Photo Captions and Cutlines - the Difference

2011-08-02T19:40:00.005-04:00

The man on the streets uses the terms "caption" and "cutline" interchangeably.

In journalism, the two terms do not mean the same thing. A cutline refers to any textual information that accompanies a photo, while a caption is the headline or title that precedes the cutline.

Can you tell which is which?

Pasta for kitty. Available in tuna or anchovy sauce, the pasta pack retails at $1.50. Royal Spaghetti launched the product Monday at a Feline Park press conference.

As you may well guess, "Pasta for kitty" is the caption. The rest of the statements are the cutline.

In the case of one-liners, the accurate term to use is "cutline." The distinction is not obvious to common folks, which is why today, it is perfectly acceptable to interchange both terms.

Some things to keep in mind:

Most photos use a cutline.
Cutlines may or may not have a caption.
Notwithstanding the headlines, the cutline is the most read text in a broad sheet (or newspaper).
Crafting the cutline requires careful thought.
By journalistic convention, cutlines must be accurate, concise, complete and readable.
Distinguishing the caption is easy. It is the first to appear and it is usually formatted in bold.
When accompanying a cutline, the caption may consist of only a few words or a short phrase.
The cutline typically employs complete sentences.
Just like headlines, the first sentence is usually expressed in the present tense.
The second sentence is expressed in the past tense.*

Month 6 in the Blogosphere

2011-08-01T19:40:00.011-04:00

It's been six months that Teecup Limited has managed stayed up and running in the blogosphere.

Other bloggers have done it longer, but considering how easy it is to get derailed from a pursuit that pays nothing and imposes no disciplinary action to force an individual to "deliver," it's worth mentioning that genuine passion in blogging drives a blogger to be an active blogger.

Fast forward 120 posts later, what really happened between Month 1 and Month 6 of Teecup's blogging journey? Read on:

The site got indexed by Google 24 hours after the first few blog entries went live in January 2011. Analytics showed an average of 4 to 5 daily visitors.
The blog became part of the Adgitize blogging network in February 2011. The move dramatically improved the site's Alexa ranking from 14M to 600k.
Because no posts were published for May 2011, a lot of visitors thought the blog had already been abandoned. The last few entries talked about blogging in absentia.
By June 2011 and 100 blog posts later, the site became a PR1 blog. The kitty blog which only had about 10 posts was also assigned a site rank of 1.
On July 2011, Teecup Limited joined the Adgitize network of advertisers - a move that brought the average number of daily visitors to at least 50 and further improved the site's Alexa ranking from 600k to 300k.

What lies in store for the next half of the year? One thing is certain: The blog site will be walking hand in hand with friends who share Teecup's passion with writing, blogging and freelancing. A very special mention goes out to Chin Chin, Midnight Cowgirl, Umihoney and Geri for their regular visits and comments.

August is going to be a pretty busy month. Now, let's talk about your blogging milestones, shall we?*

Photo Caption Writing - 5 Cardinal Rules from Old School

2011-07-29T23:59:00.002-04:00

Some lessons from old-school journalism are alive and well. Take, for instance, photo caption writing.

When you write a blog entry and include a related online photo with your post, you are not obligated to add a caption.

For news stories, feature articles and other materials intended for print media publication however, using an appropriate and effective photo caption is essential. So, how do you start? You need to observe 5 cardinal rules:

State what the reader will need to know. Images may indeed "tell a story," but make sure you don't leave everything to guess work. Many professionals suggest that you include one or two answers to any of the five Ws (who, what, when, where, why) and one H (how).
Do not state the obvious. In the case of photos accompanying a main story, your central purpose is to highlight a specific detail. A lame caption for the photograph of a winning basketball team would be "basketball superstars." A better caption will mention the score or the point lead which led to the victory.
Omit wooden descriptives. Some phrases are overused and too obvious that they are best deleted. You will save space and your work will have more impact. Wooden descriptives include the likes of "as shown above" "in the photo" "as mentioned below" "as stated in the article" and "smile for the cam."
Keep things concise. You may use a phrase. Be careful that your photo caption does not sound like a telegram. It is perfectly alright to include the articles a, an and the. By rule of thumb, limit the caption to one to two lines only. The shorter, the better.
Express verbs in the present tense and active voice. As with conventional news headlines, the use of the present tense commands more attention and conveys more actionable news than a statement in the past tense. When in doubt, use your common sense.*