I was an advertiser on your site a few months ago and was surprised to see that you have not updated sohohappens since Nov 08. That is pathetic that you are still offering ads on your site that is dead. How do you expect to get real money if you are not making any updates? Not to mention how did you expect your advertisers to make money when no one is willing to come back to your site? Make an update, don’t be so fucking lazy.

Poor “James” must have been having a bad day…

“James”, I’m sorry to have upset you. I’m afraid that the reason this site hasn’t been updated in a while is strictly due to the fact that I am busy with multiple blog and website projects. Despite the fact that updates have been minimal, the site is indeed still gaining traffic and subscribers, which is a major plus to our advertisers.

So don’t give up on SOHOHappens yet “James”… we’ll try to not to be so lazy next time.

1) Your Knowledge

This is the first thing that must be incorporated into your price.  Depending on your amount of knowledge on the topic you have, represent that in your rate.  If you are new to the industry, you will want to keep your programming rates lower.  If you are an expert in the field, do not set yourself low to get projects.  Bid for what you can do and how well you can do it.

2) The Duration of the Projects

How long will it take you to accomplish the project.  If you can complete a project in 3 hours, try to keep your rates reasonable for 3 hours of work.  Although you may not need to specify an hourly programming rate, as many people go by fixed project rates, it is still good to keep it in mind so you are getting the hourly rate you desire.  If you can do the project in 3 hours, but bid a price for 10 hours, you can expect to give your competitors many of the jobs.  Although it is good to bid for a price to make profit, make sure your programing rates aren’t outrageous or selling you short.

3) The Complexity of the Projects

If your project is to research a topic and give what you found to the client, don’t expect your programming rates to be very high.  However, if your job is to research information, research keywords, write a unique article, and upload it to a blog, your job is more complex and your rates should show it.  Many jobs will have more complex requests than others.

There are also many other factors you should incorporate into your programming rates like the amount of work, your experience, the duration of you and your clients relationship, and so on, but these 3 factors are the major ones that should be looked at to begin with.

Remember, once you set your programming rates, stick to them.  Don’t lower rates to get more jobs, and don’t raise your rates without having reason to do so.  Many clients will ask for reasoning behind your bid for a project.  Be prepared to show proof you deserve these rates by supplying concrete reasons.

-Chris

For starters, think of your writing office as the type of writing you produce.  Simply put, if your office is a mess, don’t expect to create master pieces.  If your office is spectacular, expect your writing to bring back compliments from your clients.  If you think of it this way, I bet your thoughts on keeping a good, clean writing office as a higher priority.  So the first step is to clean your office and maintain it, so you can have an open space, free of clutter to write in.

The second step is to make your writing office comfortable.  The way you make it comfortable will be based upon your interests.  The easiest and best way to make your writing office comfortable is to paint your favorite color or by decorating your office with certain artifacts of a loved hobby, sport, or interest.  If you want a more naturally comfortable feel, incorporate tans, browns, and other shades of soothing colored objects into your writing area to help relax you.

There are some objects you can incorporate into your office to help you relax and not let the overwhelming amount of assignments or the fast coming due dates stress you out.  A CD player, water fountain, and indirect lighting are three sources of calming items that you can incorporate into your writing office to create the best working environment.

A CD player, like explained in the last post, can be a source of calming technology.  The ideal music is instrumental music.  Instrumental music is known to let your mind be free of stress, while opening it up to new, roaming thoughts, which can be beneficial in creating ideas in your writing.

A water fountain’s water clashing down brings a sound of healing and relaxation.  Water fountain also helps clearing your mind by helping it concentrate on other calming sounds, rather than distracting deadlines and assignments, letting you concentrate on the task at hand.

If you haven’t experienced indirect lighting in a room, you have too!  Indirect lighting, with orange shaded dim lighting is the most comfortable lighting source one can obtain in their office.  It is a soothing orange color, which is easier on your eyes and also gives of a comfortable warm feeling when you are surrounded by it.

Hopefully these tips will help you create the ideal home writing office in order for you to feel comforatble and accomplish all of your work, without major amounts of stress.

-Chris

The topic I would like to mention are the most common household distractions that will inturupt you on your way to a writing success.  These items should be avoided in order to stay focused.

The biggest distraction is your phone.  Since you are home, many people will be inclined to calling you in order to talk, ask you a question, or just to catch up on life.  This will take time away from your writing, increasing the amount of time you need to work to finish up an assignment or an article.

The second distraction is your computer itself.  Checking your email, keeping a close eye on stocks you have invested in, searching to find out sports information to stay updated, or even reading up on something you would like to know about are all distractions on a computer.  If you are into video games, a person would also be tempted to take a break and play a little.  Wrong idea!

The third distraction are radios, which can be both a distraction and a helpful supplement you to a writing success.  Now, certain types of music can be very beneficial to your writing.  This is usually instrumental music that will relax you.  Whether it is tropical sounds, or a piece by Mozart, instrumental works of all kinds can help you write with a clear mind.  The music I am talking about is distracting sources such as rock, hip hop, alternative, or anything that will make you think more about what is going on in the song, rather than help you write.  Radio stations, even if they have instrumental music, are really still sources of distraction, as they have interrupting announcements, and commercials which can intervene with your flow of thoughts.  This is why most turn to buying CD’s or downloading from iTunes.

There is one more type of distraction, which is your writing office.  I will discuss an ideal type of office you should use for a base guide in order to have the best atmosphere to write in.

Make sure to eliminate distractions out of your writing surroundings, and you can expect to be one more step to a writing success.

-Chris

What you can do to write articles online as one of your ideas for money, and generate the most profit, is to keep yourself on a time schedule. A time schedule will keep you on-track for deadlines, while also giving you the best structure to generate more money.

How does it generate more money? Say you give yourself 6 hours to write articles online, per day. If you can write an article in 30 minutes, then you are in good shape to take on the writing career. Many people can write faster than this, but for new writer’s insights, we will keep it a little longer. This means you can write 12 articles with this idea for money. If you can get $10-$12 per article, this means at least $120 a day. Not bad for 6 hours you used to write articles online, in the comfort of your home. Keeping yourself to these time schedules as you write articles online, as one of your ideas for money, will benefit you the most.

$120 for five days a week comes out to $600 a week! Not bad pay to write articles online from your home. The things that can hurt your income the most are distractions, which I will cover in the next post. I will then go one to write about the ideal working conditions of a writer’s home office to get the most work done, in a later post. So please check back!

-Chris