Work-at-Home Moms

Tons of websites are dedicated to this topic alone. And, let’s not leave out dads, as many are also looking for work-at-home opportunities. Virtual call center jobs not only allow you to work from the comfort of your home office, but often give you the flexibility to set your own hours. So, if working at 2:00 AM is your preference, no problem. Many inbound call centers represent companies with 24-hour opportunities in areas such as technical support or roadside assistance.

Military Spouses

Moving is part of being in the military, making it difficult for the spouses of servicemembers to find steady, long-term work. Although a number of organizations provide assistance to military spouses, finding a job is probably one of the biggest challenges. When you work for a virtual call center, your job travels with you. Military families are faced with so much instability, it’s nice to know that there are job opportunities available with stability!

College Students

Most college students must work to survive. Finding time to carry a full load of classes, study and travel to work can be challenging. Virtual call centers provide the perfect solution for conscientious students who want or need to work.

Second Jobs

More and more people are finding they need to take a second job to make ends meet. Finding a second job with a schedule that accommodates your primary job responsibilities can be a challenge. And, let’s not forget the added travel time to and from work. Work-at-home call centers provide the perfect solution for the second job seeker who needs flexibility and does not want to spend extra time on the road.

Probably the biggest disadvantage of working solely from home is the lack of camaraderie you find in a traditional call center environment. If this is important to you, then consider working for a call center which is flexible and willing to accommodate your needs. For instance, companies such as Global Response offer perks such as child-care subsidies, which greatly benefit families with children.

So, as you can see, many people are reaping the benefits provided by work-at-home call centers. Most offer the opportunity to represent name brands, and, include both inbound and outbound call structures. It’s not a bad gig. In fact, most people describe it as being quite rewarding and fun.

Gina Smith writes freelance articles for magazines, online outlets and publications. Smith covers the latest topics in the business, golf, tourism, technology and entertainment industries.

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Social Media Moves Past Them

Image via Flickr by linkedmediagrp

Social media is an interesting creature. While you’ll get some hits on your homepage through social media links, the fact of the matter is, social media users are already selecting their course by clicking on the link. Social media providers know that clicking on more and more links just turns people off, so they bypass as many pages as humanly possible. If your links go straight past the homepage, it’s importance is seriously de-emphasized.

Search Engines Skip Over Them

Image via Flickr by thewebpunk

Search engines used to take the tactic of directing people to websites where the information was in there “somewhere” and letting you click on what you wanted once you were there. However, there’s no reason to do that anymore. The search engines have made life easier for searchers by taking the middleman (re: your homepage) out of the equation, and you can check it out here.

People Want Specifics

Image via Flickr by Gilcelio

Web searches are very rarely of a generalized nature. Nowadays, people who go online and look for something having a very particular piece of knowledge. Because of this, the general nature of most homepages makes less sense. Your visitors want something very particular and your deeper pages help them find it. Your homepage won’t help, except when it directs them to what search engines and social media already point to.

Everyone is in a Hurry

Image via Flickr by prosto photos

People have no time anymore. Everybody has work to do, social events to attend and Youtube videos to watch. Nobody wants to wade through a really cluttered homepage stuffed with extra words and pictures. They want to get a particular thing and get on their way. So if they have the chance to skip over your homepage entirely, that’s exactly what they’ll do in most cases.

Homepages are Overwhelming

Image via Flickr by marinshe

Most homepages are a mess. While you may be giving your visitors a lot in terms of knowledge, guidance and even free gifts, it can easily be way too much. You may remember reading a moment ago that most people are searching for something very specific. This is true most of the time and offering a multitude of different things is just annoying to most of your site’s visitors.

Give them precisely what they want and have a few links to the side of each deeper page. Your homepage is generally an afterthought, so don’t spend too much time on it.

The Internet has changed in a lot of ways. Homepages aren’t nearly as important as they used to be, so you need to adapt in order to stay relevant. You can easily prepare your website for the changes coming and get it ready for the future by implementing these quick fixes. By doing so, you’ll entice more customers to your site and keep them coming back with easy-to-use user-friendly trends.

DJ Miller is a graduate student at the University of Tampa. He is an avid gadget geek who spends most his time writing on anything tech related. In his spare time he likes to travel, play soccer and watch movies. You can follow him on Twitter @MillerHeWrote.

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“Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.”   - Unknown

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When you are a freelancer working from home, the lines between work and home life can begin to blur. It is all too easy to give into distractions such as television or having to sort out family matter, and this could have a detrimental effect on your productivity.

Research from accountancy firm Boox (The Boox Report provides an insight into the UK’s self-employed workforce) has indicated some freelancers can’t even escape work when they are on holiday, with 24% taking no leave at all over a year. Whilst your work/life balance as a freelancer may not be quite this extreme, these tips might help you separate work and play a little better.

Get out and about in your breaks

Just as it can be advisable to get out of the office in your lunch break, the same can be true for life in a home office. Liberating yourself from your desk can help you clear your mind and potentially increase your focus. Some 79% of workers said they felt better after a break time escape.

No matter where you are, try to take in a change of scenery in your lunch break, even if you only move as far as a living room. This way you can enjoy some defined boundaries between work space and home space.

Get dressed

Recent research from Citrix has indicated some 25% of home-workers spend the day in their pyjamas. Whilst this may sound appealing, getting dressed into something resembling work clothes can feel like an important step into the working day (you can also enjoy your pj’s all the more when you put them back on!). You could also still go to work, why not try getting up, showering and getting dressed before work?

Furthermore, with apps such as Facetime and Skype becoming increasingly ubiquitous you never know when people may come a (video) calling. It’s probably best if you’re not wearing a dressing gown in such a situation.

Invest in a work phone

For when you want to make a call the old-fashioned way, you might be best to use a separate phone. This way you can turn off your personal mobile, meaning you won’t be distracted by non-work related calls and messages. It doesn’t need to be the latest handset – a simple, cheap phone will do the job nicely!

In fact it may be better to get a cheap phone; that way you’re less tempted to join the many smart phone users who are working up to an extra two hours per day by using their device for work-related purposes.

Consider alternative office space

Whilst renting an office may seem like too much of an expensive and long-term commitment, there are alternatives. If you were to rent a desk in a shared office (where you work at a spare desk in another company’s property) you can enjoy the buzz of office life with the added bonus of a flexible rolling contract and a potentially low price! Don’t forget moving into an office with a professional address can have a real boost on the impression your business gives potential customers and clients.

This way you can physically separate work and home, without many of the drawbacks you may have foreseen in office life! This could potentially be a real key factor in enjoying a better work/life balance. Why wait? Space is often available immediately, so as soon as you find a co-working space you like, get in there and get working and see if you feel the benefit!

Peter Ames writes on behalf of www.officegenie.co.uk, a UK-based marketplace for desk and office space options

Genuine greetings

There’s a big difference between a friendly face looking up to greet a customer with a warm “Hi, how are you?” and a customer service rep standing at the door waiting to sing out an obviously well-rehearsed “Hello, welcome to [name of store], how are you doing today?” The second makes customers feel as though they’re an item on a checklist: “Customer enters. Greeting delivered? CHECK. Proceed to step 2.” Customers want to feel like they’re individuals and being served by individuals, not robots.

Available, but not clingy, staff

When customers have a question about a product or are looking for a specific item they’re unable to find, they want to be able to find an available staff member without searching around or waiting several minutes for the employee to be free. At the other extreme, though, customers who feel like staff are looking over their shoulders, offering unsolicited advice or being asked if they need help every other minute will often take their business to an establishment where they can shop in peace.

Staff who care

It’s important to hire your customer service staff carefully, as bored or negative staff members can be a huge turn-off to customers shopping in your store. When a customers sees a staff member filing her nails, sighing and staring at the clock, he thinks that if even the employees hate being there, he must be a fool for being there by choice — much less making purchases.

Knowledgeable staff

If you’re working in a camera shop, you should know the differences between similar types of cameras, and if you’re working in a clothing store, you should be able to advise customers on outfits for various occasions. With online shopping so prevalent these days, customers who visit a brick-and-mortar store often do so because they want guidance from real people, not just websites.

A hands-on experience

Another reason customers choose brick-and-mortar stores over online shopping is that they can try out products before they buy them. In the case of clothing stores, this means you should provide dressing rooms for customers to try on items of clothing. For gourmet food retailers, this means you should provide samples. For electronics stores, this means you should let customers play around with the technology before they purchase it. Customers who have the opportunity to try out items they’re interested in purchasing are more likely to be satisfied with their shopping experience, and are more likely to purchase the items they’re considering.

Cleanliness

Shopping is sometimes a necessity, but for many, retail stores are an exciting escape from everyday life. If the store is dirty, it feels uninviting — like shopping is an obligation more than a thrill.

A good deal

Customers who leave your store feeling like they got a great discount or received something extra from the shopping experience will be much happier than those who feel nickel-and-dimed. Offer free gift wrap, include free batteries with battery-operated devices, have a sale or give customers a coupon at checkout to use next time they come in.

About the Author:Valerie Cecil is a research coordinator, marketing specialist and writer for Outbounding.com. Her work allows her to investigate many topics, ranging from online consumer relations to effective communication in the workplace. Her hobbies include kayaking, watercolor, and doing marketing work for www.retailpackaging.com

TweetDeck – Best for Social Networking

Most freelancers are signed up to the fact they will need to maintain an effective social media presence. TweetDeck for Android  is ideal for this purpose. The app allows users to monitor and manage multiple accounts and arrange feeds for a variety of networks including Twitter, Facebook, and FourSquare. Notification alerts according to powerful filters and scheduling of tweets is also an important aspect of the functionality of TweetDeck.

Concur – Best for Managing Expenses

Concur simplifies the accounting required to allocate expenses to particular projects. Whether users want to log the mileage of a business trip, add cash purchases and receipts, or create travel itineraries, this free app for web and android users allows them to do it with ease. Although this app is aimed at employer firms, its fully featured suite of functions will make it incredibly useful for a variety of freelancers. Complementing this app with effective time tracking is paid app Timr

Google Drive – Best for Productivity and Data Storage
The ability to access important data from a variety of locations and devices is something the majority of freelancers will find vital. Google Drive includes Google Docs which enable users to save documents and files in the cloud for 24-hour remote access. Sharing individuals files with clients and contacts is a simple matter of sharing a single link. The paid Google Apps for Business is also worth considering, especially with how well they sync with Android devices.

PayPal – Best for International Payments

The Internet has opened up an international market for freelancers. The one thing all these freelancers will definitely have in common is the desire to get paid. Notwithstanding the fact PayPal’s fees can be eye-watering at times, it doesn’t discount the usefulness of this app when requesting payments from international clients. This free app offers the same functionality of the website, with PIN number security keeping money safe,

Square – Best for Local Payments

Freelancers with locally based clients will find the Square app useful. This app allows users to take credit and debit card payments from their Android device with the help of a free mobile card reader. There are two pricing plans – Pay Per Swipe (currently charged at 2.75% per swipe) and Pay Per Month (currently charged at $275 per month with no additional usage fees).

These apps are just a small selection of the many free and paid apps are available to help freelancers streamline their working day.

Author Bio

Linda Forshaw is a Business Information Systems graduate from Lancaster University in the UK. Linda is the leading contributor to DegreeJungle, and is also a full time writer and blogger specializing in education, social media, and entrepreneurship. Contact her on Twitter @seelindaplay

Backlinks

A major part of SEO is building backlinks that point back to the client’s site. The Google web crawlers see these links as little badges of merit from the community that tells the Google algorithm that something worthwhile is on the site, which helps it to rank higher in search results.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the (usually) blue text that forms a hyperlink. The crawlers take note of what the anchor text is and what page the link is pointing to. Anchor text should always up with keywords on the page being linked to and for keywords the client is trying to rank for.

Keyword

These are the words or phrases that a client will be wanting to rank for in the search engines. While anchor text should reflect keywords, so should the content you are writing. Both the client’s site, anchor text, and any content associated with the client (like guest posts) should all have the keywords spaced throughout it in a natural manner.

Keyword Density

While keywords are important so the crawlers can see the relevancy between everything, it shouldn’t be overdone. Google loves for things to look natural and cramming a post full of keywords looks as spammy as canned meat.

Oi! Don’cha Know ta Keep ‘er Simple?!

Google’s crawlers are becoming better by the day at “reading” text and knowing what natural sentence structure and language looks like. Using vernacular, jargon, misspelling, confusing sentence structure, and anything else that deviates from simple, straightforward wording can be confusing to the crawlers and will negatively impact link building strategies. Leave the creative writing to your own time.

Link Building

If you’ve been contracted to write content for SEO it will most likely either be for on site web content, or off site guest posting for a link building company. Link building is simply the process of actively obtaining back links for a client.

SEO Writing Basics

As a freelancing writer you are probably already familiar with writing blog posts – but if this is new for you take some time to go through popular blogs and see how they’re formatted. Use plenty of pictures, subheadings, and bullet points that make it easy for the reader to scan the post and find the most useful information. Use basic English with simple sentence structure to appease to the widest range of readers possible. If you’re writing guest posts, make sure that you’re comfortable writing on a wide range of subjects and hone up on your Google search skills so you can research topics efficiently. Guest posting has become a major strategy for SEOs, and capable writers are needed to provide great content to blogs in hopes of buildings backlinks.

Thomas McMahon is a writer living in Boise, Idaho. Currently he is writing for Page One Power, who provides relevancy first a relevancy first link building strategies and runs a SEO Blog full of free information about SEO and link building.

However, challenges do arise making some wish they knew better before embarking on respective journeys. What are traveling freelancers better off knowing about before taking their next trip?

Clothing

You’re going to Colorado. The weather report calls for sunny skies and eighty-degree day temperatures. You pack your shorts and sandals, apropos clothing for such conditions.

However, what the weather report did not mention is the drastic drop in temperature once the sun falls behind the mountains. Now, shorts and sandals are not so comfortable, necessitating the buying of extra apparel.

Ensure you bring a range of clothing, especially when traveling to new places. A weather report may deliver immediate temperatures, but not account for fluctuations and idiosyncrasies. Always bring a range of clothing options to ensure comfort. A good balance of casual and attire and any clothing needed for meeting potential clients is needed. If you are working from the local coffee shop, you can bring what is comfotable.

Power Supply

Freelancers often leverage laptops and other means of communication and an internet connection. But traveling freelancers are not the only people leveraging such devices; large numbers of people now use laptops, smart phones, and mobile devices at airports, coffee shops, hotels and beyond.

What happens when your device is out of power and there are no power outlets to be had? Ensure you bring extra batteries for your devices. All of those methods of communication won’t help you unless charged and ready for usage. Always make sure you have a backup power supply source and plan. Sometimes working offline can balance out the need to have you laptop plugged in more often. Using apps to get better battery life on your Android will help you charge less too.

Physical Copy

It’s very convenient to leave all needed information on one’s electronic device. You forgot your flight number? No problem, you have it noted in your smart phone. You are not sure how to get to that hotel for a business meeting? You have the itinerary on your laptop. Wait, you can’t open that file or can’t get to a power source right now! What are you going to do? You would benefit from carrying a physical printout of needed information.

Carry a folder with printouts of crucial information. Don’t assume you’ll always be able to get to digitally-kept information; inconveniences happen.

Supplementary Kit

Seasoned travelers are wiser for the time, understanding the nuisance of packing and unpacking for each journey. Some maintain a supplementary bag with toiletries, bathing suits, sandals, etc. That way, there are no surprises related to forgetting or not being ready for pleasant surprises (such as heated, indoor pools at hotels).

Consider assembling a supplementary traveling kit with a toothbrush, q-tips, bathing suit, Tylenol, and other necessities that are easy to forget. This process saves time, and saves one from anxieties related to travel.

Relaxation

Traveling is not exhaustive in itself (unless you’re biking to each destination). However, it does take a toll on the body, especially if traveling through time zones. Ensure you dedicate time for relaxation.

The body cannot always do what the mind wants, especially if the mind has not designated time for the body to recuperate. Freelancers often accept time-sensitive jobs; it’s important to take care of one’s body to guarantee the mind can deliver one’s best work.

Regardless of you work from home, a coffee shop or are one of the many traveling freelancers, there is always time to relax a little and recharge your body’s batteries. Make sure to have a good balance of work to relaxation or your body will get angry with you.

Snacks and Water

Can you predetermine periods of inconvenience? That would be convenient. You can’t, but you can prepare for them. Bring along a small bag of snacks and water with you when traveling. You never know when you’ll be stuck in traffic, on a plane, in a cab, or amid a long, boring industry convention. Wherever your freelance opportunities take you, ensure you have the means to stay nourished and replenished.

Periods of hunger can affect one’s mood and ability to make good decisions. You never know when it won’t be convenient to get a simple snack. Make the necessary preparations now.

About the Author:
Gwen Stewart is a business development professional and writer for Outbounding.com on behalf of http://www.ShareFile.com. Her line of work requires she have backup storage solutions as well as a solid strategy for meeting tight deadlines. Any spare time she can scrape together finds her hiking, reading and enjoying the company of great friends.