Freelancing: Skills For Cash

Freelancing refers to the process of offering your services for someone else on a per project basis. The best way to explain this is through an example.

Supposing you possess excellent writing skills. There are millions (and I’m not exaggerating) of webmasters and internet marketers out there who are in need of fresh content and new products on a daily basis. Their demand for digitally written works is so great that even if they are blessed with just as much writing prowess, they won’t have the time to come up with everything that they need. Hence, they resort to outsourcing.

And this is where you enter the picture to make money writing content, make money making media content and so on.

As a freelancer offering your writing services for a fee, you could take in some projects they will give you. You will be paid per delivery, and once that’s done, you could take in more clients for consistent earnings.

But freelancing is not only limited to writing, or ghostwriting as it is technically known. There are other services that you could offer, depending on the area of proficiency you possess. Here are more examples:

• graphic creation and design
• web creation and design
• software development
• data encoding
• translation to specific languages
• marketing consultancy
• strategic placement consultancy

There are more, of course, ranging from something as complex as creating advanced scripts to something as seemingly trivial but as surprisingly effective as forum posting (yes, I kid you not! You’ll get paid per post you make!). The bottom line is, if you have some services to offer that can be delivered digitally, freelancing is always available for you.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this earning opportunity. Let’s take a look at the distinct benefits you can reap from this option.

• You can work anytime you want, from the comforts of your own home. Your only concern is to deliver high quality products on or before the deadline your client has set.

• Freelancing requires minimal investment, or none at all. Promoting your services can be done without spending a single cent. But as with everything else, the best advertising vehicles are often those which you have to pay for. Be that as it may, you won’t be promoting heavily, and any financial investment you will be forced to make will not cost you a fortune.

• You have the liberty to accept the projects that you want, and turn down the projects you’re not happy about. Orders will come from your clients, but you remain your own boss.

It’s not entirely a bed of roses for freelancing. Let’s take a look at the disadvantages of this trade.

• You will earn an amount equivalent to the work you have done. If you could only do so much in one day, you could only earn just as much. Surpassing that threshold is quite improbable.

• You will have to work, many hours on occasions. Freelancing may afford you certain liberties, but the same principle applies: no work, no pay.

• Expansion is also quite improbable. You’re only a single person. There is only so much you could do.

• Your orders would be dependent on how efficiently you market your services. There are other earning opportunities that promise more rewards for less work using the same marketing vehicles you will be forced to take.

If you want to dabble in freelancing, here are some splendid places where you could advertise your services and solicit some clients:

www.elance.com

www.rentacoder.com

www.scriptlance.com

www.guru.com

The choice is yours, dear friend. If you’re looking for sure profit fast, then freelancing is a great option indeed. But if you want to plan long-term, I suggest that you explore other earning opportunities as well.

Popularity: 70%

Time and time again, internet marketers have claimed that to do business in the World Wide Web, you’d need your own website. Your own website, they say, is your headquarters in cyberspace. It’s your very own digital store where you could lead potential customers and where you offer the products you have for sale.

Though it’s true that having your own website can greatly aid you in your quest to achieve success in the online field, a website is not the end all and be all of internet salesmanship, particularly in the line of affiliate marketing. Yes, you could make a living online as an affiliate even if you do not have the benefit of your own website!

How is this possible? How can this be done? Read on, dear friend, as we discuss alternative strategies that will allows you to make the most out of your affiliate marketing campaigns without having your own webpage on the net.

Affiliate marketing is a program whereby the affiliate can earn some generous commissions for every successful sale they manage to refer to the affiliate merchant. The affiliate’s task is merely to pre-sell the affiliate merchant’s goods. The sales page, the payment processing, the digital delivery, and post sales services shall be the responsibilities of the affiliate merchant.

The affiliate only has to refer people to the affiliate merchant’s sales page. This can be done by making people click on the affiliate links exclusively provided for the affiliate. Now, these affiliate links are very important. They are like the markers for the affiliate program. They will tell the system that a visitor was actually referred by the appropriate affiliate.

Marketing the affiliate merchant’s goods without the benefit of a website entails marketing the affiliate links in a variety of channels that would serve the affiliate in lieu of a website of his own. This can be done through the following techniques:

• Article marketing. We all know how powerful affiliate marketing can be in link building campaigns. But instead of providing for links to your own website, you could provide your affiliate links instead. Article directories allow you a resource box per submission, where you could tell your readers about yourself as well as leave a link of your choice. Now, you have to remember that some article directories do not allow affiliate links in the bodies of the articles themselves, but affiliate links are perfectly allowed in the resource box. Great places to start your article marketing campaign are www.ezinearticles.com , www.goarticles.com and www.isnare.com .

• Forum marketing. Online communities, or forums, are likewise great channels where you could promote your affiliate links. Membership in pHp 2.0 based forums gives you a signature box where you could advertise your links. Use this to advertise your affiliate links. For every post you will make, your signature box would appear. Post a thousand messages, and you’ll have a thousand pages advertising your affiliate links! Want to know the forums which are relevant to the subject serviced by the affiliate products you’re promoting? Use the tool at www.link-advantage.com/search to find the appropriate online community.

• Advertise in eZines. This may cost you some cash, as many eZines charge for advertising space. Nonetheless, you could expose your affiliate links to highly targeted prospects using this approach. Imagine if the eZine has a list of 10,000 people. You’d immediately be able to reach 10,000 quality leads with one advertisement. Again, you don’t need a website. Simply use your affiliate link in your ads.

The absence of your own website is never a bar to online success. Most of the strategies we have discussed here can be accomplished without spending a single cent. If you do not have the financial resources to register a domain or to subscribe to a web hosting service, you could still achieve success with affiliate marketing. Joining an affiliate program is free. Promoting your affiliate links can likewise be availed of without any charges. Good luck!

Popularity: 53%

What makes every site respectable? Try my design techniques.

Your blog is where your business becomes popular; it’s like the headliner of an offline company. Also it is important to practise good design principles to make sure your site reaches out to the maximum number of visitors, subscribers and sells to as many people as possible.

Make sure you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu should be uncluttered and concise so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion. It’s very important if you want to get these visitors as subscribers.

Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly and more often than not they are very unnecessary. If you think any image is essential on your site, make sure you optimize them using image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size. But remember – 50% of visitors do not read articles without any images.

Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is too long, you should split it into seperate paragraphs so that the text blocks will not be too big. Most useful length is 8-12 words – reads fast and makes easy to follow. This is important because a block of text that is too large will deter visitors from reading your content.

Your website, and especially blog, must run identically good in any browsers. If your website looks great in Internet Explorer but breaks horribly in Firefox and Opera, you will lose out on a lot of prospective visitors.

Avoid using scripting languages on your site unless it is absolutely necessary. Use scripting languages to handle or manipulate data, not to create visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site and even crash some browsers. Try to use only easy-html tags – it makes SEO easier and does not bury your article. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.

Use CSS to style your page content because they save a lot of work by styling all elements on your website in one go.

These are most fundamental and easy-to-remember tactics for all beginners. Follow my posts and get more useful tips and tricks on how to make your web-life better. Have a nice day!

Popularity: 50%

8 Fallacies About Online Multi-Level Marketing

Much have been said about multi-level marketing (MLM) of he online variety. While a lot of people claim that it is a marvelous way of earning an income in the World Wide Web ( web 2.0 ), an equal number of people condemn it for so many reasons that are borne from the fears they have with something as seemingly novel as online MLM programs and MLM campaigns.

Which of these fears are true, and which are false? Read more about MLM frauds, MLM lies and real MLM Techniques and Tactics! A closer study on some of the issues raised against online MLM programs will reveal the truth behind the subject.

* 1 * Online MLM is a “get rich quick” scheme. It is not. You will have to invest some time and effort to achieve the highest possible success in this field. Online MLM will not gain for you some passive income, at least not immediately. You will have to develop your network and fill it up with dedicated individuals from whose efforts you will earn lower tiered commissions.

* 2 * Online MLM is a pyramid scheme. It is not. Online MLM is a creative kind of direct selling. Basically, a person is a customer of the MLM program, though unlike other setups, he is given the opportunity to earn because of his purchase.

* 3 * Online MLM is illegal. It is not. If online MLM is illegal, direct selling should likewise be considered as unlawful. Online MLM, after all, is a form of direct selling by its very nature.

* 4 * Online MLM is just as unstable as any pyramid scheme. This is a falsity. Pyramid schemes fail because they don’t have capital to rely on. They depend on the money they could derive from the multi-tiered “investors.” Online MLM is based on real products that are actually sold to consumers. There is a real economy involved, hence ensuring the strength of the legs that support this kind of system.

* 5 *Online MLM requires recruiting. It does not. The term “recruiting” is quite misleading. You just have to pre-sell the MLM program’s products to earn some commissions. Consequently, the people you manage to refer will become members of your down line, and if they decide to pursue the earning opportunities presented by the MLM program itself, you could also earn from their activities.

* 6 * Online MLM requires steep financial investments. This is partly true, though the adjective “steep” is quite relative, as well as questionable. You will have to purchase a package prepared by the MLM program. But this is a condition precedent to the earning opportunities that you will gain access to. Consider it as your enrollment fee. The price of these packages vary, nonetheless, it’s a onetime fee which you are sure to recoup after referring three or more sales.

* 7 * Online MLM is just a fad. Multi-level marketing has been practiced by many enterprises since the 60’s. With the advent of the internet, an online variety is but the logical evolution of this strategy. Surely, something that has become a popular sales technique for such a long time cannot be considered as a mere fad.

* 8 * Online MLM programs are scams. Though some fraudulent companies use MLM programs to hide their devious schemes, most MLM programs are legit. The responsibility to determine credible MLM programs from dishonest ones would lie on the shoulders of the enrollee. Due diligence is required before committing to any undertaking, after all.

Online MLM programs offer great opportunities for amazing income which you could savor and enjoy. Hesitations, of course, are always healthy in endeavors like this. But try to investigate on your fears and you’ll discover that online MLM programs are safe investments that hold so much promise.

Popularity: 73%

Over time popular bloggers build up hundreds or thousands of subscribers. These

subscribers are people interested in the field or topics that blogger writes about.

Each time those bloggers write a new post those readers get notified of the new

content in their RSS readers.

Imagine that…

• everytime you had an idea to share, that 5,000 people who trust your

opinions see it.

• most of those 5,000 also write blogs in your field or related fields.

• some of those bloggers frequently mention your site

• some of those bloggers also have thousands of subscribers.

Blogs are all about spreading ideas (via in content links) and accumulating

attention. Where people go search engines follow. If many people link to your blog

posts that also boosts your search engine rankings for the other parts of your site.

If you write a frequently updated blog the media is more likely to believe you are a

topical expert than if you are just a merchant selling goods in your industry.

Get Tactics - read more!

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Popularity: 50%

A Lesson In Marketing

Two beggars are sitting side by side on a street in Rome - one has a cross in front of him; the other one the Star of David. Many people go by, look at both beggars, but only put money into the hat of the beggar sitting behind the cross.

A priest comes by, stops and watches throngs of people giving money to the beggar behind the cross, but none to the beggar behind the Star of David. Finally, the priest goes over to the beggar behind the Star of David and says, “My poor fellow, don’t you understand? This is a Catholic country; this city is the seat of Catholicism. People aren’t going to give you money if you sit there with a Star of David in front of you, especially when you’re sitting beside a beggar who has a cross. In fact, they would probably give to him just out of spite.”

The beggar behind the Star of David listened to the priest, turned to the other beggar with the cross and said: “Moishe, look who’s trying to teach the Goldstein brothers about marketing.”

Popularity: 42%

We all respect and use SEO in a modern and trendy web 2.0 ways. Sure there are many experienced searh-engine engineers and technicians, but not all of them do SEO as a job. Some of them make money on SEO. These tactics called SEO business models I want to talk you about.

Profit Share

Some SEOs may be interested in working using a profit share business model.

This type of relationship requires a great amount of trust from both parties.

Usually people who do not know you well will not want to work for a potential

share of future profits.

I cannot even tell you how many people set up a generic, pharmacy-templatedriven,

affiliate website and want me to work for future profits for them. I tell

them “no,” but someone asks me about every month.

Most SEOs are not going to want to work via profit share off the start unless you

have a REAL tangible brand. If you have an original great idea, some may, but

generally it is going to be hard for most webmasters to find a profit share SEO

partner.

Pay-Per-Click

Some marketers specifically sell services for setting up and managing pay-per-click

search engine accounts. Some people charge anywhere from $300 to $10,000 to

set up the campaign, then 10% to 20% of ad spend for management. Some people

charge for account setup and let you run things from there, and some people

charge recurring fees.

Different business models will be better for you depending on how competitive

your market is and how complex your campaign needs to be. If you have an

exceptionally cheap campaign, then it will be hard to get people to do a quality job

for 20% of a few hundred dollars.

Sell All Clicks as Pay-Per-Click

Some SEOs sell both organic traffic and pay-per-click ads on a cost-per-click basis.

This has recurring fees, but also may limit your down payment risk since you are

only paying for traffic you get.

Some networks that do this have you pay to create content where they also place

ads for others, and they may take years to deplete your initial deposit. Make sure

you define how the ads will appear (i.e., I would recommend buying exclusivity),

and get an approximate time range to deliver traffic. Also ask around to ensure

their traffic is legitimate traffic and not automated traffic bots.

Cloaking and Doorway Pages

Some software allows people to automatically generate thousands of keyword-rich

pages a day. Obviously, search engines do not like this technique. Some people

are exceptionally good at cloaking, but you still may get caught if you use it.

If you find yourself paying only a few hundred dollars, you will want to set up

different sites for those types of services and you will not want to connect those

other sites to your main business site in any way. Multiple sites can get penalized

because one of them was doing something shady. The wrath of Google can be an

unpleasant experience.

Create a Content Network for You

Some SEOs create a content network for you and charge you for the traffic. In a

sense, this is leasing traffic in a way similar to using pay-per-click search engines. If

they know what they are doing, they should be able to provide you targeted traffic

cheaper than pay-per-click search engines do, but there are a couple major

downsides to this business model.

• Some of these networks also sell traffic to your competitors, meaning

that you could be paying to set up networks that drive traffic at

competing websites.

• Some of these networks may require a down payment that takes many

years to pay itself off. After they already have your money, there is no

guarantee that they will care about you.

• When your clicks run out, you have to pay again.
• If you decide not to renew, then, in the end, you paid to create another

competing website that will continue to drive traffic at competing

websites.

If you are interested in this topic I will be happy to provide more techniques and tactics!

Popularity: 63%