Become a Freelance SEO

By: Steve Waganer

Someone rightly said that the only constant thing in this world is change and perhaps that is why we see changes in everything round us. Everything that we do today, including the way we go about doing our daily duties has changed. So today, we buy things online, rather going to a shop or mall. Every business has an online presence and the idea behind this is to reach out to a wider customer base spread all over the world. Today for any business the customer and target people is no longer confined to a certain locality, but has spread out worldwide. Today, if any business has a web presence, they need to undertake search engine optimization strategy to make their site popular among the web users. Now if a website is not popular among web users the whole propose of having a web presence for the business will fail.

A search engine optimization specialist is the ideal person to help in business in undertaking this strategy for their business. Different strategies like online marketing and search engine optimization must be undertaken if you want your online business to become a success story in the long run. Search engine optimization specialist has the expertise and experience in preparing and implementing the best search engine optimization strategy for any business. You must understand very well that no two businesses are alike in any aspect, so any strategy undertaken for the business must be customized to suit the requirements of that particular business. An efficient search engine optimization specialist will study the existing market before designing any optimization strategy for the business.

The different elements that help an online site to get listed at the top of search engines and the thing which is worrying business owners is that these parameters keep on changing constantly. So the best way to keep track of all these things and keep up with the rapid changes is stay attuned with whatever is happening in the world of search engine optimization. Understandably a business owner who does not have technical expertise and knowledge is in no position to know about all this, so it will work out better for their business if they have a search engine marketing optimization specialist handling the optimization work of their business. So before you hire the services of a professional search engine optimization specialist, just find out how efficient he is in doing the work and if he is in tune with the latest happenings or not.

There are several firms that offer search engine optimization services to businesses of all sizes through a search engine optimization specialist. It is important to decide on a search engine strategy only after taking a careful look at the way the whole business is being run. If you have not yet thought of hiring a search engine optimization specialist for making your online site rank at the top of major search engines, you must act quickly. No time is better then the present time to hire the services of a search engine optimization specialist for your business.

Steve Waganer has specialization in Web Marketing. He is expert in Search engine optimization,Search engine marketing,Social media optimization.

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September 20, 2007 | Filed Under SEO Discussion, Why Freelancing | Leave a Comment 

25 Freelance Tips for Maximizing Your Income

Some people are just freelancers at heart. They enjoy the freedom of choosing what they’ll work on, the variety of work, the opportunity to work with different people, often the chance to work at home, and many other benefits. But there’s the good with the bad, and often that includes dry spells mixed in with being overworked.

Here are some tips for maximizing your freelance income, whether it’s for blogging services, copywriting, design, SEO or something else. The bulk of these tips are gathered from my own experience as a long-time freelancer, but the references are skewed towards some of my favorite freelance and blogging-related blogs, as well as a few of my own posts on various blogs.

1. Don’t accept all work.
If you’re not going to enjoy it, or the project rate is high but the equivalent hourly rate is low, then think twice before accepting. Also, some clients just require too much of your time for too little return. (I.e., remember the Pareto Principle.)

2. Leverage your research time.
If you work in a certain niche, without conflict for multiple clients, you can often research for mutliple projects at once. For example, if you’re writing feature articles on the same topic for two or more clients, you might be able to research online for them simultaneously. Assuming you are paid by the article/ project, they will hardly care that you got work done faster.

3. Recycle your efforts.
If you’ve collected enough notes sufficient for several articles on a topic, or sketched multiple designs for several logos, or whatever, recycle that effort. Can you produce several distinct works that could be sold to anyone besides the client in question? Or can you give these away on your blog? That in it itself would display your abilities and potentially draw future clients, for just a bit more effort.

4. Have multiple income streams.
Building multiple income streams can go hand in hand with recycling your efforts, or it could refer to having other means of revenue that do not take you away from your main business.

5. Learn proper multi-tasking.
A lot of bloggers are slamming multi-tasking, but it’s worked for me for a long time. You just have to multitask properly and apply  it where it can be applied (non-physical work). It’s especially useful if you’re juggling multiple projects. Multi-tasking is efficient handling of simultaneous tasks, not tasks done at the same time. There’s a huge difference.

6. Get in the flow.
Multi-tasking is all well and good, but when you actually work on a client’s project, be dedicated - get in the flow.

7. Use efficient bookkeeping.
Keep receipts for everything relating to your work, no matter how frivolous. It just may be tax-deductible. This is especially important if you have a clearly delinated home office area. You can write off some expense based on ratio of office space to home.

8. Don’t undersell yourself.
Set rates based on a simple formula:

  • Rate = $D/ B hrs.
  • D is the desired salary per year that you want.
  • B is the total number of billable hours that you think you can secure in a given year. Most consultants/ freelancers estimate B on the basis of 15 billable days per month, for an 8-hour day. So that’s 15 d/mth x 8 hr/d x 12 mth/yr = 1440 hrs/yr. The rest of each month will usually be spent doing administrative work, seeking out new clients, improving skills, researching, or possibly vacationing. Don’t forget to factor in vacation time, any professional costs such as subscriptions, your operating costs, etc.

Once you have that hourly rate, translate that in to flat project rates, when necessary. You’ll eventually get a sense for how long a particular task takes, but you might take in less than you want when you first start out.

9. Track your time.
Keep track of your hours spent, even on a project for which you quoted a flat project rate. This will help ensure you are not charging too little or taking too long on some tasks. This will also help if you outsource any work. You’ll learn how long a task should take, plus a buffer for someone with less experience. Consider time and task management tools, or a web-based spreadsheet such as Zoho Sheet or Google Spreadsheets so that you can share information with hires.

10. Consider work insurance.
This goes by different names but is essentially liability insurance for freelancers and contract consultants. Some clients in certain industries (e.g., software development) will not sign with you without liability insurance. While this doesn’t technically save you money, in given industries it increases your chances of getting high paid work.

11. Value your time.
It’s one thing to track your time, but if you’re wasting part of your day’s productive periods not working, then you’re effectively reducing potential income. This applies whether you’re working at home or in an office. Learn to get the most of your work day, and learn your productive times.

12. Catalog ideas.
Record any ideas for future work as you have them, even if you can’t get to them immediately. I like to use mind mapping software if I need to show hierarchy of ideas and outlines. Other times, I just make a flat list. When I find a lull in my schedule, I explore these ideas. Often, I’ll find that when someone asks me to do some work, knowing my areas of interest, I’ll have something relevant already scoped out. Thus, some of my legwork is already done, and someone is offering to pay me to complete it.

13. Blog.
if you’re not already a blogger, no matter what service you freelance, establishing a blog and writing quality content (tutorials, resource lists, reviews, essays) will help promote and establish your authority and eventually bring work. That, of course, depends on what you’re writing about. Your blog’s topics should be closely related to the services you offer. Just make sure that you are drawing in potential clients, not just random readers. You can track general visitor behavior to your blog with Performancing’s own PMetrics and the new plugin.

14. Network.
If you do good work, it’s likely that you might start getting more work than you can handle. You can turn it down or pass it on to a colleague. No doubt they or another colleague will do the same for you. Or pay it forward. So network online and make sure you’re networking on purpose.

15. Delegate.
Alternately, you can build your business. One drawback with freelancing is that there are only so many hours in the day and week. There’s a limit to how many new clients you can take on. However, if you’ve learned some project management skills and can motivate and manage a small team, you can delegate tasks to people still learning the ropes. This of course changes you from being a lone freelancer to essentially being a consulting firm. You do the billing, allowing room for a reasonable wage/ rate for team members, and a management fee for yourself - since you have expenses and are ultimately responsible for the work.

16. Partner up.
Partnerships with other freelancer offering complementary services allows you to jointly offer packages. If you’re working online, this might include a partnership amongst designers, writers, SEOs, SMMs,  marketers, and analysts (web analytics). This allows you to work with Fortune 500 companies, who often prefer to work with a full-service firm. Make sure that someone interfaces with each partner to make the services cohesive.

17. Be professional.
While the way you look isn’t as much of an issue if you’re working online, generally being professional goes a long way to impressing clients. Meet deadlines, make clients happy.

18. Be timely with invoices.
If you don’t send out invoices on a timely basis, it’s unlikely you’ll be paid for work on a timely basis. Do yourself a favor and try out a good web-based invoicing tool, some of which send auto reminders and even accept payment online. Either that or use PayPal and request a fraction (25-50%) of the fee upfront, before work begins.

19. Invest.
If you do have great clients who pay up early, put some money into a safe investment, such as a federally-insured online savings account or a short-term government bond. Do this especially with money you’ve set aside for income taxes, if you are not required to make such payments on a quarterly basis.

20. Know your tools.
There are tons of web-based freelance tools out there, many of them available free of charge or for a small monthly fee. They might not only save you money but often increase work efficiency as well, leaving you more time for more billable work. Or relaxation. What’s more, some of them allow real-time collaboration with partners, teammates, and/or clients.

21. Know your resources.
There are numerous sites popping up that list freelance gigs. You might not always need them, but it’s good to know they’re available. A lull in your work schedule might be filled with a short-term gig.

22. Get repeat business.
Repeat business from existing clients is more valuable and less stressful. They are a known parameter, and there is less effort on your part in securing even more work later on.

23. Get referral business.
Your current happy clients are often more than willing to give referrals, especially if you offer a referral bonus. Just watch out for the lies told to freelancers.

24. Draw positive attention.
There are positive ways to draw attention to yourself or your website that pay off in the long-run - either through establishing authority or straight out requests for your services. My favorite examples are Seth Godin with his free, oddly-named, informative ebooks, and Hugh MacLeod with his savagely funny Gaping Void cartoons, also available free through a blog widget.

25. Stay healthy.
It should go without saying, but many of us freelancers run ourselves ragged. We don’t take breaks to recharge ourselves, to relieve ourselves of stress. And you already know that stress brings illness, which reduces billable time. Of course, you can do research or admin work when you’re ill

 

 

September 19, 2007 | Filed Under Why Freelancing | Leave a Comment 

Freelancing as a Work-At-Home Web Designer

One of the most lucrative venues the Internet has provided is in the field of web design. Today, more and more people and businesses need skilled freelancers who can create and maintain their websites and this is where web designers come in.

With the continuous roll out of broadband services in various parts of the globe, it is not surprising many businesses want to establish a corporate website. After realizing how the Internet can help their business, many company owners want to establish their own web sites to boost their marketing strategies.

Aside from jumping into the bandwagon of modern technology, having a website also gives companies a powerful online presence.

Becoming a Web Designer

Undeniably, the market is growing for freelance web designing today. If you are a web designer and you are considering freelance work, then it is now time to narrow down your options. The market for web designing continues to grow as long as there are companies who need web designers in creating a front for traditional businesses or services.

An excellent resource to learn about launching a freelance career is Andy Anderson’s book or audio book, “How to Make Money from Home as a Freelancer,”
Aside from having businesses as potential clients, freelance web designers can also rely on the billions of existing web pages on the Internet because these sites will need to be designed, built and maintained later on. If you’re planning to do freelance web designing, then you should gain knowledge and experience to become one.

The first thing you need to consider is getting educated about the field. Today, there are many colleges and universities that offer multimedia courses and degrees. By enrolling in one of these educational institutions, you can learn different disciplines to become an expert in the field of freelance web designing.

Secondly, you need to reassesses your skills to become a successful freelance web designer. To become a competent web designer, you should be able to complete a web site on your own. By doing this, you will have the knowledge in designing the layout of your client’s site while designing the elements that involve the use of Photoshop and Illustrator (Adobe) or Fireworks and Freehand (Macromedia).

Also, to become a successful freelance web designer, you need to understand aspects such as: design and image optimization to give good download; making the site easy to use; making it more search engine friendly; and most importantly, making it cross browser compliant. You will also need to have a good knowledge of HTML code as well as how to use an HTML editor to create a web page.

If you’ret new in the industry of freelance web designing, you might be using Microsoft Front Page; but most freelancers say that newbies should veer away from using it because it has a lot of proprietary codes that are oftentimes non-cross browser compliant.

Macromedia’s Dreamweaver is the best option to create a site because it will save you time and energy when compared to hand coding. Aside from that, it is also important for you to understand the HTML behind the design.

Aside from Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop with Imageready, both Illustrator, and Flash can also help you create better web sites.

Freelancing as a Web Designer

In the movie Star Trek, space is considered to be the final frontier. Since ordinary civilians are not yet able to complete the voyage to seek new worlds, the best thing anyone can do is reach out to people in different states and countries by communicating in cyberspace.

The Internet has become valuable for a lot of people. Not only can someone send an email or do research, this can also be used to transact business. This is better known as electronic commerce and the only way to do this is by creating a website.

The website should feature the products or services that the entrepreneur is offering. Those who want to sell NBA apparel should offer the merchandise so that customers can check it out. Those who like it can place an order and the only thing to do is pack it and send this to the recipient.

Not everyone is a computer expert or has the slightest inkling of how to make a website. Fortunately, the entrepreneur can get help from a freelance web designer who can put everything up and make it happen.

Illustrating or graphic designing is one of the industries where freelancing is abundant. Because the job can be arranged in a per project basis, more and more potential clients prefer to hire freelance illustrators or graphic designers because they don’t have to pay the artists just like the regular employees.

If you are in the field of illustration or graphic designing and you would want to accept freelance jobs or projects, then you should start building, promoting and marketing yourself. According to most freelance illustrators and graphic designers who are into the field of freelancing, a freelance graphic designer should be possess a dedicated passion for a demanding job and clients as well.

If you are a full time web designer and you are planning to go freelance, here’s a set of considerations you might want to contemplate on before indulging into an adventurous yet demanding job.

1. Determine and set your goals. Just like in any job, becoming a freelance web designer will require you to set and determine your goals before finally jumping over a new set up. Since becoming a freelance web designer will eat much of your time especially if you’re just starting, you need to contemplate if you should drop your day time job and if you can handle meticulous and demanding clients at hand.

Part of determining and setting your goals is asking yourself what you are getting out of the career shift and what made you decide to do this.

2. Assess yourself. Going freelance means you need experience, discipline, knowledge, and expertise in the field you are in. If you think you have these traits, then you should also assess if you have the drive and ambition to turn your skill into a success.

Also, you have to ask yourself if you have the willingness and the patience to start a new career. It is important that you have the talent, drive, and motivation to generate more income from your potential clients.

3. Check your business acumen. Knowing different business routes and knowing how to run a business will definitely help you become a successful freelance web designer.

4. Gauge your capability to decide. Decision-making is a very important aspect in freelancing. If you are really planning to freelance, then you should have the heart and the mind to decide. Since you’ll be making a lot of decisions eventually, you should start learning to decide wisely.

5. Check your overall attitude towards shifting to a new working environment. Before finally jumping into freelancing, you should ask yourself how to handle stress, possible rejection, and competition

 

September 19, 2007 | Filed Under Why Freelancing | Leave a Comment 

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