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10 Feb 10 Freelance writing – Have You Read Your Job Description?

If you thought by choosing freelance writing as a career you will just write, write, and do nothing else then let me prick the balloon. Your client wants many more things from you. Do not get scared, you will not be asked to do any fancy stuff like coding, scripting, PPC campaigns, and all.

Then what other works a client will demand?

Basically, you will be asked to do stuffs related to writing only. And in my career, primarily I have been asked to do following types of work (other than writing):

  • Many clients have asked me to do like keyword research, for writing purpose only. This actually is not all that bad. It helped me conceptualize the article or press release while researching.
  • At times, clients also asked me to submit articles to various social bookmarking sites. I helped my clients with 2-3 submissions, at max. I do not think I would have agreed to submit an article to 100 or so social bookmarking sites. It would have been waste of time for me, but for 3-4, I never said no.
  • Clients may also ask for content suggestions, and about other things he can do to meet his goal. This in fact is an opportunity in disguise to cross sell other services that you offer. If you are writing only articles for your client then you may suggest him to use press release to get some link juice, or may be forum posting and all.
  • I have also given some marketing and SEO suggestions to my clients. Depending upon your background (I have my background in marketing), you can either say yes or politely say no.

Word of caution

Do not say no to your clients’ request, at least not directly, if you can help him. And also do not ask for money for every suggestion that you offer—I know people who do so—because it looks cheap. For that work you may get paid, but it will reflect badly on your professionalism. You may lose the client.

If the work is going to take hours of your work then say this to client, and if it is going to take hardly 10-15 minutes then do not bother. It also depends upon your relationship with your client.

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20 Dec 09 How to Lose Your Job Quickly

Getting a job may be tough, but losing one is the easiest thing to do. There are many people who unknowingly indulge in activities that ultimately result in their getting fired. In this blog post, I will tell you about 3 such things that people do without realizing its consequences.

“I am the king” Attitude

Attitude problem is one of the biggest reasons why people get laid off. There is no dearth of people who think they are invincible and a company cannot survive without them, thus they deserve a royal treatment. And thus they start neglecting or humiliating people. These are the kinds who always are found fighting with his boss or subordinates on even issues of no real importance. Avoid being such person, or the exit door will be nearer than you are imaging.

Coming late and leaving early

Your office is not your garden, so better do not treat it as such. It is unwise to reach office late, regularly, and it is doubly fatal to return from office before time, everyday. When I say before time, I do not mean you return before the designated time, what I mean is returning home without finishing day job. Do not fool yourself in believing that a 9-to-5 job means strictly 9-to-5. The work-hour does starts at 9, but thinking of its ending at 5 is crazy.

Going by the job description

If you assume you have to do only what is written in your job description then let me take the blinkers off, and show you what all you need to do to survive in the job you have. I am not talking about occasional drifts from the job description you got while joining, I am talking about doing those things that was never ever mentioned. One has to do things beyond the written (or oral for that matter) job description to survive today.

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16 Sep 09 Writing Your Personal Performance Review

Writing a personal performance review is a difficult thing to do at times.  Whether you’ve been with the same company for years, or this is your first review at your new job.  Both have their own pitfalls.  For the veteran you don’t want to sound as though you just don’t have much to offer anymore.  For the newbie, it’s hard to find that comfortable middle ground of fluffing yourself up, without making your review seem phony.  Writing a personal review can leave you feeling some anxiety, but just keep calm and remember these tips:

-Try keeping a list of achievements as you accomplish them, as that always comes in handy later.  This way you have detailed evidence for why you’ve been a good employee this term.  Having the facts to back up your claims is always a very important thing to have on your side.

-With that great list of achievements you’ve been keeping, now you can make use of it in the actual writing of your review.  On almost any personal review you’ll notice many categories seem very redundant, almost as if they’re asking for the same information multiple times.  Take that list of achievements and decide which fits into each category the best.  Have a copy of your job description on hand so that you can better distribute them into the right categories.

-Try to find a comfortable middle ground when you rate your actual performance level.  You don’t want to show that you feel you’re a perfect employee.  Otherwise your boss will feel you believe you’ve hit your peak.  In which case if your boss doesn’t agree, you almost make yourself expendable by looking like an employee that’s given all they have to offer.  Don’t mark yourself too high or too low.  This way if you’re one of the top employees you show that you feel you have room for growth, so that you can become even better.

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