Yes, I am taking about connections. Personal connections. If you do not believe it works then come over and see what I have to show to you. In this article, you will see how connection plays a role in getting you the job you deserve, and almost the pay you deserve—well, almost because you may have to give in for pay cut. So, let’s get started.

Give everything

Are you wondering how this topic made it connection part of the series? Well, it shouldn’t but I am mentioning it near the top of this post because giving your 100% is required. It is not an option, not anymore; you have to do it. Give everything you got to convince employer of your eligibility, and your connections of your suitability for the job you are asking recommendation. Do not hold anything back.

Use your personal connection

Back in your youth when you were working, you worked with many individuals: you worked for some people, you worked with some people, and some people worked for you. If you are not D.B. Ross who intimidated everyone working with him, I am pretty darn sure that you got some connections that are still in the business. Ask them for help. They certainly will help you out. You can even ask people whom you knew but never worked with for leads and job interviews. It will go a long way.

Talk to your ex-employers

Ex-employers are the people whom you worked for in the heyday of your career. These people knew you will go places, and these people will understand that you have lost a job not because of your ability—because they have witnessed your work themselves—but because of something else. They will pop their hands out and pull you onboard. They will do it even if you were not such an extraordinary employee. They will do it just because they have known you for so many years, and they believe that you will not let them down.

These three tips will play a critical role in getting you the job you need.

Microsoft’s hope to revive its MSN search is falling apart, and so is the Yahoo’s struggle to make the web user-centric. Perhaps they are too late or perhaps Google is playing every card right. To revive MSN search and make it look like Bing, Microsoft has acquired a small California-based start-up to roll out  Bing, but it does not seem to be working out well.

71.6% of the total US searchers still usage Google to search the World Wide Web, whereas, around 15% people use Yahoo, and around 9% people use Bing.

We can classify quitters in two categories. The first categories consist of those who lost the freelancing battle and failed to make any mark, hence he is leaving the field all in blood and tears. There is a second group that consists of people who are quitting their freelance jobs because they have stepped up to provide consultancy services or to manage group of freelancer.

The people falling in latter group have done the right thing, but there is something seriously wrong with the freelancers who belong to the former group. These are the people whom I will call quitters because they are leaving or have left freelancing because they could not make this work.

Freelancing is not easy, and whoever told you that this is the easy way to make money then the person was DEAD WRONG! Freelancing is difficult because unlike your 9-5 job, you are your own manager, own worker, and own support person. This is not a corporate job where you are supposed to do just one thing. Here, you have to see forest when your client shows you tree.

Worried?

Do not lose hope. There is always light at the end of the tunnel. In this case, the light will be the tips I am sharing here, which if applied properly, may convert some of the quitters into winners.

How to avoid being a quitter

• Find out the reason why you are not getting enough clients. For this you need to ask the following questions:
  • Are you not competent enough?
  • Is your skill set not saleable?
  • Do you have problem in managing time and work?
  • Are you in the wrong field?
  • Is your rate too high?
  • Don’t you have good samples to show?
  • Does not your sample speaks of your ability and justify your rate?
  • Does your proposal letter include a strong call to action?
  • Is your profile worth reading?

• Now the next step is to pin-point the exact reason, and to do that, you will have to adopt methodologies used market research agencies.
  • First, Identify all the problem areas
  • Now, take one problem element at a time, and work on it. Keep rest of the problem elements constant.
  • Measure the result.
  • If the result is close to what you had expected then change another variable (problem element), and keep rest of them constant, otherwise, rework on the first variable.
  • Measure the result
  • Repeat the process and fix all the problem elements.

• Upgrade your skills
• Learn time management
• Be patient

Always remember, freelancing is not like a regular job where you have someone to tell you what is wrong and what is right. It is also not a fix-time job, which also means that you can take leave whenever you want. Be patient with this career, rewards at the end are worth the wait.

Let me give you a piece of good news: if you have written even a single brilliant copy then you already know the tricks, and all you need to do is standardize the process. And in order to do that you need to know the process.

5 steps to writing a better copy

Step1: Know your goal

You must be wondering why everything has to start with setting a goal. Let me help you in this. A goal is the end point where you want to reach when you set your sail. If you do not set a goal before setting sail, you will get lost in the sea. You need to define your advertising goal before you start writing your copy.

Step 2: Know your audience and their needs

A product is always made for a specific group of target audience. Although everyone can consume the product, it is never made for all. Similarly the advertisement created for the product should also not be created for all. Define a target audience, which often will be similar to the target user group of the product, and then find the reason why the target group will use this product.

Step 3: Appeal to their interest

I have seen many people who make ads to suit their needs and communication style, which I must add, fails to make any connection with the users. It is important to know the desire and aspiration of the target audience before writing an advertisement copy. When writing an ad, you should always remember that you are writing this to sell a product.

Step 4: Emotional appeal

Logic always fails to connect with the target audience. If you talk all logic, and reason in the ad then your ad will definitely fail. You need to connect with the target audience on the emotional level.

Step 5: Keep it simple

Do not clutter your ad by saying this and saying that. This will not take you anywhere. Keep it simple, and talk just about one benefit at one time. It may be possible that the product solves many problems, but in advertisement you are not supposed to write about all of them. Mention the most notable feature that matters to the audience.