25 Mar 10 Freelance Writing – When Should You Work on Your Own Project?

Writing for others may get you some money, but you cannot build a fortune from it. Yes, there are some freelance writers who charge a killing, but unfortunately most of us are not that fortunate. Then what should I do? Should you leave freelance writing?

Well, the answer to the above question is big NO with big N and Big O. Freelance writing gives you a stable source of income—I know they told you it is not stable—leaving it will not be a good idea. You should rather continue working for your clients.

Then how you can increase your income?

I wish, you would have waited before asking this question. Anyway, I was saying you should continue working for your clients, but you should also put a project or two in place. Start something on your own.

Can I do it?

Of course, you can do it. You have been doing it for your clients, why cannot you do it for yourself? I understand PPC, SEO, marketing, and everything else is very, very important for web, but none of them (or all of them even if combined together) is as important as the content. And this is what you have been doing for your clients—creating great content. So why not for yourself?

Find a niche that you would like to work into and roll out your own project. You can create a niche website, an information product, or if you are experienced enough you can become consultant or give coaching. There are many avenues that you can explore.

But when to do it?

Yeah, I know this is a big IF & BUT questions (though without if). You can do it on weekends. Start working on weekends if you do not already do, and work on your projects on weekends. I know this is a lot of trouble, but trouble is what you have to take if you want to make it big. They lied to you when they said that it was going to be no sweat.

Creating your own product or starting your own project is a hard work. That is why not many people are doing so, but the reward is enormous. There is not just light at the end of the tunnel, but there is a huge spotlight and a big stage waiting for you at the end of the tunnel.

Start working on weekends, and make it big. Best of luck for your journey! Do write in how it was.

Tags: Amp, Asking This Question, Avenues, Fortune, Freelance Work, Freelance Writers, Freelance Writing, Information Product, Marketing, Money, Niche Website, Stable Source, Start Something, Sweat

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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.

Tags: 15 Minutes, Background, Balloon, Campaigns, Caution, Content Suggestions, Disguise, Freelance Job, Job Description, Marketing, Press Release, Professionalism, SEO, Social Bookmarking Sites, Submissions, Suggestion, Waste Of Time, Writing As A Career, Writing Career, Writing Job

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20 Dec 09 How to use Labels in Gmail to Make Your Life Easy

How to use Labels in Gmail to Make Your Life Easy

I am a big fan of the label feature. Currently, I am using around 125 labels and filter combination to short my mails. Labels in Gmail are such a lifesaver. It helps us organize our mails and keep the inbox tidy. You can use label along with filter option to create a rule to categorize the mails and even remove them from your inbox. I will tell you how you can use the labels.

Create a label and a filter rule

This is the very first thing to do. Let’s say you have created a label called Sweetheart, and in the filter you mention that any mail from your sweetheart’s mail ID (even more than one) should go directly to that label skipping inbox, or simply apply the label to the mails coming from her.

Color code your labels

Like me, you can also color code your labels. It makes it easy to visually scan through the kind of stuff is there. Like all my SEO newsletters have Orange code, online marketing ones has red code, and all my writing related newsletters has blue code. This has helped me visually scan through the labels.

Activate Hide read labels from Gmail lab

Click settings (you can find it near logout link in Gmail) followed by lab then scroll down to find “Hide read labels”. Enable this feature. This will help you keep the sidebar clutter free, and only labels with unread mails will be visible to you.

Using labels to search

You can also use labels as a shortcut to reach the mail you want. For this, you will need to enable “Go to label” feature from settings >> lab. (See pic for detail).

Hide Labels from subject

I personally do not like hiding labels from subjects, but not everyone shares the same view, therefore, Google has this feature to hide labels from subjects. To activate this, go to settings and then to lab, search for “Hide Labels from Subjects” and enable it (see pic). That is all you need to do, if you do not like seeing colorful labels beside subjects.

Tags: Clutter, Colorful Labels, Filter Combination, Filter Option, Free Labels, Gmail, Google, Inbox, Lifesaver, Mail Id, Marketing, Orange, Sweetheart, Unread Mails

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