Tuesday, September 15, 2009

How to take your freelancing career to a new level?

If you have broken away from the traditions and started freelancing, good luck to you. If by now, you have been able to generate a steady stream of income from your clients and a steady flow of clients by means of referrals, you shouldn’t ideally stop here. Time for you to think big! Time for you to expand your vision a bit, and build the headcount of your company!

Here’s how you do it


1. For survival on the Internet, the presence of a Website is a must. Actually, it is the bare minimum that you would need to have, to even exist on the Internet.

2. There are a whole host of things you can do with your website. You will hear of things like PPC, SEO, SEM, SMO and so on. Pick up any two or three of them and build some traffic to your site.

3. If possible, think of some new products, and click to become their affiliates. Once you start promoting their products, you will be able to pool in some money by way of commissions.

Doing all of this, will help you do one thing – It will help you generate quite a bit of money, which is required for you to setup a full-blown, operational office. Again, this is on the assumption that you didn’t quite invest a lot of money, when you started freelancing.

It really is a step-step process, which you just have to follow right from the start. Doing so, will eventually mean, you going big with your freelancing initiatives! Of course, it all starts from you having a website, but having one doesn’t really mean you have done enough. As you have seen, you have to do a lot more things than merely being a website owner.

Eventually, when you setup your office, you will have immense satisfaction of actually setting up something, with minimal investment.

For freelance oppurtunities visit http://www.freelanceradar.com/ now !

Most freelance jobs are work from home opportunities

For most of you who have heard a bit about freelance jobs, would also probably know that these opportunities are home based earning options, which means you can sit at the comforts of your home and yet make money. Of course, input of time is a must from your end, and needless to say, more the time you spend, more the money you make.

There is one thing about freelance work opportunities that fascinates a lot of people – They can work on their skills as opposed to working on something entirely different, if they would have been working in an office. This, allows them to explore their creative side of their persona, and also helps them to grow professionally as well.

The big plus point from all of this is that you can get a lot more time to spend with your family, if that is something you have been lacking, all this while. Not only this, but if you are able to manage your time well, you may also be able to complete a lot of household chores. If you have a small kid to bring up, and you don’t really have a lot of time to go out and work, freelance work opportunities are just made for you.

Of course, there are a couple of negatives on this too. One – You may miss the usual office ambience, and for all such people who are so used to all the chaos in the office, work from home could be a surprising change. But most importantly, the world probably has not recognized the value and the impact of work from home opportunities. Thus, you may have a lot of people actually asking you, “So, what do you do exactly, sitting at home?”

That though, doesn’t take away from freelance work opportunities, the inherent benefits it provides.For work at home oppurtunities visit http://www.freelanceradar.com/ now !

Is signing a NDA mandatory for freelancing jobs?

For all those of you, who don’t know what a NDA is, it is known as the Non-Disclosure Agreement. It is a legal agreement, which is prepared by the person who requires freelancers to do their work. The legalities in preparing a NDA actually make this a rather complicated exercise, but some clients prefer doing this because it helps them protect their interests.

What does a NDA contain?

A NDA talks of all possible privacy clauses and agreement termination clauses. This agreement outlines all the things a freelancer should and shouldn’t do. In normal circumstances, clients would like the freelancer to sign off on the NDA in cases where the projects are in the technology domain, though this is not a hard and fast rule.

Freelancer’s and the buyer’s responsibility

Once the NDA is signed off by both the parties, all that the client needs to do from his end, is have that document as a guideline to ensure the freelancer doesn’t compromise on privacy policies. That said, the freelancer should know at all times that a Damocles’ sword is hanging over his head, and should he decide to break away from the rules, he could be punished big time.

The bottom-line is – A NDA is an agreement which works fine for both the client and the freelancer. This could be a deterrent for all such freelancers who wish to think that they are pretty much on their own, and they can do anything that comes in their mind.

Reporting is critical for success of telecommuting jobs

Telecommuting jobs used to be small in number until some years ago. As companies started revisiting their business models to be more cost-efficient, they started encouraging telecommuting jobs. Telecommuting, as on date, is a work option preferred by even Fortune 100 companies. Obviously, there is something about telecommuting jobs that industry bigwigs are increasingly taking to promote these jobs.

First and foremost, companies in the manufacturing sector may not find it so easy to encourage their employees to telecommute. Telecommuting essentially means working from home, and with manufacturing companies having production processes, it is extremely important for them to have their employees in the factory or the production house. Manufacturing is a labor and a process intensive domain, and telecommuting jobs in this domain could be very rare.

Come to the services sector, and you will find a lot of telecommuting jobs. Normally, jobs like attending to calls from home, managed by a remote exchange or a VOIP server, are things you would find in this domain. And needless to say, they are quite popular with people and clients too. For the clients, having their employees telecommute, means they are saving some space in their office. On the other hand, managing people’s work could get to be a task at times.

It is thus no rocket science that telecommuting jobs can only be beneficial for both the sides of the work role. Yet, there are some nuts and bolts about these opportunities that need sorting. More often than not, it is the client who would need to fix things on his end, to ensure he gets good value out of the telecommuting jobs. Give a chance though for people to work from home and they will grab it.For telecommuting oppurtunities visit http://www.freelanceradar.com/ now !

Some things to watch about freelancing

And this really applies for both the quarters. Well, what we mean in saying this is though freelancing seems to be an attractive option for both the entities – The buyers and the service providers, it is important for people to consider some things down the line. It is needed for both the parties to understand some things before they choose the option of freelance jobs.

Buyers need to verify the credentials of the service provider they choose to partner. It could be so tempting for buyers to get trapped into partnering with some providers who offer their services for a low rate. But, that normally is not the best way to go about things in the domain of freelancing. Partnering a service provider who has completed some projects at least in the niche of your work could help in a big way.

Sometimes though, buyers or the clients need also give attention to the time required by service providers to finish the work. In simple terms, a combination of how much it would cost the client, how much time does the freelancer need and how good he or she is with the job, will help a freelancer clinch the deal eventually.

As a freelancer, there is only ground rule, we have got to tell you – Do the right things, the first time and every time thereafter. As a freelancer, you may not be bound by company rules, and you may get a feeling that you are on your own. Despite that, you should ensure of staying in your committed timelines. When you deliver on what you promise, you can be sure of getting repeat work from the same client, and probably some referrals too.

Thus, both the parties need to do some things to ensure that the freelancing deal is a win-win deal.For freelancer oppurtunities visit http://www.freelanceradar.com/ now !

Freelancing as a super option during recessionary times

Over the last few years, a lot of jobs have been slashed by companies. This decision was primarily due to companies having to slash their overheads and them avoiding paying salaries to their employees. Freelancing, in these times, has come as a major relief for companies who wish to get their work done, and yet wish to save on some money.

And indeed they have taken this option and succeeded. In a survey done in July 2009 by a leading Economics magazine, it was found that all companies who decided to go the freelancing route to get work done, were able to cut down on costs by about 30% at least. On the other hand, a lot of people who were laid off or were fired due to recession, could find an alternative option for work.

As a niche itself, freelancing has been around for quite some years. In fact, if early reports have to be believed, freelancing has been around for more than 10 years now. But it is only in the last some years that the criticality of this option has been realized.

A leading freelancer site sees over 100 new jobs being posted daily for prospective service providers to enroll for work. About 75% of the freelance jobs get closed, which means, a lot of these service providers or telecommuters are able to grab one or the other work option.

Quite significantly, for the kind of popularity freelancing has got in the last some years, there have been quite a few instances when service providers have complained that they haven’t been paid for their services or have been treated unfairly. This is clearly a case of protection of rights, and considering that freelancing is pretty much an unorganized domain, there can be precious little done about this, at least for now.For freelance jobs visit http://www.freelanceradar.com/ now !