Advice: What you think is who you are, and how you feel.
I have decided to deviate somewhat from the normal material on freelance help. The focus for this blog are soft skills. Soft skills are the additional skills you will need to be successful as a freelancer, in addition to the technical skills you have already mastered.
What you think is who you are. Beware of negative people or environments. There is truth to the old adage of “it only takes one rotten apple”. If you are exposed to negativity, either change the subject or remove yourself from that environment.
Always try to maintain a positive attitude. Focus on success. If you catch yourself dwelling on the negatives, move past that, and draw on positive thoughts. What happens to you is a product of your thoughts, and nothing more.
The importance of Delivering Good Requirements to Freelancers
My Freelancing Proposal Mistake
I recently submitted a freelancer proposal on surefirehire.com for the creation of a simple application. I assigned a freelancer to a project based on their bid.
However, I made a small mistake. The mistake was that when I created the requirements, I left out an important detail. The particulars of the detail are unimportant in this illustration. What is important, and a lesson learned, is to be very detailed when defining requirements for freelancers.
- Don’t leave proposal requirements open for interpretation.
- List roles and freelancer responsibilities and employer’s responsibilities clearly.
- Document exactly what you wish for the freelancer to provide
- Even go so far as to document what you don’t want the freelancer to do.
Avoiding This Freelance Requirement Pitfall
A strategy to avoid this allow another person to read your requirements as if they are the freelancer. A lot of time, they will have the same questions that a freelancer may have. Plus, the questions asked will ignite your thought process around the freelancer’s application requirements.
Tips on how to become a top earning freelancer
If you are a starting freelancer, most of the time you may not earn as much as you want, especially if you have not already built a reputation on internet and unless you network with other freelancers to work with them. But if you are an experienced freelancer, the following tips might be very useful to you:
Tips on how to become a top earning freelancer
First : Set a good market strategy
- By owning a web site or portfolio that presents all your best achievements in reverse chorological order
- By introducing yourself as a company rather than an individual
- By posting helping information into forums, and inserting links to your web site company
- By linking to blogs, so that others who link to your blog.
Second: Subscribe to paying freelance job sites
- By subscribing to paying freelance sites, you may avoid too much competition and ask as much as possible to your clients to complete the job.
Third : Do excellent freelance work
- By doing excellent work you can be sure that your customers will come back again. Some will even hire you for long projects, because they will trust you, and promote your services to their friends.
Freelancing 101: A Walkthrough on How to Get Started as a Freelancer
Filed under: Freelancing Tips, How To, employer, freelancer
Freelancing is a very rewarding career path – your time is yours, you choose your projects and you have no boss to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do. There are many benefits of being a freelancer; and with the economic down turn in the recent months, taking the reigns on your own career is a wise move in this time of pink slips and downsizing.
I have been freelancing since I graduated college. In fact, I have been taking small writing assignments and projects when I was in college to help me augment my allowance. I found freelancing very convenient and rewarding, and it’s just the path I want to take. It has been five years since I took my career in my own hands, and I would like to share with you a few things to help you get started as a freelancer.
Define Your Area of Expertise
Before marketing yourself in the freelancing and outsourcing niche, ask youself, “What do I do best?” It is very important for you to define your area of expertise. Are you an excellent writer? An efficient link builder? An innovative graphic designer? Read more
What is RT on Twitter and Why is it useful
RT or ReTweet, in Twitter Terms is similar to a forward in email. If you see something you like, pass it along. If you only have a few followers, don’t over do it. In fact, if you have a thousand+ followers, don’t over do it.
Example
mfubibRT @surefirehire:Freelancers and Employers Resource and Free Job Listings: http://bit.ly/5Huuv
p.s. thanks for the RT @mfubib
Why is it important
The number one reason why RT is important, is that you can pass along freelance jobs, posted to twitter, from http://www.surefirehire.com to your network of followers. They will appreciate the job opportunity. Hopefully some day they will return the favor.
Shorten URLs from you Browser
Shorten urls for Twitter, and other social sites, from your browser: http://is.gd/
how tweet it is
Message from Founder: Surefirehire Needs a Favor from You
Surefirehire.com is a recent freelance start-up. We have launched advertising campaigns to encourage potential users to visit, and sign up for an account. We want to take our campaign a step further. We would like to begin a “grass-roots” campaign too.
This is where we would like to reach out to you for help.
We know that many of you are tech savvy and have influential blogs. I would like to encourage you to blog about surefirehire.com and our services. By promoting surefhirehire.com, employers and freelancers have the potential to benefit by either reducing employer costs or increasing income.
Thanks in advance for your support,
David Naumann
Founder
surefirehire LLC
site: https://www.surefirehire.com
blog: http://www.surefirehire.org
twitter: http://twitter.com/surefirehire (follow us on twitter, to get automated job updates)
Nervous About Hiring a Freelancer, Don’t Be.
Filed under: Freelancing Tips, How To, employer, freelancer, humor
If you have ever thought of hiring a freelancer, but have been nervous about doing so, due to trust issues, don’t be.
- First, if a freelancer wants to be rehired, they will not burn their bridges. In fact, a common goal of freelancing is to find repeat clients.
- Second, surefirehire has a rating system in place, similar to Ebay. Check the freelancer’s previous comments and rating.
- Lastly, draw up a contract, or leverage from an existing contract that states what exactly you are trusting the freelancer with and the terms.
I hope this helps to ease your concerns. Get started today.
I also ask, if you are a freelancer, please comment.
Why surefirehire.com is the best place to find a freelance employee.
Using Surefirehire.com will help your business survive the current financial downturn by giving you access to skilled freelance workers who are eager to demonstrate their worth to you. Talented people from cross the world are waiting for you to open an account with Surefirehire.com so that they can assist you in meeting the challenges that every business is facing during the economic downturn. Using a Surefirehire.com freelancer lets you focus your efforts on the areas you are most talented in, without burdening you with another employee to pay. Surefirehire.com freelancers are dynamic, hungry people looking for an opportunity to put their skills to a good use. Read more
Hire a Tweelancer to Tweet Tweet
Filed under: Freelancing Tips, employer, freelancer, humor
Tweelancer is a term that I use to describe a freelancer who is a Twitter Developer too! I have to admit, this blog is more about recognition for a surefirehire.com freelancer, who created a Twitter program for us.
I created an opportunity on surefirehire. The requirements were simple:
- Job listings from surefirehire.com, sent to twitter
- Automated
- With frequency
- shortened urls
The freelancer who completed the work is 49DollarLogo (don’t let the name fool you). The product was flawless; furthermore, I have a foundation for sending any data that I want to Twitter (I wish I could send my dry cleaning to Twitter).
If you are looking to hire a freelancer with twitter skills, create an account today.
http://twitter.com/surefirehire
Tweelancers are cool
A lesson for Employers and Freelancers for Tough Times
Filed under: Freelancing Tips, How To, Opportunities, employer, freelancer
I read a special report in INC. magazine, October 2008 edition, titled “Strategies for Tough Time”. I am uncertain of the author; however, he goes on to suggest different ways that smart business owners are coping with the down-turn in the global economy.
The author argues that to combat an economic down-turn, instead of laying off an employee, consider dropping their hours and allowing the employee to work for another employer at the same time.
If I were the employer and employee, I would take this approach one step further. I would augment my staff by hiring freelancers too. In this example, the employee who is working only ten hours for the given employer, now has the time to take on freelancing opportunities.
Create your own economic stimulus package Today by hiring freelances on surefirehire.com!