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Work at Home

Three More Types of Writing That Can Make You Money

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As a copywriter one has to look for new clients and projects almost everyday. Last month, we delved into the world of writing for money, and listed three types that are always hiring. Now, we’ll take a look at three more, and give you tips along the way on how to succeed.

Reviews writing

Online reviews are important for many reasons. First, they give potential customers some insight as to how well the product works. If there are no reviews, a potential buyer may not take the risk and purchase it. Also, reviews can give the makers of the product criticism as to how they can improve the next time.

That’s why there are many review job postings available. There are two types of review jobs, honest and dishonest. An honest review job typically involves the maker sending you a free sample of their product, and you give them your opinion on it.

Dishonest reviews, on the other hand, may send you a free sample, but they want you to write a positive review regardless if the product is good or not. These are used to trick people into buying a product that may not necessarily be quality.

Shilling may not be the best for some people, so try going for review jobs that just want your honest opinion, whether it’s good or bad.

To write a good review, keep it short and to the point.

Erotica

This technically counts as fiction, but it’s so big in the writer’s market that we fill it warrants its own section. Many clients, whether it’s for a site or because they’re trying to make the next 50 Shades of Grey, want a story that’s steamy and can entice their readers. They may use euphemisms on sites that don’t allow erotica, saying they’re looking for a “romance” story.

To be an erotica writer, you obviously need to have a general knowledge of sex and how you can describe it sensually with words. Also, if you’re a man (as I am), try writing under a woman’s name, as you’ll land more jobs that way. Sorry guys, that’s life.

Journalism

From the big name newspapers to the small-fry indie publications, employers are always looking for more writers, whether it’s guest or a full-time position. Some journalistic-style articles will just require you to do some googling, and others will require you to actually get out there, get your feet wet, and talk to people. Others just may want your opinion on an issue.

Scout for different publications and see if there’s an open job. Also, look for the publication’s preferred writing style. Some may want you to write in a traditional journalistic approach, and others may want a more relaxed, clickbaity tone.

And those are just a few of the many types of writing that makes money. If you’re not sure if you can succeed as a writer, just build a portfolio and send out applications. Who knows? You could find yourself with the writing job of your dreams. Some of the greatest writers only succeeded because they never gave up.

Want to share any other kind of writing that gave you a nice income? Feel free to do it.

Work at Home

Three Types of Writing That Can Make You Money

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If you’re looking for a job in writing, you may wonder what genre is profitable. Do you look for jobs in blog posting, or long-winded articles? Is the money in fiction, or nonfiction?

To be honest, almost any genre, text, and type of writing can be profitable. And we’re here to explain your options, as well as give tips for you to succeed. With that said, let’s look at three types today, and you can see which is right for you.

Writing Fiction

People still love a good story. Even in the age of movies and video games, written word is still relevant for many people, and if you have an imagination, this route may be good for you, especially as an aside to working on your own novel.

When it comes to fiction jobs, you usually have two options. One is ghostwriting. In that, you write a story for someone, they pay you, and then they get all the credit. If you want attribution, you can write for a few publications that are accepting new writers. These are usually short stories and whatnot, so don’t expect any long novels.

For the jobs that involve ghostwriting, our tips include constant communication so that you know what the client wants.

Meanwhile, if you’re trying to get your story into magazine or other publication, clean it up as much as you can. Don’t assume you can submit your first draft and have the editor do the rest.

Writing How-To Books

Another job mainly involving ghostwriting, how-to is big in many freelance writing fields. The concept is simple: take a topic, write about it, and explain how it works as precise as possible. These books are big, even in an age where people can Google the information for free. People like having an all-in-one guide that is informative and friendly for beginners.

Our tip for this genre would be to dig deep, and not just regurgitate what you find on the first page of Google. If people wanted to Google something, they would have done so. Also, write simple so that anyone can understand.

Writing Blog Posts

So many blogs want guests and regular writers to contribute to their blogs, so it’s no surprise that there are blogging jobs abound. This is a broad topic with so many different requirements. Some may want you to write about their product, and others may want to discuss everyday life topics.

Our tips include proper communication to your clients so that both of you know what you’re looking for, and familiarity with the blogging software the client uses. For instance, if they’re posting in WordPress, you may need to learn some coding skills beyond just typing the words.

And there are three types of genres you can make money from. You can usually find jobs on a classifieds site, usually one that’s freelancing-based. Check them out, and get you a job that works for you. In Part Two, we’ll discuss some more options.

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Time & Work at Home, that treasure

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what to think to start work at home
“Time is Relevant” flickr photo shared by Lel4nd under a Creative Commons ( BY ) license

A work at home business is very attractive, isn’t it? Don’t have to commute, don’t need to dress properly, your child don’t need to be alone…there are a lot of benefits.

But, if you are thinking about to start your work at home career, you also need to think in the bad things. I don’t want to discourage you, but help you to take a good decision.

It would be a great mistake to think that you will have 8 hours of work per day, having a great income and a nice security. Well this can happen, but you will need time to achieve it. Today, I want to focus in one problem of working at home: the work time you need to do and nobody will pay.

Time that you need to invest when working at home without getting a direct income from it

  • Finding clients and jobs. Yes you may think that this is only necessary in the beginning, but if you are serious about your business, you will always be looking for new projects. So, you will always need to spend time looking for new projects. And, nobody will pay you for it.
  • Calculating budgets. Once you or your client have started the contact, you will need to calculate your fee. Of course you will have an idea about your fees before that, but projects usually have their own details that will make you need to adapt your fees to its specifities.
  • Keep the accounts. You will need to take a good amount of time to track your profits, taxes and expenses.
  • Creating invoices. Yes an invoice is different to an accounting entries. You will need to do both.
  • Creating a portfolio. Necessary and don’t think you can do it once and forgot it, you will need to update it with time, and it has to be perfect.

So if you are dreaming with a 8 hours work, you need to take into consideration all these activities, to see if you will be able to have the income you want in that 8 hours, knowing that a nice amount of time will go to activities that do not generate income directly. Also, you need to think in this when you are calculating your fees.

Of course you can outsource some of this needs, but in the end is the same because time is money.

Is there any other work-related activity you need to do and that doesn’t generate income directly? Share in comments!

Work at Home

What Upwork is?

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Upwork Facts that Every Newbie Should Know

Are you thinking about signing up in one of the most useful websites for freelancers, Upwork? Are you an aspiring freelancer who wants to start reaching his dreams through freelancing? If your answer is yes for these questions, then you are ready to work at home.

upwork freelance platform review
Time To Break From Work flickr photo shared by Nanagyei under a Creative Commons ( BY ) license

Freelancing can happen once you sign up in Upwork.com. This website is formerly known Odesk.com. It offers variety of online job vacancies. Its job openings cater most of the works that are needed in outsourcing. It has served lot of freelancers globally and has given job opportunities for people who prefer working at home. In fact, it has been one of the competing companies when it comes to freelancing opportunities.

If you are planning to sign up, or working through this website, then you must know these facts.

Nature of Upwork.com

Upwork.com is an online website that posts job offerings from various people with or without companies. Basically, these people post the skills or services that they need, then you will be the one to apply for that job. Upwork.com does not directly give you a workload. You have to work for it. Hence, not applying for a job means not having workload at all.

Application in Upwork.com

Killer resume is needed in Upwork.com. Just like in applying for a full-time job in companies, or institutions, you have to build yourself by creating a resume. In Upwork.com, your profile in this website is your resume. Hence, you have to show your competence through writing every detail of it. Other than that, you also have to take exams to test and prove yourself. Your chances of getting hired increase whenever you have created your resume. A higher possibility of getting hired is possible if you have good ratings posted on your resume or profile as well.

Two Kinds of Wages

There are two kinds of rates in Upwork.com—hourly rate and fixed hour. Hourly rates refer to wages that are hourly in nature. It means your work or job is being monitored then you will be compensated based on your job hours. It works better for administrative assistants and other fields as well. Meanwhile, fixed rate means your payment depends on your project. If your project’s price is $10, then you will receive that no matter how long you work for it. Hourly rate is better than fixed rate for it will really compensate you well.

Basically, you must know that Upwork.com has already given job opportunities for people worldwide. These people are brave enough to prove themselves through their profiles. If you have the skills to convince employers to hire you, then you must sign up already.

Signing up in this website means opening doors to more opportunities to acquire work whether it is for full-time or part-time. Upwork.com generates opportunities and new learning that you can never get from working in the outside world. As long as you have the resources and well-written resume, you are now ready.

Odesk.com was known for being a low-cost freelance platform, though you can choose what works you will apply for. In my case I have found good clients in ODesk and now in Upwork. However, being honest I have to say that you will find a lot of jobs which budget is non-sense.

GOLD tip for working in Upwork, be picky with the jobs you apply for and you won’t lose time.

Work at Home

4 reasons to start a freelance career

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Compared to regular jobs, freelancing is a bit different. Everything that happens, or might happen, depends on the freelancer himself. If he does not market himself for possible clients, he does not work. If he does not work, then he does not earn as well. This fact happens especially to people who are new to this industry. However, despite of these problems, and challenges, there are still many reasons why you will love to be a freelancer.

  1. Freelancing gives you choice to choose your desired job. You will be the one to look for a job. Hence, you are the only who will dictate what job will you take. You choose want you want to do and reject which work does not suit or ring a bell for you.
  2. Freelancing gives you more personal time and space. This is only possible to people who manage their time well. Also, the freelancer chooses time when and where to work. He can work in a coffee shop. He can work after ten o’clock in the evening. This type of work gives more personal options to everyone involved here.
  3. Freelancing gives you less stress-free working environment. Since you handle your own job, you are the captain of the ship. After deciding what, when, and where to work, it is the time to deal with how will you work on something. Jobs may give less stress to freelancers if these people only know how to manage everything perfectly.
  4. Freelancing opens more opportunities. Being unattached to specific companies provides a freelancer a chance to explore more opportunity. Exclusivity is not a problem because in freelancing, every job offer is acceptable if desirable. There is no limit in accepting jobs.

However, freelancing is not the heaven. Sleepless nights, deadlines, clients’ demands—these are the top struggles encountered by every freelancer. While some people think that freelancing demands less time, freelancers dedicate more time in their home-based job. It is their sole responsibility to finish all the projects that they have collected. Then, upon submitting the projects, they need to look for another project to be done.

But then, every freelancer should remember that freelancing does not stop by these problems. A dedicated, disciplined, and committed person knows how to manage things effectively. These make things very desirable for everyone. Hence, these reasons will surely encourage any person to try the world full of challenge and that is freelancing.

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Is it worth to take a small job when working at home?

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Applying for small jobs, is it worth?
Scrabble Position by Flazingo Photos

When you are starting a work at home career it is very likely that you have to try freelance platforms such as Upwork or Elance, which soon will become Upwork too. In these platforms it is common that you have a fixed amount of points per month, and you need to spend the points when you want to apply for a job.

If you apply too much, you can buy extra points with a premium account and the platform has a little extra revenue. These points make applying for small jobs more expensive because you are spending points that maybe you will need in the future to apply for other bigger job.

What a freelance should take into consideration when applying for a job

First, you should look at your client credibility. Will they pay? This is an important question and the answer is not always yes. In freelance platforms this is easy to know. Do they have a profile with good reviews? Then, they pay. Are they new and haven’t the payment method verified? You are in risk. But, all the clients were new one times, so, sometimes you need to just trust in them.

Second thing to think about is whether the effort/time to write your application is worth for the job. If you are applying for a 10 euros task, you can’t put more than 5 minutes in the applying because there are chances that they choose another freelancer. Actually, even if they hire you, you need to write the application, get information about the job and then do the tasks. All these things take time. And, this is not all, likely when you finish the job you will have to record your income and generate an invoice for your taxes (more time!). So in the end, how much time do you spend for this 10 euros? I guess too much if you want to survive. Remember that a day has 24 hours, and you spend about 8 sleeping. So it leaves 16 hours to work, eat and exchange some words with other human beings.

However, sometimes it can be worth to apply or this jobs

But, life is hard and work at home is not easy. So maybe you might try to take one of these small jobs. Let’s see why.

One of the most important things to be hired is your own credibility. If you do a small job, and you give a nice value for your price, it is likely that the client will ask you first the next time he will need something done. And, it can become a regular project!

So, sometimes you get a high value to do a first job that at a first glance seemed a waste of time.

I would suggest freelancers that work from home applying to small jobs when:

1. Client has credibility. It can be due to he has a good profile in a freelance platform or because you know them or at least their website seems that he is serious.

2. The job description is clear and comprehensive. So you know what you will have to do, and you can be sure that it won’t be the typical “I need someone to rule the world by 3 euros per hour and also needs to speak ancient Greek”.

3. You see that the client usually posts small jobs so there is a chance for they deciding to keep you as the one to do it each time they need something to be done.

Work at Home

5 Healthy Habits to Develop if you Work from Home

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Many people would argue that working from home is ideal in every way because it is convenient and comfortable. Although there are notable benefits to getting your job done within your own four walls, working from home can also lead to the development of poor habits. In order to assure that you can get the most out of your stay-at-home-job, here are 5 healthy habits you should try to develop:

            1) Stay active

It can be easy to fall into the negative habit of not getting enough exercise when you do not have to leave the house to get to work. For your overall health, it is important to make sure you move around throughout the day. Try taking a short walk around the neighborhood every few hours or shooting a few baskets to break up the monotony of the day. Exercise is great for rejuvenating your mind and helps your body to feel more energized.

            2) Make a space for yourself

When you work from home, it can be difficult to separate work time from personal time. One way to combat this issue is to establish an environment within your home that is dedicated to work. If you create a separate space for yourself, it will likely be easier for you to adjust your mindset in order to be able to differentiate between work and play.

            3) Be presentable

As tempting as it may be to stay in your pajamas all day, getting showered, dressed, and ready to take on the world will make you feel more awake and more engaged during your workday. If you feel confident and fresh, you are more likely to perform at a higher level.

            4) Maintain social contacts

Working from home can be very isolating because it often prevents the type of face-to-face water cooler talk that many experience at work daily. Therefore, it is important to intentionally interact with others throughout the day in order to meet your social needs; however, be cautioned—too much social interaction that is not related to work may become distracting. Be sure to limit your conversations that are not related to work so that you will not fall behind.

            5) Set limits

For those of you who tend to be perfectionistic in nature, it can be difficult to ‘leave your work at work.’ Working from home can make it challenging to draw the line between working time and taking time to relax. One important habit to set is to give yourself a cutoff time for work and sticking to it. Everyone needs rejuvenation in order to be their best the next day.

Working from home can be an excellent experience; it saves time that many people waste each day with long commutes and offers a level of convenience that most people do not get to enjoy. On the other hand, working from home takes a lot of self-discipline and drive. Establishing these five healthy habits can help you to have a positive, productive at-home work experience.

Work at Home, Writing Content in Spanish

How to improve the quality of your service

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freelance quality tip: do not make your clients wait alone
Waiting patiently?flickr photo shared by Chovee under a Creative Commons ( BY ) license

As freelance copywriter I have one main goal: improve the quality of my work. To do so, one needs to study and keep learning things, but also is a good idea observe what things make your clients more happy. As you can’t learn everything in academic books, sometimes you need every day expertise, and this is hard to find in the academia.

One thing that I can recommend to everybody that is starting a freelance career is to treat your clients as if they were special. Actually, if you think it for a moment your clients are special. How many clients do you have? If you are not company, I am sure you do not have so many clients that you can’t remember each one of them. Of course, you can forget someone that one day asked you to do something and you never have heard from him again. But, now I am talking about your current clients. Can you tell me that you are not able to give them a personal treatment? I am sure not, and if the answer is yes, you likely need to hire someone because you are not keeping enough attention to your clients.

So, how can you show them that they are special?

Easy!  Let them know how is the work being developed.  When you are working hard in several long term projects, you can feel that you do not have enough time to write to your clients. However, if they need to wait, let’s say for a month to see the results of your work, they can be worried when half of the time is over. How can they be sure that you are working hard and that you will have it on time?

Just writing a short e mail saying that you have finished these things, you are currently working in these other things and you will finish it on time, will allow them to trust in you and feel better.

Because just waiting without news, can be stressful.

Taking a few minutes to give them the information they deserve, allows you to show them that they weren’t wrong when they decide to give you the project.

Don’t forget that in the work market we are all people, no robots.

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Avoid that pretty work from home scams

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work from home has its own threats
creative commons licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by peddhapati

I have written about work from home scam jobs a couple of times before: here and here. But,  today I have noticed another common feature that some scams have: The job offers are spread by supposedly pretty women.

If you follow twitter hashtags like #workfromhome to be aware of what is happening in the world of this great activity, you will soon notice that many of the adverts are twetted by twitter accounts with very pretty women. It is curious like normal or just no-so-pretty  women never have a job offers to tweet about.

Well, nobody doubts that when you are publishing an advert you need to link it with a good-looking person, no matter if a man or woman. In fact, this is used in every TV commercial that we see everyday and they aren’t usually scams. But, when we talk about publishing jobs, you don’t need to link it with wonderful people because getting a job is attractive enough to engage with everyone that is looking for it.

So, it is easy to think that the scammers are just using fake accounts of attractive people to get your attention. This is because they are not looking to hire the best worker available, which is what the employers want, but to introduce in their scam as many people as possible. They want you to see their job offer even if you are not looking for a work from home job.

Let’s face it. Work from home jobs usually asks for very hard-work and offer a modest income. This is because there are many people that dream about working from their home. And, regardless of the income, they legit jobs usually come from companies that have official twitter, or any other social media platform, account. If you were looking for someone to work in your company you wouldn’t use your personal account, but the one of your company.

I am not saying that you need to remove every job offer that you get by someone that looks nice. But when a great income, no experience requeriment and good looking person are put together in a job offer, be careful and take a second look.

 

Work at Home

Translator scam jobs

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how to avoid scam job offers
creative commons licensed ( BY-ND ) flickr photo shared by B Rosen

As freelance copywriter in Spanish, I always have to be looking for new clients and in the meantime I am used to finding suspicious job offers.

I won’t write here the specific URL and name of the company because I think it is more important that people understand what seems not legit than the specific websites that do the scams.

An example of a scam job for translators

The last very suspicious job that I have found said things like:

  • You will work for big companies as Coca Cola, Disney…

Well, I really don’t know these two particular cases, but big companies usually hire an agencies and do not lose time hiring freelancers that are not able to reach their expectations related with volume of work.

  • You do not need experience

Maybe you do not need experience, but I don’t know any company that says this openly if it is not desperate to get more workers. Even if they do not need experienced workers, an experienced worker usually gives more confidence to the client, so why would they write this in the job description? If they do not need experience they won’t say it explicitly, in order to both experienced and not experienced apply.

Until this moment this job seems too easy, but it could be ok. Problem is that now come the bad news. You need to pay a registration fee in order to go into the platform and access these great and generous clients.

They promise they will give your money back if you do not find accurate jobs.

A quick internet investigation about the website gave me some forum discussions with freelancers saying they never had their money back.

Summarizing

  1. Too easy jobs doesn’t exist.
  2. Too easy jobs well paid doesn’t exist.
  3. Never give money to get a job. You need to earn money, not to spend it.

If you are going to pay for a platform, then be sure that the platform will only charge to you a proportion of your earnings. This is a win-win relationship because you are sure that they want you to get jobs. More you earn, more they earn. You do not earn, you don’t pay. You become rich, they become rich. Easy!