Getting Started as a Freelancer

Join Freelance Sites

One way of working from home is by bidding on projects in freelance sites. There are a lot of freelance sites all over the internet but these are the ones that I personally use and recommend (especially the first two):

1. GetAFreelancer
2. Scriptlance
3. oDesk
4. RentACoder
5. Elance

All of these sites have free and paid membership. Of course, paid memberships have more privileges but that doesn’t mean free members won’t get their share of success. You can start by signing up for free and as soon as you have built a strong profile, you may then upgrade your membership status. Make sure to read and follow their terms to avoid being banned on the site. (Scrap that! Just click on “I Agree” and you’re all set.)

Know Thyself

Assess your skills and interests. What is your field of expertise? What do you want to do?

 I am good in… 
 Maybe you can try… 
 Speaking 
 Voice Over 
 Writing 
 Copywriting 
 Selling 
 Telemarketing 
 Typing 
 Data Entry 
 HTML 
 Website Design 
 Japanese 
 Translation 
 Art 
 Logo Design 

If You Have It, Flaunt It

Convince your clients why they should choose you and what makes you so special. Do you have years of experience? What tools do you have? Make sure it is related to the job being offered. For instance, telling them that you can make a 3D design of a house, or that you can make a software for networking, or that you have an X-ray vision won’t do any good if the job only entails editing simple data.

Aim High

Do not settle for mediocrity. Try to exceed your clients’ expectations. If you have committed to deliver the project in 10 days, surprise your client by sending the complete and error-free data in 7 days. In that way, your clients will give you good reviews and possibly recommend you to others which can also help increase your market value.

If at First You Don’t Succeed, Heck You Know The Rest…

Do not be easily discouraged if you weren’t able to close a deal yet. Oftentimes, landing on the first job is the hardest part. It gets easier as soon as you are able to build connections with your clients. If you have succeeded on your first try, then your one lucky guy after all. You can go thank that Feng Shui guru in the Chinese shop where you bought that golden waving cat figurine.

5 Worst Things in Working in an Office

In another one of my mindless brainstorming sessions (if there’s such a thing), I came up with a list of five worst things in working in an office (yeah, exactly what the title says…thought you wouldn’t notice). Well, here they are:

1. Waking up to the same beeping sound of your alarm clock in the morning (not to mention hitting the snooze button for the nth time)





2. Meeting your officemate, who by the way has a very strong body odor, in an elevator on your way to the 37^th floor (should have just taken the stairs)



3. Arriving in the office with your boss glaring at you and his widely-opened nostrils vacuuming every molecule in the room (now what?)






4. You thought the shredder was the fax machine (how stupid can you get?)






5. Getting stuck in traffic on your way home with an upset stomach (can’t get any better than this!)

That's why I’m so glad to be working at home! Anyway, feel free to add more.

Investing For Your Future

Just yesterday, a fire broke out in our compound. It burned down one apartment unit just in front of ours. Fortunately, the firemen who got there in no time were able to keep the flames from spreading. It was such a traumatic incident. Everything happened so fast that I was only able to get dressed (I was still in my jammies!), to bring my wallet and my cell phone, that’s all! My mom didn’t bring anything either. Unlike us, my dad was able to get our car out and the other cars in the compound as well (our neighbors gave him the keys). He still went back to get a bag of important documents (birth certificates and other papers) and one laptop despite the rising smoke! There were a lot of things in the back of my mind at that moment. I was thinking, “What if it’ll burn down our apartment? What will we do? Where will we go?” All those things that I mentioned in my previous post except for the laptop were all in the house. They could have gone down in flames in a matter of minutes! If we didn’t save anything in the bank and didn’t invest in something then all our hard work would be useless. That’s why it is really important to have a backup plan.

Aside from insurance, my boyfriend, Joel, (he is also working full time at home) and I are investing in land. Just recently, he found a 2-hectare lot for sale in their city at a very good price (not even close to a million pesos). He already paid half of the down payment (33% of the total amount) from his savings just this month. I will also be paying half of it next month when I get there for the signing of the contract. The rest of the amount will be paid monthly starting this March. We decided not to loan from a bank or a cooperative to avoid the interests. The owner, a widow, is selling it because her daughter will be going overseas and they need money. The lot is located on top of a hill, just a few-minute ride from the center of the city. The area is not yet developed but there are already residents nearby. It already has electricity but no water supply yet. The 2-hectare lot was split into two parcels of land by the highway. One side, which has an area of 4k sq.m., was filled with around 20 mango trees; the other 16k sq.m., coconut trees. Joel’s mother also heard from a friend in that area that the owner was able to harvest the coconuts and sell them for around P17,000 (not bad!). It is indeed a good investment because not only can we profit from harvesting coconuts or mangoes but also as soon as the area is developed, its value will increase perhaps even more than ten fold!

So if you are thinking of what to do with your money whether from your online or offline work, it is wise to invest it in things that don’t depreciate in value. Unless you're freakin' rich, spending your earnings in shopping, dining in high-class restaurants, buying new cell phone models will only satisfy you for a short period of time. Save some. Plan ahead. Reap the rewards.

Things That Internet Money Bought

Working at home has been a very big help for my family and I am very thankful for that. We are a family of four. As a family, we all share the expenses at home. My dad is in charge of the rent. My mom takes care of our daily needs. My brother, who is also working at home, helps me in paying the bills (telephone, cellphone, internet, cable, water, electricity). We also give our parents a weekly allowance (quite the opposite from the way it was before when we were still in school). We also provide financial support for our relatives in the province (a common Filipino trait) and for some friends. But aside from that, there were also other things that my brother and I bought from our online earnings. Some are the following:

1. EVEREST REMOTE CONTROL AIR CONDITIONER

We have an old second-hand air conditioner but it’s been ages since we last used it so it’s time we needed a new one. It gets hot here in the Philippines especially at noon which is not good for our computers.

2. WHITE NEO LAPTOP

We have two desktop computers and one laptop at home but we can’t just simply bring the desktop computers anywhere and we need another laptop since my brother and I work separately so we bought another one. Now, we can also work in an internet café or any where as long as there is a stable internet connection.

3. ROBIN GENERATOR

Power outage means no work so we bought a small second-hand generator just enough to operate the lights, fan, modem, router, and the computers.

4. GLOBE INTERNET CONNECTION

We applied for another internet service with faster internet speed just in case we will have internet issues in the other ISP. So if we are disconnected, we can just switch from one modem to another.

5. HAPPY DREAM THERMOTHERAPY BED

We didn’t actually pay for the whole price. Part of it was loaned by my mom from a cooperative. The product was made in Korea. Its company, Happy Dream Medical, have several branches here in the Philippines but they only have one in our city. We purchased the massage bed both for personal and commercial use. It combines the therapeutic effects of germanium, infrared heat, and acupuncture.

6. MISCELLANEOUS

My brother usually spends his earnings in clothes, shoes, and cosmetics. He is very much concerned about his looks. Believe me, he’s more vain than I am. If you could see what I wear, you will know right away that I’m not an avid shopper. I am thriftier than he is. I only spend when I think it’s necessary or profitable.

But of course, we don’t spend all our earnings as that would not be wise, would it? We save most of what we earn in the bank for safe keeping and perhaps start a new business later on.

Pros & Cons of Working at Home

I have been working at home for more than a year now and I am enjoying it but working at home is not always easy. Today, I have compiled a list of some pros and cons of working at home in my point of view. Let's start with the first one.

PROS:

1. COMFORTABLE. Simply, there's no place like home. There's nothing more relaxing than being in your own private space. You can be working in your pajamas (in my case, a tattered hand-me-down shirt from my dad and loose shorts), and at the same time watching your favorite television show.

2. FLEXIBLE. Most work at home jobs do not have work shifts so you have all the time in the world. Some only require you to reach a certain daily quota so you can work during your free time and just deliver the job before the deadline. This is very suitable for moms since they can spend some quality time with their kids and can still generate a reliable source of income.

3. COST-EFFECTIVE. It can be expensive commuting to work or renting a place close to your office. Take out meals for lunch can also cost more than just cooking at home. Uniforms or formal outfits can also add to your shopping list, whereas if you work at home, you can minimize all these expenses because all you need to have is a computer with an internet connection.

4. SAFER. It's a jungle out there. We all know there's a higher rate of danger outside your house especially when you travel to your office at night or at dawn. You can meet an accident on your way to work or get robbed in a dark alley on your way home. It is always much safer staying at home.

So what's the bad news? Read on...

CONS:

1. GAINING WEIGHT. Since you don't get to move a lot when working at home, you will start to get...brace yourself, this can get a little nasty...fat! I know girls, it's kinda hard to digest but it's true. My brother has been constantly teasing me on this. Not to worry as this can be solved by daily exercise (Yeah, I'll do that tomorrow...I'm serious!).

2. LESS SOCIAL LIFE. In the office, you can always interact with your co-workers, participate in team-building activities or attend company gatherings. Although you may have less social life when working at home, what's most important is that you will have a lot more time with your family.

3. LAZINESS. Sometimes it gets too comfortable working at home that you tend to laze around and leave the work behind. It needs a lot of self-discipline in order to stay productive. As much as possible, keep your bed out of sight so you won't be tempted to lie down and sleep all day.

Despite these disadvantages, I can still say that working at home is something that is just right for me and I know most home workers would agree with that.

The Internet is a Gold Mine. Just Dig It!

It was not so long ago when I thought that the internet was just full of scams and that it was impossible to make money by working online. It was not until I earned my first cent when I finally realized that there is money in the internet. Yes, you read it right. I earned my first cent by clicking ads. It's not much but it somehow showed me the way to financial freedom. I'm not there yet but I'm getting there. And the best part is that you can too!

There are millions or even billions of opportunities online that we don't even know yet. Some might even come your way but you just let it slip through your fingers. Some might just be right under your nose and yet you just stare right through them, not noticing a thing. We are missing a lot of things right now and the fact of the matter is that some internet gurus hide all these information from us. Why? Think of it this way. If you have just hit the jackpot in a $100-million-dollar lottery, would you be telling the whole world about it? I guess not. Chances are, you would probably keep it to yourself, pack up, and sail away to the Bahamas.

So how do you actually get to that gold mine? Start digging! Just be careful not to step on a bomb mine instead. Let us not forget about the scammers who are trying to rip you out of your hard earned money and the other jerks who are taking advantage of our ignorance. It may take a lot of research, practice, and trial and error before you can slowly understand the worldwide web and the money behind it. In my experience, I have read a lot of articles and blogs of renowned internet marketers, gurus, and the like, who still give a damn about us, amateurs. I have tried online jobs in freelance sites, joined forums about making money online, and several others. In the process, you'll lose some but I believe you'll gain a lot more.

Setting Up My Google Adsense Account

I've just opened an account in Google Adsense. From what I've heard, it's one way of earning money from your website. But you need to have good traffic in order to earn a substantial amount. I don't expect to earn a lot from it as I don't expect a lot of readers in my blog but I do wish it will happen someday. All I can do for now is just to take it one step at a time. After all, it takes a seed to grow a tree (in this case, a money tree!).

I know a lot of you might ask the question, "How do you earn money with Google Adsense?". Well basically, Google Adsense is an online advertising by Google. It displays the ads on your website based on the website content. So if your blog is about health and fitness, then the ads shown on your website may be from online stores selling herbal medicine, body building equipments, ebooks on diet or other stuffs related to health and fitness. When your visitors or readers click on those ads, then you get paid for it (commonly known as pay-per-click). If you want to know more about Google Adsense, you can just Google it! lol...

My New Blog, My First Post

A lot of people often ask me about my work since working at home is still something new here in our area. So this year I decided to create a blog to feed their curiosity, share my thoughts, and learn from other bloggers who are doing the same thing. I am not a writer so I'd appreciate it if you'd comment and correct my grammar or spelling. I am busy most of the time (it's either I'm busy working or procrastinating) but I'll try posting every once in a while to keep this blog updated. And I'll be changing my template when I can. Anyway, cheers to my new blog!