09 February 2010 | Freelancing Tips | Tamara

More interactive than Twitter and more personal than LinkedIn, Facebook continues to grow as an online networking site for professionals. As more and more freelancing groups form on Facebook — such as the oDesk fan page – the rules of the game are becoming more clear.

Here are some tips for succeeding as a professional on Facebook:

• Have a Tasteful Profile Pic. It’s a good idea to have a classy headshot as your profile picture, but you can do it yourself – you don’t need to pay for it. (Remember, this should be professional – so turn the sexy dial down a notch and keep your clothes on!)

• Resist the Urge to Change Your Profile Pic Too Often. You need to be recognizable, so keep changes to a minimum. If you are going to indulge in events like celebrity doppelgänger week, switch back to your usual photo ASAP. Think of it this way: a potential client may be better with faces than names — you want him to be able to spot you on a crowded wall.

• If You Can’t Bear to Post a Picture of Yourself, Use a Logo. If you really don’t want your own mug on Facebook, create a simple logo or avatar (minding copyright laws) and use that instead. Sure, a headshot of a Dwight Schrute bobblehead doll isn’t the epitome of professionalism, but it’s better than using your daughter’s kindergarten picture.

• Utilize List Options for Friends. Facebook now allows you to set privacy limits for your profile based on customizable lists. Pull down the “Account” menu and click “Edit Friends.” Once there, click “Create New List” and categorize your contacts based on the type of information you’d want to share with them (i.e., “Pals” and “Professional Contacts”). Go through your current friends and place them in the right list, then use the lists to create privacy settings. (Facebook List FAQ.)

• Utilize Privacy Settings. Click on “Privacy Settings” from the “Account” pull-down menu in the upper-right hand corner of your Facebook screen. Once there, put your new lists into action, paying special attention to ”Profile Information,” “Contact Information,” and “Search.” (Having a hard time? Read this great guide to Facebook privacy.)

• Keep Your Personal Life Private. Under “Profile Information” in the Privacy Settings, chose to customize every part of your page. Consider limiting your professional contacts to the “About Me” and “Education and Work” sections of your profile. Potential clients don’t need access to anything else, unless you’re ready to be responsible with that exposure.

• Make Sure You Can Be Found. Be sure potential clients can find you on Facebook. Under the “Search” option of the Privacy Settings page, make sure non-friends can look you up. Limit searches to Facebook or allow your Facebook link to be found on other search engines. (For pros and cons, read this.)

• Keep Your Contact Info Current. If you’re allowing professional contacts access to your info, then be sure it’s correct information. You don’t want a potential client emailing job offers to the college email address you haven’t used in two years.

• Use Proper Grammar and Spelling. When crafting your “About Me” and “Education and Work” portions, as well as any public post or status update, be sure you are putting your best foot forward. Good friends won’t judge your improper grammar and typos, but potential clients will.

• Be Aware of Who’s Reading Your Status Updates. If you chose to let professional contacts in on your status updates, remember that your clients may actually be reading them! If you wouldn’t say the content of your status update to that person in a private e-mail, don’t blurt it out online.

• Don’t Broadcast Religious and Political Views. Unless these things are tied to what you do for a living, keep them from potential clients by using your privacy settings. In addition, if your profile pic, status updates and groups information is public, be aware that any statements made therein may alienate some clients. Decide if it’s worth the risk — read this pre-privacy settings discourse on political and religious Facebook exposure.

• Don’t Spam. Ever. Always post comments and send messages thoughtfully. Interact with people as fellow human beings. Most people will respond to personal interactions, but will wisely rebuff robotic attempts at digital connection.

• Don’t Be Desperate. You want to present yourself as in-demand, but available for new challenges. You don’t want to come across as someone begging for work. Wrong Way: Need data entry work — please give me a job. Right Way: I am a professional data entry specialist, available for new projects.

• Do Share Links to Your Projects. If your work can be seen online, put it out there to be seen, whether it’s a photo, a website, an article, online resume, etc. Sharing the link on freelance page walls is okay, as long as you’re interacting genuinely with the crowd and the thread of conversation. Simply posting your link can come across as spammy.

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To keep yourself on a path to connections and viable work, begin to think of Facebook as you would a job fair. You wouldn’t wear pajamas to a job fair, you wouldn’t pass around bikini shots from your last vacation, and you would choose your words carefully when speaking to people. Present yourself with just as much care on Facebook if you have chosen to use it for job opportunities. With privacy settings and a healthy dose of manners, you can have your Facebook fun and successful Facebook networking too.

Tamara Rice joined the oDesk Blog team in 2009, but has worked from home for over a decade as an editor and writer. Tamara shares her tips for a successful freelance lifestyle. She loves Facebook, and she is  a privacy settings fanatic.

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08 February 2010 | Announcements | Rebecca

Last week we were privileged to be able to attend the Vator Splash competition in San Francisco which was put on by the folks at Vator.tv. Vator is a leading platform for innovators and entrepreneurs to broadcast themselves, and a provider of news and information through VatorNews. The event gave entrepreneurs and up-and-coming, early-stage startups a chance to present a little about their companies and we were quite impressed!

In an effort to do our part to help startups succeed, we’re extending a helping hand to each of the top 10 companies that presented at Vator Splash. We’re excited to show them how oDesk can help them build online workteams to save money and stay flexible. We’re excited to help and are looking forward to working with such an innovative group.

Of the 176 companies that participated, here are the ten that received the most votes, in no particular order:

	Vidli Vidli is an online video licensor that allows users buy, sell, and rent streaming videos online.
	YourVersion YourVersion offers a free iPhone app and Firefox plugin for users who want to get relevant Web content delivered to them. It grows with the user the more they use it.
	AskYourTargetMarket.com AskYourTargetMarket offers a service for anybody looking to survey their target market on a simple platform where users can set up surveys, pick out exactly who they want to get information from, and pay as they go.
	Thumbtack.com Thumbtack.com is an online marketplace for local services where users can find anybody from handymen and cleaners to tutors and errand-runners.
	CinemaShares.com CinemaShares.com coins itself as, “crowdfunding for entertainment projects.” They sell single shares of stock in a NASDAQ Capital Market IPO and free DVD as a stock dividend.
	RentCycle RentCycle offers a system to track inventory, manage reservations and increase distribution of goods.
	ControlBox Controlbox addresses th online issue the entire society of the Internet is vulnerable to – fraud when it comes to buying and selling things onlineas a central hub both buyer and seller have to go through by monitoring and recording the entire transaction from start to finish.
	Vokle Vokle is a live video streaming site with a focus on showcasing high profile speakers using a platform where users can vote for who they want to meet, and then interact with them at a live online event hosted by Vokle.
	Intelligent Papers Intelligent Papers’ vision is to rid the world of texbooks by creating a handheld device which enables students to have all their textbooks on, take notes, highlight, take tests, and even do their homework.
	MYeGamer.com MYeGamer’s vision is to be the single destination where all competitive gamers go to read news and find out where and when the next big tournament will be. It also offers its readers updated strategies on how to beat their next opponent

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08 February 2010 | Freelancing Tips | Guest Blogger

There are two types of writers out there — generalists and specialists. Generalists will write about any topic and specialists write mainly (and sometimes exclusively) about the topic or subject that they know best.

No matter how you make your freelance writing dollars — through applying for work, marketing, networking, bidding for gigs, or a combination of these methods — you can make a lot more of them if you decide to specialize. Specializing gives you the edge you need to make a winning bid for gigs because you can more easily convince editors with projects in that topic that you are the right writer for them.

If you don’t specialize, then you can’t make as strong a case. It’s the difference between saying: “I’m an expert in this because of my experience and I write amazingly well” and “I write amazingly well but don’t really know anything about your topic and will have to research other people’s work in order to complete the project.” It kinda makes more sense now, doesn’t it?

After all, when you are blogging, writing e-books, creating articles for marketing or developing web content, you are not a journalist. You are not a third party reporting on an incident that occurred — you are an expert, an authority putting words into the mouth of someone else. You are creating their corporate identity’s face for the public and for that they will want someone who truly understands what their company or website represents.

I should start out by saying I was not an early adopter of this philosophy. In the beginning of my freelance writing career I just wanted to write for anyone about anything. I did some journalism, some web writing, a beauty column, some technical writing, a dash of travel writing — seriously, anything for anyone.

But then I read Jennifer Mattern of All Freelance Writing’s book Launching a Successful Freelance Web Writing Career and it finally dawned on me …

If I decided to specialize in writing about what I had already built my entire professional life around, I wouldn’t really have to start my career from scratch as a writer.

I could charge more money because people would pay for my experience and education, and the writing would be so much easier because I did not need to research the subject matter. That is when my freelance writing career changed. Within 3 months of reading her book I quit my job to freelance full time. It was like she had given me the keys to a brand new career.

While many other freelancers would like to get out of the “generalist” trap, some simply don’t know what they can specialize in. Often these writers don’t have any formal education or professional training in anything and they think that there is nothing out there that they are qualified to specialize in. If you open your mind a bit and look at your overall knowledge and experience, it isn’t actually that hard to decide what you can specialize in.

Here are a few things to consider:

• What are your personal interests? Many people have a personal interest in their pets, their town, their sports teams and their schools. You can specialize in writing about these topics on a regional or, sometimes, national level.
• Do you have any hobbies? You might have a love of cars, beer, music, video games, sewing, reading, or some other hobby. Because you’ve already invested so much time learning about and participating in this hobby you actually can specialize in writing about it.
• What kind of work have you done? No matter how much you might have hated all the jobs you’ve had before freelancing, you probably learned something. Maybe you know a lot about coffee, customer service, hospitality, cuts of meat — whatever. You’ve done it so you probably know more about it than some generalist writer who hasn’t done that type of work. Why not specialize in it?

So take some time to think about all the knowledge you’ve acquired in your personal and professional life and see if you can’t get a specialty out of that.

Tell us, what’s your writing specialty
and how did you become a specialist in that topic?

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Yolander Prinzel is a finance and insurance writer/ghostwriter as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed financial representative. During her decade of financial industry experience, she has been an insurance agency director of marketing and director of operations, a life insurance underwriter, and a trading service specialist for Raymond James Financial Services. She was a featured speaker at the 2006 Hartford National Sales Conference and the 2006 Brookstreet Securities Annual Conference. Her e-book, “You’ve Found Your Specialty—Now What? Tips and tricks to finding and scoring clients while making a living writing what you know” is available on her website.

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03 February 2010 | Commentary, Freelancing Tips | Alex

As freelancers we’re afforded a lot of perks – everyday is casual Friday, and we don’t have to “pretend laugh” at our bosses’ bad jokes – however, we definitely have our fair share of burdens, too. One of the biggest challenges is forecasting demand for our skills, and deciding when to continuine our education to meet potential future demand. Any kind of forecasting has a certain “crystal ball” factor, but hopefully the tips below can help ease the stress of figuring out when and how to develop your skills.

Demand and Trends

The oDesk trends page can be a great place to get a rough estimate of how “in demand” your skills are, and gauge the value of adding new ones to your skill set. On the individual trends pages, be sure to check out the “New Jobs posted per Month”, and the number of other providers already offering those skills.

If you’re a computer programmer, you should check out LangPop.com, a site dedicated to providing rankings based upon search engine results, book sales, tags in blog posts, Google code,  and job listings. The “normalized view” they offer is the combination of all these techniques, and gives a good idea of what your peers, and the industry, are up to.

Hotskills.net is worth a visit as well, although the mishmash of “skill” words, may leave you a bit overwhelmed – unless of course you are a hotshot Unix-operating SAP-consulting Oracle-rocking project-managing .Net and C# gunslinger – in which case, you’re probably swamped in emails from potential clients right now and shouldn’t be hanging around reading blogs anyways!

Follow Your “Gut”

That little voice inside is what led many of us to become freelancers, as Ian McKenzie states, “…if I actually listened the voice inside, I realized it was telling me to trust the unknown…It was telling me to follow the path with heart.”

Don’t stop listening to your gut.

The projects and skills that you are passionate about are going to be your best work, and the most successful for both you and your clients. Follow those “gut” instincts and learn skills as they arise. Regardless of what “Hot Skills” are in demand, if they don’t align with your passions, then being on the “cutting edge” will be a boring and frustrating place for you. Identify what’s hot in both the market and in your scope of interest.

At the risk of sounding like a bit of a mystic, if you have a history of being correct about where your industry is headed, then ignore me and keep doing what you’re doing. If you’re like many of us out there, and not good at predicting your industry on the fly, you should identify which of your peers have an insightful perspective, and have lunch with them, follow their blogs and tweets, read what they are reading – then take the things they do that interest you, and make them your own.

Knowledge vs Skills vs Sub-Skills…

Knowledge trumps skills. We all know the old saying, about the difference between giving a man a fish and teaching him to fish, but really fishing is derived from the knowledge of the pond, the behavior of the fish, and how to build a fishing rod. Share with a man the knowledge of the ecosystem of the pond and he’ll figure out how to fish based on that knowledge.

When taking on new skills, make sure you are expanding your knowledge as well as your skillset. Knowing the essentials, and more than “just enough” to get the immediate job done may seem overkill in the short term, but – in the long run – it takes true knowledge to build a career. Conversely, if you know the essentials and your knowledge gives you the ability to quickly pick up a new skill (for example, a knowledge of computer programming and C++ can open the doors to learning C# or Java) then don’t hold back!

Keep learning, keep growing, keep an eye on the market, and don’t loose the passion that led you to become a freelancer in the first place!

Alex Hornbake is one of several freelance writers on the oDesk Blog team. He joined the oDesk marketplace in 2009, and brings more than a decade of technical expertise to his clients. On Wednesdays, Alex shares his experiences through tips, insights and resources to help you, your business and your clients succeed.

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02 February 2010 | Commentary, Freelancing Tips | Guest Blogger

Up until a year ago, I had never considered doing work as a freelancer.  When I started my own blog, I gained a wealth of experience and connections that led to my ability to offer freelance services in a variety of areas including article writing, web design, internet marketing, and social media.  I believe blogging is why I am able to be a freelancer today.

Blogging Develops Marketable Skills
Before I started blogging, my web design skills were very limited.  I could put together some basic HTML and PHP-based sites, but nothing spectacular.  When I started my first blog, I decided to build it on the WordPress platform.  After a year and a half, I gained a lot of experience with WordPress theme customizations and PHP coding.  I also learned about social media marketing and search engine optimization while promoting my articles.

This combined skill set led to my first two clients, two small business owners who were looking to have their websites redesigned.  I was able to provide both with well designed sites using customized WordPress themes, as well as a strong social media presence on Twitter and Facebook. I also boosted one client’s website from the fourteenth page in search results to the first page for their main keyword phrase using techniques that I had applied to boosting my own site and articles in Google. 

Blogging Jump Starts a Portfolio
Blogging can be a great portfolio builder for both freelance writers and web designers.  For freelance writers, you can start by running your own blog on a multiple topics, or several blogs focused on particular topics.  To gain more credibility, you can branch out and seek out blogs that are looking for guest writers.  Then, you can have a portfolio that showcases your writing on your own site as well as others. 

For web designers, once you have experience using WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or other blogging/content management systems, you will begin to see how easy it is to create simple websites.  With the cost of domains at $15USD or less, and hosting as low as $5USD per month, you can simply create a few websites using these systems, and then display your sites in an online portfolio, something which can also easily built in WordPress.  It’s a great way to get your portfolio started so you can have something to present to your first potential clients. 

Blogging Demonstrates Your Expertise
Even if you are not looking to be a freelance writer or web designer, blogging gives you the platform to prove your skills and knowledge for any profession.  A photographer could run a blog that includes a random daily snapshot, demonstrating his photography skills.  A marketing expert could write about the latest small business marketing strategies, demonstrating her in-depth knowledge of marketing.  The possibilities are endless.

Blogging Builds Valuable Connections
Whenever you begin to build a community around your blog, through blog commenting and social media, you will gain many valuable networking connections.  Through the community I have built around my blog and on social networks, I have received several recommendations by blog readers to companies that have resulted in gaining web design clients. 

I have also received invitations to become a paid writer for other blogs and websites.  A recent example of this was when I applied on Craigslist to become a paid writer for a popular website.  The administrator of the website replied saying that she was a longtime reader of my blog, and since she already knew the quality of my writing, she accepted my application.

Have you seen the benefits of blogging in promoting your freelance services or advancing your freelance career?  Please share your experiences and other suggestions when it comes to blogging.

Kristi Hines is a freelance writer and web designer in Scottsdale, AZ specializing in WordPress customizations, website optimization, social media, and article marketing. 
She is also the author of Kikolani which focuses on blogging tips and social media strategies.

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