Taking the Free Out of Freelance Writing

When you run an online agency for freelance writers, editors and proofreaders you'd think the biggest problem would be attracting employers who are willing to pay a decent hourly rate for freelance writing.

You'd be wrong.

Actually, the biggest problem is dealing with freelancers who're absolutely determined to offer their services for free. This week I was forced to suspend the account of one of our writers for just this reason. She had repeatedly responded to requests for tenders on our jobs board with the offer of free writing, which she would provide on the basis that if the employer liked it, they could arrange a fee. And if not? well, if not, she would have wasted time that she could have spent finding a paid writing job.

Why "freelance" shouldn't mean "free."

Unfortunately, this kind of scenario is all too common in the world of freelance writing, where there are so many writers chasing the same jobs that it's hard not to feel that you have to be as competitive as possible in order to win the tender.

Writing for free isn't "being competitive", though. It's being taken advantage of. Unfortunately, this is another concept which many freelance writers are all too familiar with. We're asked to write "for the experience" or for the byline. We're expected to want to spend hours of our time and a huge chunk of our talent working on a writing project just for the fun of it. Sadly, many of us do.

The problem with freelance writing

It's a problem which is peculiar to the freelance writing business. So-called "employers" who wouldn't dream of asking a mechanic to repair their car "just for the experience", or offer an accountant the "opportunity" to deal with their tax returns "for fun", think nothing of asking talented writers, who've spent years honing their skill, to work for nothing more than their name on the bottom of their article, and maybe a link to their website ? if they're lucky.

There are a lot of unscrupulous "employers" out there. In the scenario above, there's a good chance that the writer never would have been paid for her work. When you offer to write for someone with the promise that "if you don't like it, you don't have to pay me, and if you do, we'll work out a fee", there's always a risk that you'll get stung. What's to stop the "employer" from telling you "thanks, but no thanks" ? and then using your work anyway? What if they agree to pay you, but want to pay far less than you're worth?

How to make sure you're paid for your work

We all know how competitive freelance writing is. But that doesn't mean you should simply give your work away. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned pro, try to always bear these rules in mind:

1. Always agree your fee upfront

Never start work on a project unless you know how much you'll be paid, and how the money will change hands. Some writers insist on 50% upfront and the rest on completion, others are prepared to be paid when they hand over the work. However you do it, make sure both yourself and the client are clear on the details.

2. Get it in writing

One you've agreed your free, and the project details, it's a good idea to get things in writing. You can download standard contracts online, or get your lawyer to prepare one for you, but make sure you have something to prove what's been agreed, especially for larger projects.

3. Join a reputable agency

WritingWorld.org was formed based on the principle that freelance writers deserve to be paid, just like any other professional. All job postings on our boards are closely monitored, and we do not allow our freelancers to work for free.

Check it out at http://www.WritingWorld.org

Amber McNaught is the owner of http://www.WritingWorld.org, an agency for freelance writers.

Amber is also a director of Hot Igloo Productions Ltd., the website design and small business specialists.

Free Traffic Course - Day 7

When you work with web site traffic, you must have the tools that show you the real picture about this traffic. You must know for sure how targeted your visitors are, what they want, what offers they like more, what offers cut down their motivation to use your product/service.

Only professional URL tracking tools can show you the real picture about your online business. And those who do not want to see real picture, venture their business to a great risk of losing everything.

HOW TRACKING WORKS.

Nothing difficult at all. You create a special link and put it inside your copy, mailing message, autoresponder letter, pop-up window, web page - anywhere you wish. Your URL gets special 'counter' that is activated every time someone clicks your link. When you know the statistic information about clicks on any of your links, you see the response that your business gets with clients, subscribers and web site visitors.

A simple example will show how URL tracking can help you to qualify the motivation for your products among subscribers. Let's say you have 3,000 subscribers in your car driving tips course. Using URL statistics you can see how much clients exactly are ready for special action with your web site.

You write email letter to your subscribers, saying: "bla-bla-bla. You are my subscribers. I have terrific car related offers to you."

Then you place several trackable links with text:

"...Click this link if you want to get discounts for car wash: http://www.YourWebSite.com/link1

Click this link if you want to get car insurance: http://www.YourWebSite.com/link2

Click here if you do not have a car and want to get loan for car purchase: http://www.YourWebSite.com/link3 ..."

This example is simplified, but you can get the idea. People will click on particular links if they like any particular offer. And you just look at the statistics for the number of clicks on each link and know:

1. How many people from your list have a car (link 1 + link 2)

2. How many people from your list do not have a car (link 3)

3. How many people from your list are interested in lower prices car wash services (link 1)

4. How many people from your list need new car insurances (link 2)

5. How many people from your list ignored all your offers (3,000 - link 1 - link 2 - link 3)

This info is very useful. Maybe after such a test you will find out that 2,600 out of "your" 3,000 subscribers did not click any of the links at all. Then you should think it over: maybe you do not have a car targeted traffic.

That was an example of URL tracking aimed at qualifying the subscribers into different groups by their interest. But tracking can give more useful info about your online business.

You can check what type of your ad copy is more effective with a simple URL testing technique. Write two ad copies that will differ in some copywriting elements. Put two different links in these copies. Track both links and you will immediately know what ad copy works better. No hypothetical suggestions, only real facts.

The technique is universal: you can test different variants of texts, offers, products and services and see what works and what not. This technique is called split testing in Internet marketing. You make several variants (i.e. split you offer into several testing variants) and see what variant gets better response. Then you choose that variant that works better and stick with it, do more and more split testing to get a better and better effect from your web site.

Now that you know the benefits of using URL tracking, you should know what features professional URL tracking tools should have.

PROFESSIONAL URL TRACKING TOOL SHOULD HAVE THESE FEATURES:

- you can create and test as many URLs as you wish;

- you can make two types of links: HTML and TXT links;

- you must be able to edit your URLs;

- you must be able to track link statistics to see: when the link was clicked, how many times it was clicked, how many unique clicks were made, etc.

URL tracking does not bring you traffic, but it shows the most truthful picture about what traffic you get to the web site. This is a very important tool: it is always better to dodge troubles in advance then to face problems all of a sudden.

Nickolay Bokhonok - CEO And Owner Of DesktopMoney LTD. Inventor of Internet marketing software and scripts. Successful Internet entrepreneur. Learn more about web site traffic building strategies, tips and tools at http://www.FreeTrafficSystem.com - Free Traffic System - Your Web Site Traffic Doctor.

Two Halves Dont Always Make A Whole

Be Yourself

Here's the thing... you still have to make every marketing and sales message all about the WIIFM* for your target audience. But it's how you do this ? the words you choose and your behavior ? that makes the connection with the marketplace all about you.

Let's look at what the experts advise. By the way, while these tips sound bizarre -- they're real nuggets, so stay with me:

1. Be an authentic liar.

2. Be your own valentine.

3. Fight bull.

Here's how these successful experts connect with the marketplace ? and you can too:

Be an authentic liar. In his latest book, All Marketers Are Liars, Seth Godin explains "the power of telling authentic stories in a low-trust world." Mildly unsettling at first, he makes the case that our buyers are actually the ones who are lying. To themselves. About why they want to buy from us.

Successful marketers are just providing the stories that our buyers choose to believe. But here's the rub: you have to really live the story you're telling. The second a potential buyer smells anything less than complete dedication to what you're selling, you "cross the line from fib to fraud." It's simply not good enough to have a good story. You have to live up to it as well. If you're a cobbler with no shoes, why should your clients take your advice?

Be a role model for what you sell, and nothing less. Then tell a good story about it, to buyers who want to believe.

Be your own valentine. In his hot little book, Little Red Book of Selling, Jeffrey Gitomer takes a tough-love approach to helping us be the best version of ourselves we can be.

My personal favorites are:

? No Whining ("Don't whine to me that the customer won't return your call. Study voicemail. Don't whine to me that your boss is a jerk. Get a new one. Don't whine to me that your company won't give you a laptop. Go buy one.")

? Kick Your Own Ass ("Ever have a bad day? Ever lost a sale you thought you had? Ever had someone say yes to you and three days later just evaporate? Wanna know what to do about it?? Kick your own ass. No one is going to hand you success?that's something you have to do for yourself.")

The heart of Gitomer's message is put your heart into your work?and if you don't love what you sell, go sell something else. No amount of cleverly packaged marketing spin can camouflage a missing heart. Your clients will see right through it and won't buy from you.

Research shows that people buy professional services because of trust. In Gitomer's words, "If they like you, and they believe you, and they trust you, and they have confidence in you?then they MAY buy from you."

Let your heart shine through in your words and actions. If you do, your clients will like, believe, trust, have confidence, and buy from you.

Fight bull. In their recent book, Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter's Guide, Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway, and Jon Warshawsky give it to us straight. Stop using words that are meaningless, boring, indirect and obscure. Start communicating with your own voice, personality, and style.

How many times have you sat through mind-numbing presentations, meaningless PowerPoint slides, or felt no connection with (no trust in?) the person trying to sell you on their idea, service or product?

So stop. Just stop adding to the bull that piles up every day in business communications. Talk and write to your target audience person-to-person. Ask them simple questions that get to the heart of their wants and needs. Tell them that you've thought a lot about their situation and have some ideas that might help them. And do it without the crutch of slides, silly business-speak, or slick messaging.

In other words, just be yourself.

*WIIFM: What's In It For Me?

References

Fugere, B., Hardaway, C., and Warshawsky, J. (2005). Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter's Guide. New York: Free Press.

Gitomer, J. (2004). The Little Red Book of Selling. Austin: Bard Press.

Godin, S. (2005). All Marketers Are Liars. New York: Penguin.

(c) 2004 TurningPointe Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. Marketing educator, Kelly O'Brien, is creator of the "Create a TurningPointe!" Marketing Bootcamp. To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for FREE how-to articles and 20-page marketing guide, visit http://www.turningpointemarketing.com

How to Make More Money from the Google Adsense Ads on Your Blog

Numerous bloggers these days are looking to earn extra cash through the google adsense ads that they post at their sites. Actually the spreading of pay-per-click ads by leading search engines in recent times to smaller sites and blogs has had a major impact on the net. Firstly it has helped to improve on the quality of content on sites as webmasters pay much closer attention to their content so as to attract the right kind of high value google adsense ads that will earn them more revenue.

Still one needs to know how to maximize on their google ads revenue. There are a number of things that you will need to do regularly to ensure that you keep earning a good regular income from google.

Check the value of keywords before posting new content

It is not too difficult to insert most keywords in your area of specialization into your article while leaving your article attractive and useful to readers. You may require the services of a writer, but this should not be a problem as online writers are very affordable.

Do not spend money buying a list of valuable keywords, this information is available for free online. What's more in your initial experimental stage with keywords buying a list will not be a prudent thing to do. One of the reason is that there is no guarantee that your using certain keywords will automatically and quickly attract the desired high value click ads. There is no certainty in these things. However by consistently using high value keywords you will ultimately enjoy a much higher income than somebody who does not.

Here is a useful link for checking keyword values. It is an overture tool but will also give you a very good idea of what their competitors Google charge for the same keywords.

http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/search/tools/bidtool/

Write interesting relevant content

Writing interesting, relevant and captivating content for your website or blog will yield many useful benefits that will ultimately impact on your google adsense earnings. To start with, it is a well know fact that the longer you can keep your visitors in your site, the higher the chances of you selling them something. The same is true with clicks the longer you can keep them wandering around your site the higher the chances that they will end up clicking at some of your google ads and thus earn you something. Well written, relevant content will also make cause your visitors to return again, another vital and highly desirable reaction that makes a website successful. It is much easier to attract back a previous visitor than to win over a new one.

Having interesting and relevant copy at your site is the most effective way of attracting visitors and keeping them longer at your site. Interesting content will also cause your visitors to return again and again. All this will have a very positive impact on your google adsense earnings.

Post your content elsewhere

Posting your quality, attractive content elsewhere will increase the number of quality links leading back to your site. This will help build up the traffic to your website which should have a direct bearing on your google earnings. The higher the traffic a site has, the higher the clicks and this means higher earnings.

The position of your adsense ads matters

Do not ignore advice given by google to affiliates on where ads work best. For example posting them on the left is always better than the right because the eye' attention will always be caught by the left before the right. Another good place to post ads is at the bottom of the page.

About the author: Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for Website Source, Inc. http://www.websitesource.com. Her established writing skills coupled with experience in the website hosting industry have provided internet professionals with marketing, product and service ideas for many years.

Is it ADHD or Bi-Polar Disorder?

Bi-Polar Disorder, or Manic Depression, is characterized by mood swings, sometimes extreme, ranging from depressed to normal moods, or from depressed to manic episodes. Manic behaviors are often very similar to "hyperactive" behaviors, including motor restlessness, irritability, temper outbursts, sleeping less, or having higher levels of energy. It is rare. But it does happen.

About three times per year a child is brought to my office for an assessment for ADHD who ends up having "Early Onset Bi-Polar Disorder." These children are typically displaying very extreme behaviors, such as throwing their bicycle -- off of the roof -- at the policemen who have been called, and so on. (When I received that call I wasn't sure what to ask first. "What was he doing on the roof with his bike?" was the best I could think of. "He was going to ride off of the roof, of course." was the answer from the child's mom.)

The behaviors may not be constant or consistently displayed as one might expect from an ADHD child, and may be more extreme than one would expect from ADHD.

The big clue is taking a family history and seeing if either of the parents, their brothers or sisters, or their parents, have/had a bi- polar disorder. If so, then this clue will be very helpful in making a proper diagnosis. I usually refer families to UCLA for a better evaluation, but in your community you may need to rely on an evaluation by a very good psychiatrist (never go to a bad or even average psychiatrist, only good ones!). Ask about experience with bi-polar disorder in children.

Telephone teaching hospitals in your area if there are any, or call your local private psychiatric hospital. Don't ask the switch board operator for a referral, instead ask for the children's unit or the adolescent unit. Once transferred there, ask the unit nurse who they would recommend ("If it were your child, who would you take your child to see?") The nurses know.

Douglas Cowan, Psy.D., is a family therapist who has been working with ADHD children and their families since 1986. He is the clinical director of the ADHD Information Library's family of seven web sites, including http://www.newideas.net, helping over 350,000 parents and teachers learn more about ADHD each year. Dr. Cowan also serves on the Medical Advisory Board of VAXA International of Tampa, FL., is President of the Board of Directors for KAXL 88.3 FM in central California, and is President of NewIdeas.net Incorporated.

Serzone Side Effects Lead to Serzone lawsuits

Serzone is a prescription medication that is given to patients who are seriously depressed (Dysthymia,Major Depression, and Bipolar Disorder) to alleviate the symptoms of depression such as sleep and eating habits, changes in weight, coordination, fatigue, unjustified feelings of worthlessness or suicidal thoughts which prohibit normal functioning. It balances levels of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain which doctors think will help alleviate symptoms of depression much like the phenylpiperazine antidepressant, Trazodone (Desyrel).

Between nerve endings in the brain, there are synapses. When a signal is transmitted, you feel it when chemicals are released from one nerve to another. Seratonin is a brain chemical associated with happiness. When these chemicals are released they are either taken in by the next nerve, thus continuing the signal, or if the next nerve doesn't absorb them and they are left in the synapse, the nerve that released them will re-absorb them and the signal doesn't pass. Some antidepressants work by blocking the reabsorbing (reuptake) of Seratonin by the releasing nerve. That means that more Seratonin stays in the synapse for a longer amount of time and the hope is that it increases the chances for it to be absorbed by the new nerve which, in the case of Seratonin, would continue the signal of happiness.

A serious side effect of this drug was shown to be liver failure. Signs of impending liver failure include a loss of appetite, an upset stomach, or a jaundicing (yellowing) of the skin and eyes. Two women who had taken Serzone for just 14 to 28 weeks had such severe liver damage that they suffered liver failure and needed immediate transplants. Serzone Lawsuits have been filed charging that Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (Serzone's manufacturer) knew and ignored the life-threatening aspect of their drug. However patients taking Serzone weren't aware that the drug had such serious side effects even though studies conducted prior to the release of the drug clearly indicated the likely chance of their occurrence.

Contact an experienced Serzone Lawyer today. Find information about Serzone Side Effects associated with a major Dangerous Drug Lawfirm today at hugesettlements.