Online Freelancing - A great way to work from home

In this time of financial crisis, many people try to look for ways to earn money in addition to their current salary. Living in a family with more than one child requires more income to give them comfortable living. To make ends meet, some may resort to networking, direct selling, answering paid surveys and the latest is online freelancing.

The Internet serves as a good venue for freelance job. It contributes to the growth of freelancing in many economies because the services can be made available to all parts of the globe. Outsourcing jobs to lower-cost regions like Philippines and India where labor may more inexpensively be employed, has encouraged the formation of many online services intended to produce a marketplace where freelance workers and potential employers can connect. The demand for freelance job has skyrocketed.

What Is A Freelancer?

According to Wikipedia “A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is a self-employed person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any particular employer”. The practice of freelancing comes in different forms and circumstances. Some of them ask clients to sign contracts, while others may do work based on verbal agreements, possibly enforceable through the nature of the work. Some freelancers may provide written estimates of work and request deposits from clients to ensure payment.

Freelancers may charge daily, hourly, per page or on a per-project basis. As an alternative of a flat rate or fee, some freelancers have agreed to a value-based pricing method based on the professed value of the results to the client. The client has the say to determine the price. By practice, payment arrangements may be upfront, percentage upfront, or upon completion. For complicated projects, a contract may place a payment schedule based on outcomes.

Freelancers perform anything from writing to bookkeeping to computer programming. They are often hired by businesses for a particular project. It is actually a win- win situation where both parties can benefit. The small business owner gets the services without having to create a new position in his company to get the job done. The Freelancer gets to do what he loves from the comfort of his home.

How do the business owner and freelancer find each other? This can be made possible through one of the freelance sites. In fact, there are hundreds of freelance sites that are available today. Some offers free membership while some requires payment in addition to commission that the site can earn. We cannot also deny the fact that there are also entities that make use of the trend to take advantage from service providers. Freelancers must be careful in choosing a site where they want to render their services.

Top Ten Freelance Sites

What are the top ten freelance sites? Based on number of affiliates and popularity, the following freelance sites are listed below:

1. Guru.com

Guru is the largest freelance site out there. They connect over 520,000 freelancers with over 30,000 businesses and employers. Guru Inc. was founded in 1999 in San Francisco, and the company was acquired in December 2002 by Unicru a human resources software company based in Portland, Oregon. Guru's technology and staff remained with Unicru, focused on software to help large employers assess and hire job applicants. Unicru sold the Guru.com domain name and logo to eMoonlighter.com, and eMoonlighter was renamed Guru.com. The site is organized into more than 160 categories and subcategories from Web and Graphic Design to Programming to Business Consulting.

2. oDesk.com (previously known as No Desk)

oDesk lets employers (referred as buyers) to create online work teams in line and salaried through the company's proprietary software and website. Prospective employers can post jobs for free, and freelance workers may make profiles and bid on projects, also for free. The company puts prospective providers (also known as providers) through screening and series of examination. oDesk collects 10 percent of the payment received by the provider as a commission. Payment can be made hourly or on a fixed price basis. However, oDesk only guarantee payments for hourly jobs and not for fixed price. If you opt to apply for fixed basis, you have to bear the risk that some buyers will not pay after the project is completed. The only way you can act against the fraudulent buyer is to leave a negative comment on his profile, but you can no longer enforce payment.

oDesk team also allows buyers to see a provider's progress while he or she is billing time. A screen shot will take place every ten minutes to monitor work in progress. This will give assurance to the buyer that the provider is really working on the project.

3. Elance.com

Elance is another big player when it comes to freelance sites. It covers a wide variety of freelance work. Like Guru.com and oDesk.com buyers can bid projects related to administrative support, writing and even computer programming. The nice thing about elance is that the site imposed a minimum amount where providers can bid. As of writing, the minimum hourly rate is 5dollars which is reasonable compared to some with no minimum amount. This can serve as a protection to some providers.

4. Rentacoder.com

This freelance site caters mainly to programmers, coders, software engineers and IT professionals in general. Projects are related to information technology, web development and computer programming. The membership is also free but in order to avail of all the benefits, members need to upgrade by paying a reasonable fee.

5. Allfreelancework.com

In addition to obtaining projects posted on an assortment of subjects, you will also discover a wide collection of articles created by freelancers as well services and products, a forum and a newsletter. These outputs can be later sold to buyers in a price agreed by both buyer and provider.

6. Ants.com

It is another auction-like site where you can bid on projects that interest you most. The categories of jobs are more limited compared to others but you can make money by telling all your friends about this great service. You will receive referral bonuses on top of your usual income.

7. eWork Exchange.com

Part of its registration process requires creating your online resume which can be added to by building a skill profile to go with it. Looking for jobs is very fast and simple. If you find something that interests you, you can e-mail the project owner along with your comments with the use of a private profile number. You will not receive any direct contact information until you accept the project. They have over 170,000 members.

8. Scriptlance.com

Scriptlance is another venue for web designers and programmers. Sometimes there are projects related to administrative support like accounting, but their specialization is more on information technology. The membership is free but you have to pay for commission once you successfully won the bidding. Project listings are updated every time a new project is posted.

9. Getafreelancer.com

This is a fast growing site with more than hundreds of thousands of providers. Applying for a job is relatively simple. You need not to pay for membership fee. All you have to do is to subscribe from them for free and receive job alerts. If you think your credentials match the job description, you can apply for the job immediately. You can leave private message to the project owner or be interviewed in real time.

10. Limeexchange.com

This freelance site is considered as one of the world’s best online services marketplaces, bringing together thousands of talented service providers and qualified buyers from around the globe on a single platform. You can Post your requirements for free, view detailed provider profiles with past work and run pilot projects before making a selection. The graphical interface is well designed and pleasing to the eyes.

Drawbacks

The main drawback is the insecurity of work, income, and lack of company benefits like pension, health insurance, paid holidays and bonuses. Unlike in a traditional set up where employees have security of tenure and benefits, freelance job cannot offer long term work and guarantee income. This is one of the reasons why some providers work for part time rather than full time.

On the part of the buyer, although there are some ways they can monitor work in progress, they cannot be assured that the task has been performed by the provider. Some providers are just playing games in the net or just doing their facebook thing while the buyer is being billed.

There are also sites that offer limited job postings. Sometimes the providers are greater in numbers compared to job posting. The competition is very stiff. Some providers are acting so unfair by bidding at very low price.

Benefits

The benefits of online freelance jobs are enormous. Freelancers are flexible; they can self-set their work schedule; work anytime of the day; work from home or elsewhere, and can get as many freelance projects as they want. Online freelancing allows for better mobility, and also cuts down certain commuter expenses usually incurred in commuting from house to work and vice versa.

The benefits to businesses and other entities hiring freelancers are also huge. Freelancing permits companies to best meet their project requirements with the skills of particular service providers. Freelance jobs remove the time and expenses relevant with training particularly when the needed skills differ from project to project. Furthermore, freelance jobs free employers from the liability to pay for full-time employment which also includes paying benefits, health insurance, vacation pay, and sick leave. By getting an online freelance expert, businesses also find a lower-cost solution to the conventional consulting companies and recruiting agencies that normally charge higher fees. Hiring freelancers for smaller-scale projects is the most cost-efficient solution for many companies.

If you are considering of supplementing your current income or perhaps getting rid of your present job, paid internet jobs is the right option for you. There are many paid internet jobs and opportunities on the network market.

With paid online freelance jobs, you can work from the comfort of your home, set your own work schedule, and earn dollars without going out of the country, working by yourself minus any demanding boss to follow and with a freedom that you have never imagined. Now it is possible to stay at home and make money with free real work at home jobs.

How to get a raise from your present job

1. Do a better job than is expected of you. One and all, the experts agree that this is the prime essential to advancement. Give more and you will get more

2. Make sure you do the job your boss wants done. As the personnel manager of one large firm says: “You can do the best job in the world, but if it is not the boss wants, he will find it upsetting.”

3. Get along with your fellow workers and others with whom you come in contact. This is very important. Many times people work against themselves in terms of their personality and of course, they seldom realize that they are doing it.

4. Be sure your boss knows what you are accomplishing. Often when a fellow is not appreciated, it is simply a matter of lack of communication.

5. Be able to make decisions. This, according to the president of a job consultant firm, is a must. You’d be surprised what a rare trait this is,” he says. “Most people do just what they’re told and pass all the decisions on the next fellow.”

6. Look for responsibilities beyond your present assignment. The manager of an executive recruiting firm strongly recommends this to the young person on the way up. “A young tiger in the accounting department might say to her chief, If you need any help in the credit union plan, just let me know.” In from five to seven years, this experience predicts, she will be head of the plan.”

7. Study at night and keep well-informed. It is also wise to get involved in the community you live in. I don’t mean just joining things, but really contributing your talents to the library, the hospital, and any good fund raising project that comes along”

LEARN TO LOVE LEFTOVERS

Many people turn up their nose at the idea of leftovers. The mere thought of reheating food originally prepared a day or two before convinces many that the food will be bland and rubbery, not worth eating. This assumption sadly results in a lot of good, quality food hitting the trash can before its time. The truth is that with a little bit of careful planning, leftovers can be a delicious and highly inexpensive meal. Some ideas:

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  Add additional spices that you have on hand to leftovers just before you serve them. This will create a fresh snap to the flavor of the food.
  
  
  
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  Use the leftovers as the basis for a second meal. For example, take leftover spaghetti and sauce, chop up the spaghetti, put it in a bread loaf pan, sprinkle some mozarella cheese on the top, and bake it in the oven. Or take the leftover chicken breasts from the grill, dice them, and add them to a rice and vegetable skillet meal.
  
  
  
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  Freeze the leftovers. This especially works well if you have made a large batch of soup and have plentty left over. Freeze it in portion-sized containers.
  
  
  

USE CASH OR CHECKS INSTEAD OF CREDIT CARDS

One method to keep your hands off the credit cards is to switch to using only cash or checks (or a debit card) for all of your purchases for a year.This forces you get in touch with your money again. Without plastic, you are forced to carefully consider each purchase that you make and verify that you do in fact have enough money for that purchase before you make it.  Here are some suggestions:

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  Do not destroy your credit cards, but instead freeze them in a block of ice. Just pour a small pan about a third full of water and freeze it. Then toss your credit cards on top of the ice and pour some water, then freeze it again. Your cards will be frozen in the middle of that cube, inaccessible unless there is a real emergency; any time you think about getting them, you will have a long time to consider it as you melt or break the ice.
  
  
  
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  Remove your credit card numbers from any online sites you use regularly. If you use credit card for billing on some merchant websites, remove your credit card number, if you must, replace it with a debit card number instead so the money comes straight from your checking account.
  
  
  

START YOUR OWN GARDEN

If you have a bit of space where you live to break ground, gardening can be an extremely cost -effective hobby and can be as good as putting money in your pocket. You have to make some up front investments - the cost of hoe or other equipment to break ground, and the time investment needed to tend to your plants - but you will earn a nice harvest at the end of the period. You will have spent a lot of time in the garden on a very frugal activity, time you might spent elsewhere engaging in an expensive hobbies. In some fruitful seasons, you will more than break even with the value of the procedure you grow, and you have the freedom to grow the foods that you like. Don't have space? Try starting a window garden or a box garden. You can grow a small amount of food in one of these in even the tightest of spaces.

You can grow your vegetables in a box garden.

http://gardening.tips.net/Pages/T005148_Building_a_Box_Garden.html

EAT BEFORE YOU GO GROCERY SHOPPING

One of the most dangerous expenses in the grocery store is the impulse buy, and impulse buys are often directly caused by hunger. When you are in a grocery store and you are feeling hungry, many more items are going to look tasty to you and are thus much more likely to sneak their way into your cart. There is a simple way to suppress this grocery shopping impulse: Eat a small meal just before you leave to go grocery shopping. That way you are not hungry, but you are also not bogged down with a heavy meal in your stomach. This will allow you to keep your energy up and get finished with shopping quickly, but not be tempted to throw extras into your cart just because you are hungry and impulsive.

GO GROCERY SHOPPING ONCE A WEEK AT MOST

Think about your average grocery store trip. You wind up buying mostly stuff you need, but a few odd and unexpected items always wind up in your cart. You have usually got enough fortitude to keep the items to a minimum, but they wind up in there each trip. The simplest way to curtail those extra items, and to save on gas and time as well, is to get into a routine of going to the grocery store less often. You should go once a week at most. Not only you will save time and gas this way, but you will also cut down on the number of extras you dump into the cart.

DON'T EAT OUT AS OFTEN

Eating out on a regular basis can get very expensive. Aside from low-end fast food, there is almost no meal you can eat outside the home that's not far more expensive than a virtually identical fish you can prepare for home. You can usually prepare it much faster and with healthier ingredients. The only way to get good at this, and to reaaly reap the cost benefits of eating at home, is to do it all the time. Reduce eating out and ordering delivery or take out to special occasions only and start busting out the pots and pans more often. Not only will your wallet thank you, but your taste buds will, too. As you gain more practice at cooking, your dishes will become more delicious.

STICK WITH FRUGAL FRIENDS

It is hard to live cheap if you are surrounded with friends who constantly encourage you to spend money. How can you save money if your friends constantly visit the mall? One way is to simply look for new friends who share the same interest with you. Look for activities that might attract prudent people like those you find at a bookstore, library or in a voluntary project. Get to know people and suggest frugal social opportunities with them to build a friendship. It is a lot easier to be cheap if you have friends who share the same philosophy; you can regularly help each other and encourage each other to make sound financial choices.

LEARN THE TEN-SECOND RULE

Whenever you are in a store and you pick up an item, hold it for ten seconds. During those ten seconds, ask yourself if you really need it and also if that money wouldn't be better used somewhere else. You will almost always find yourself putting that unnecessary item back on the shelf and walking away, quite proud that you did not waste your money on something so unncessary.

DISCUSS MONEY MATTERS WITH YOUR SPOUSE

Many couples and families have chaotic approach to money, with each person doing their own thing financially without understanding their spouse's goals, desires, and challenges. Often, this results in spouses hiding information from one each other, such as high credit card statements and other debts, and this is not only damages a family's financial situation, but can also damage a marriage. Take the time to sit down for an hour every month or two and go through your complete financial picture with your spouse, including both your successes and mistakes. Plan goals together, and actively support each other.

RECORD EVERY AMOUNT YOU SPEND

Money slips through our fingers in simple ways. We spend a little here on something forgettable, spend a little there on unnecessary thing, and at the end of the month, it's PANIC time - we are left with very little or no money at all. Keep track of every money you spend, noting how much you spent and what you spent it on. At the end of the month, go through it and note which expenses are actually essential and which one is not. You will find two things: The need to write your spending down makes you more vigilant against wasteful spending, and at the end of the month review your records will surprise you when you see how much of your spending was nonessential. Use that information as a springboard to see what you need to work on.

CALCULATE HOW MUCH YOU REALLY MAKE

Experiment on this:

a. First, calculate how many hours you work in a year. Include the hours you spent in driving to and from work, the hours you spent working on some chores at home, the hours spent entertaining your depressed coworker and etc.

b. Next, compute how much money do you earn in a year including the fringe benefits you are currently receiving. Based on that amount, deduct the taxes, the cost of commuting, the cost of working clothes and other maintenance, cost of caring for a child and so on. Subtract anything you buy for your present job.

c. Last, divide the amount you actually earn by the number of hours that you really work.

How relevant is the rate?

You can use the figure for comparison on everything you do. If you are thinking of purchasing something expensive and unimportant, use the hourly rate to figure out how much of your life you are giving to your job just to get that thing. Huh! this is really a painful process

SPEND LESS THAN YOU EARN

A lot of us today are used to spend more beyond our means. We are lured with unnecessary expenses like spending too much for designer clothes, bags, techy gadgets and dining out in an expensive restaurant. With the help of our best friend credit card we can purchase anything we want, failing to realize that every swipe of it means an obligation.

Our main goal each month is to spend less than you bring in. If you do this on a regular basis, your finances will improve. There are many ways to do this like having the old fashioned budget, abstinence from credit cards and placing your hard earned income into savings quickly before you start spending it.

For more tips check this out:  
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