Spellos:

Spellos are thickskinned, gnarly characters that are characterized with some kind of malformation or physical disability. Spellos are actually ancient Wise Men who were cursed by the Queen of Time and the Daughter of Care for disrespect. Content Mages can use the Healing Touch to cure the malformation while Content Warriors can slice and dice the monsters to take away the malformation.

Typos:

Typos are generally known for their speed and strong attacks. Their lean body and sinewy form allows them to gain a speed that is unlike any other. Though lean and quick moving, they are known to destroy entire groups of content warriors in single swoops. The Warriors have no other option but to destroy these Typos.Typos were formed by the unholy congress of Time Thieves and Procrastination Elves.

Grammos:

Grammos are the most dangerous of all midnight monsters that the Content Warriors would meet. The Grammos are ancient evil beings that were created after the Unducs argued and warred with The Wises. While the Unducs lost the war, they created the Grammos, who have the ability to blend in nature and strike when it hurts most – when the Content Warriors reach a place called CiN (Client In Box). There are various myths about the Grammos Beast. Some ancient scrolls that the Grammos Beast is actually a unholy virus that can spread through the entire lake of DeadLyne, while other scrolls hint at it being able to carry out guerrilla warfare at the critical locations.

Deadlines and rush jobs are part and parcel of any content writer’s job – or any freelancer’s job for that matter. And with deadlines and rush jobs come mistakes. Some of the thought provoking, quality writings lose their sheen because of a careless spelling mistake, or even a typing mistake. There are many reasons that a person might come up with mistakes in their article. Sometimes, they might not be able to concentrate on the task,  while  yet other times, the deadline will not allow a person as much time as they would like on the said article, and in the case of most modern content writers, they would not be able to work on a said device. I, for one, would find it difficult to type at my normal speed on someone else’s machine or keyboard.

Though all of the above reasons are practical and valid, they do not justify the fact that you goofed up on an assignment and now it looks bad. However great a content writer you are, your glory diminishes with every badly spell-checked document that you send out. Some clients keep plagiarism and typing mistakes on the same pedestal – because both of them are equal time wasters for the clients.There are several ways in which one can minimize their typing, spelling and grammar mistakes.

The best way to minimize your grammar, spelling and typing mistakes is to invest in a software that actually reads out the content for you. Reading out the content will magnify the spelling mistakes, typing mistakes as well as the grammatical issues that your content might have. Many a times, we would not be able to recognize a grammar mistake unless we hear out the sentence formation and structure – which makes this text to speech software a great buy – Natural Reader.

Natural Reader is a simple and easy to use software that reads out the words and sentences in a number of available accents. All you need to do is to download the software. You can then use the floating bar to select any machine readable text, and the software will read out the text for you. So, you can use the floating bar to read web pages, Microsoft Word and Excel files, and even PDFs.

There are two versions of Natural Reader available. The free version is a fully functional one, which reads out content to you, while the paid version has enhanced attributes, like converting the entire text into mp3, which makes transferring of data into a portable device possible and feasible.

You can download and use the free version here:

http://www.naturalreaders.com/download.htm

If you are interested in buying the paid version, you can do so by clicking here

]]> http://thefreelanceresource.com/content-central/content-central-spellos-typos-grammos-and-other-midnight-monsters-and-how-to-destroy-them/feed/ 0 http://thefreelanceresource.com/professional-blogging/getting-traffic-to-your-blog-iii-the-cosmetic-part/ http://thefreelanceresource.com/professional-blogging/getting-traffic-to-your-blog-iii-the-cosmetic-part/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:55:19 +0000 roydsilva http://thefreelanceresource.com/?p=77 Web designing has matured a lot since the time we saw flash based abominations that had us wait for hours buffering and usually had us download some software to view the snazzy presentation that had cost the webmaster a bomb but had little or no productivity value. Today, minimalistic design is the key to gathering a viewer’s attention. If one is using WordPress or BlogSpot for their websites, one can use the thousands and millions of free themes that are available for both – believe me, I have spent 72 hours straight looking at the number of free themes available and had just skimmed the top of the surface. If you are wondering which theme is the best for your site, keep these aspects in mind:

Do Not Waste Internet Real Estate:

The computer screen that is broadcasting your website to the users is your real estate. Would you like to use a theme with wide borders on both sides and use just a palm sized chunk of a 22 inch TFT monitor for your website? – thought so. Thin themes look pretty good for personal blogs, but when you intend to prepare a professional site or a blog, you should make use of as much of space as you can. Look for wide bodied themes so that you can create a scenario where people actually fee the content is sprawling all over the website.

Function Over Form:

The good news is that there are tens and thousands of free WordPress and BlogSpot themes available. The bad news is that only a slight percentage of them understand the requirement of 90 percent of web masters. I use the website as a means to put across my point, and I can do without stuck-on graphics, dark colored themes, and of course – white over black reading surfaces.

This of course, brings us to the age old issue whether graphics are stronger than the content and then we go the diplomatic way saying that both are equally useful. Well, here’s the truth from someone who has been a copywriter, content writer, game designer (that’s something I’d rather not talk about) and now a webmaster:

Content Beats Graphics – Any Time, Any Day:

That cute little icon may bring an interested or amused viewer to your site, but what is going to keep them hooked to your site is what you offer via the little black words on white background. Consider this, back in 1995, when we had an Adobe Photosphop 5 or Corel Draw 5, did we not make awesome software and progress? Yes, graphics are required to enhance the experience of the web, but it in no way adds to the productivity of the site. So, the moment you think that the graphics or the layout of the site is too gaudy or might create usability issues for the user, chuck that theme and use another. There are countless available and unless you are not a headliner nobody will even notice.

Bells and Whistles:

There are hundreds of widgets available for a blog, whether it’d be set up off WordPress or BlogSpot. But not everyone would want to see or use a widget that’d enable their WordPress blog to set up a kitchen alarm. Some of us still visit the site for some good ole information. So, try to keep the widgets on your site at a minimum.

Let the Users See Only What They Wants To:

I admit, even I did it when I first set up the blog and there is a huge chance that even you will – giving out irrelevant information about your site to the user. While it might seem exhilarating to give everyone second to second information about the users that are coming to your site, along with their geographical data, it does clutter the interface and some might even stop visiting you even out of privacy and security concerns. If you do want to find out the exact number of users that make it to your site, the best way is to implement Google Adsense onto your site. Again, there are some widgets that are quite useful, like the default calendar, but that is good only if you have a considerable number of posts on your blog, as it is the best and simplest way to navigate your site through a timezone.

DIY Themes:

Just a few days ago, I got bored of my theme that I am using for several of my sites, and started looking for another theme to use on my site related to online games. Now, I know that the niche that I started out on would give me some glaring examples of what’s wrong with the web, but what surprised me was that many of the themes did not have any WYSIWYG option to remove the widgets. So, even if I had one post on my blog, I would yet have to inform all my readers about my content penury because these themes decided that I should use the Recent Articles Widget, the Categories Widget, and even the Monthly Digest Widget! Yes, it is pretty simple to remove the widgets through the code, but why should I go through the trouble when I have other themes available? So, when you choose your theme, make sure that you can add/remove/enhance it in anyway that you can.

What is Fiverr?

Fiverr is one of the newest ‘freelancer-client’ platform that works in a unique manner. It has people post free ads telling people what they would do for $5. This is done in sort of a Twitter of Facebook profile manner, where the user just types in the basic information first and then goes on with the details. This advertisement is then read by people looking for the kind of service asked for and you are in business.  They contact you either via the job posting or a private message board, hire you if everything is all right and then pay you.

So, why will I not use Fiverr?

Fiverr is the smart kid down the block who has a lean, mean bicycle and does what is fashionable. It has a ‘social network’ look to itself, it has a user cohesion that I do not think even GAF or oDesk had when they first ran up – one of my acquaintances  got work and got paid within minutes of putting up an ad. How many times has it happened with you on any of the other freelance platforms? But the system is not without it’s flaws. Here are the top rants I have.

The Cuts:

If you thought that the 10% cuts that other freelance platforms took you were bleeding you, take a look at Fiverr. Every $5 task that you do actually gets you just $4. Forget about the percentage and everything on this one. That someone takes $1 from $5 for the work that I did is just simply weird. I have worked with GAF, oDesk and several other freelance portals, and I was okay with them taking away $10 from the $100 work that I did, because when I make $100, I would tip a guy $10, but when I am making $5, how can I give someone $1?

The Wait:

This again brings me to the much maligned Getafreelancer.com site, where people criticize the cuts and the wait period for the money to be transferred from them to the PayPal account. But very seriously, with a little bit of smartness of your part, you can actually have GAF money from your account to your PayPal account the next day – and completely legally too. All you need to do is to wait for your money to accumulate throughout the week, and then withdraw it to your PayPal account at the end of the week. This strategy has worked with me and many other freelancers.

Fiverr, on the other hand, takes fourteen days to give you your $5, $4. I fail to understand why this would be happening. You have completed the assignment, the client has glorified your assignment, and has paid you promptly, and yet – Fiverr takes two weeks to give your hard earned money to you. Actually, the amount is so abysmal that any kind of discipline regarding it would look like completely weird. Freelancers all over the world work under this rule:

I worked, I delivered, I got paid.

Any service that does not understand this basic quotient of the freelance industry is bound to come under some criticism. And the last but not the least serious reason why I would not work with Fiverr.

The Concept:

Okay, when you begin to put up an ad on Fiverr, it seems cool. After all, what would I do for $5? Write a 300 word article maybe, or just give out a quick review about something. Basically:

I will not do something that will take much of my time for Fiverr.

Such quick work makes one want a system where they do such work, get paid as soon as they deliver and get paid for it. Not so with Fiverr. For one, the system is not asking you what you would do, but what you would do for $5. So, if you put up an ad offering content writing services and are contracted, and if the client wants to hire you again, they would have to contract you again – giving Fiverr a chance for another $1 cut. Finally, if the contract finally runs up to 50 articles, Fiverr ends up earning $10, just like that.

Something is definitely not right here. And I will not be surprised if Fiverr comes up to us and tells us that the site is not for the serious freelancer. After all, the site has ads saying that people will be your friends on Facebook for $5 for a week.

Usability and Accessibilty were two different factors and never the two’d have met, and people used to ‘send across links’ to others because they were too difficult to pronounce or remember – unless Google came along and gave the Internet to us.

With Google, MSN and other search engines coming into the play, everything about the Internet became important, lucrative and more importantly simple. Websites and webmasters understood that the future is ‘search’ (that was back then, today its social) and they started taking lessons from what the search engines were telling them. Some of these golden lessons were:

• The average Internet user has no time. You are losing 50 percent of your traffic because of the snazzy Flash intro that does not allow anyone to go ahead unless they have watched it, even at 32 kbps.
• The average Internet user thinks that multitasking is their birthright. So you and your website will just be something that they are visiting in one of their multiple Explorer windows (this was before multiple tabs were unleashed unto us)
• The average Internet users wants to be informed, entertained and have a good time at your site, and get some work done via a feasible, practical and hassle-free service – without having huge lurking advertisements telling them to connect with their school friends. – They had survived it then, they do not want you to remind them of the horrible time they had.

Did the above paragraphs seem too much of a history lesson? Well, I am the last person to ponder over history unless there is good reason to, and in this case there is – these facts are still relevant today. Many people and websites lose out on relevant traffic because of at least one user behavior trait that has been discussed above. Which brings us to the next part of this series – How to create an identity for your website.

The identity of the website has always been an important part of a website, but it is much more important today because most of the traffic that a new website would get is via the referral traffic through social networks, forums, and more. Creating the identity of a website is a complete and complex procedure, and the first step towards this is deciding the domain name for your site. Here are the basic tips that you would need to keep in mind before deciding on a domain name for your site.

Keep it Short – Very Short

Before deciding on a domain name, you can try out how easily accessible it is by typing it out yourself. If you are a maven at the keyboard, you could get someone who is not. This is the quickest way to find out whether a domain name that you have decided can be typed easily or not.

Ask Eddie Murphy

The best way to keep it short is by actually looking for synonyms for the concepts that you are willing to work in. One of my sites is Mush Maven, and how I came across this name is quite interesting.

I had decided to start a site about dating and dating tips, and I was wondering what domain name I’d use. Along that time, I was watching ‘Meet Dave’ and I saw Eddie Murphy quip about the book ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’. At that time, I knew that I had to name my site something regarding Men, Mars, Women and Venus. I first thought about MarsVenus, but someone told it seems like a shopping mall name. I then thought about some breaking down of words, and while taking a stroll, I came across MaVen.

Now, I had heard about this term somewhere but wasn’t so sure about its’ meaning. A quick research told me that it meant ‘expert’ – the rest was easy. All I had to do is to look for a word that would match the Maven, and out came Mushmaven. The golden rule is to keep the name within eight to ten characters. Twelve is still worth it and you have lost the battle after fifteen.

A dash by any other name…

Call it a hyphen, or a dash or anything that you would like to, but in my opinion the dash dashes many hopes of making your website name look good. Think about it, if I had dashes in Mush Maven, or Friday Freak, how would I pronounce it.

M-U-S-H –DASH-M-A-V-E-N, no, you do not have to put the DASH, it’s the dash… the hypen, then do the same to F-R-I-D-AY-D-A-S-H-F-R-E-A-K and you will get the picture. And then, there is no reason for creative guys like us not to be able to think beyond the hyphen. I agree that some names would work better than others for some niches, and many would put a hyphen to get a particular name, but remember, nowhere is it written that you need to use only that particular word as a domain name. Lighten up and choose – it is your site after all.

This is the first of the multi part series on How to Get Traffic to Your Blog. If you liked this post and would like to know more, please bookmark this page.

• Offering your Services to someone.
• Setting you a website where you offer information about subjects that you an expert in
• Selling online.

The simplest, most efficient and probably the fastest way out of these is to offer your services to other business online. The services may be anything, copywriting, content writing, web designing or even being a virtual assistant – but the modus is the same – you work for a particular timeframe to deliver a certain product, if the client likes it, they pay for it.

However, once we do get into the online business most of us service providers think of the other two ways to make money online. While some of us set up websites to be more independent, yet others set up sites because it is quite lucrative, while yet others set them up as learning processes, but make no mistake about it, many of us make them to make some money, and that is not going to happen unless you get some traffic to your blog or site. If you have been thinking how to get traffic to your blog or site, here are the three basic rules that should help you out. Remember, these tips would make sense for you only if you wish to run a professional site or a blog. The traffic to your personal blog simply depends on how popular you are on a personal level.

Decide to Dedicate Resources

Blogs and websites are not something that you spring up yesterday and bring you pots of money tomorrow. Like any business, even online businesses need care, nurturing and dedication. Before you decide to get into the business, you should make a thorough confirmation to yourself that you will dedicate some time of the day to your blog. How much and when is entirely at your leisure.

The only aspect that you should keep in mind that this is not a forced time or time that you have taken out where you have a thousand things in mind. Invest time and a clear mind on your blog and that could be one of your best investments in a while.

If you do not have time for your blog or site, look into how much it would cost you to outsource the activities that you would require to carry out to get traffic to your blog. What are those activities? – In due course of time.

Invest in a Domain Name

The Internet is a vast, deep sea of information and your site or blog is just a drop – precious to you but cookie cutter to everyone else. So, unless you are the Stephen King or Steven Spielberg in your business, or unless you are offering some rare, specific product or service that is not available anywhere in the world, your blog is going to lie in the underbelly of the Internet for years. That cuts out about ninety nine percent of all services or products that hundred percent of online entrepreneurs and online professionals offer.

So, do the right thing and invest in a domain name. If you thought the business plan was worth it, you would not think twice before you spend some money backing it up. Fortunately domain names are not that expensive today and so is web hosting. My host is HostGator, and there are thousands of others that are available. You just need to search for them. The costs of the domain names vary from host to host, and which plans you choose for, etcetera, so you would need to carry out some research about which domain seller and hosting company fits your needs and deeds. You may balk at some charges like ‘setup fees’ and other collateral charges that riff raff the Internet, but with the right research, you will get the right host for you.

Invest in Hosting:

Some of the Internet mavens would know about how to have your domain name redirect to your blog almost automagically. I tried it when I had the blog thefreelanceresource.blogspot.com and had decided to buy the domain name thefreelanceresource.com. After a few sputters and starts, I found out that it was not worth the hassle. As far as I was concerned, it was like a string that was used to connect an Audi to a BMW at 110 mph. – it could snap anytime.

Again, there are several web hosting companies available and you need to do your research to find out which is the best suited for your needs and deeds. Some would charge you a setup fee (I have no idea what that is), while yet others would not offer a monthly hosting plan. A monthly hosting plan runs up quite a neat bill, but it is one of the best ways to invest in a business that you are sure about theoretically, but you would still wait a while to see it in action. For those who have some amount in hand and would like to go the whole way, there are half yearly and yearly hosting plans available.

Yet others would debate about whether you should invest in a domain name when there are so many free hosts available. Take my word for it, if you are planning to monetize a web space majorly, you should buy the domain name – pronto. All free hosts come with some tiers, like Blogspot comes with a .blogspot attached to it, while WordPress.com does not allow JavaScript and iFrame, while free hosters like webs follow the Blogspot route. A domain name like roydsilva.blogspot.com would work only in the rarest of rare cases, and we all know very few of us are that rare.

So, the three basic steps to get traffic to your blog are:

• Decide to Dedicate Resources
• Invest in Hosting
• Invest in a Domain Name

This is the first of the multi part series on How to Get Traffic to Your Blog. If you liked this post and would like to know more, please bookmark this page.

GPRS is God:

Ever thought about how cruel life is when you are in front of the desktop and nothing happens and you miss an important, time bound mail  because you decided to have that one solitary outing in the whole year? Well, if you pray to a God called GPRS, they will ensure that this does not happen. With GPRS, you can connect to the Internet with your mobile device to check emails, browse the Internet on a push  come to shove basis. Of course, you will not have the comfort of the huge 29 inches flat screen to view your email, but what you have will generally work.

These Phones End Up Longer with You:

Come to think of it, most of these phones have so many features that we take about two to three months to understand and begin to use all of them, and another three to find out which features they do not.  And once you use a phone full of features, you get used to the phone.  So, very soon you will end up using the phone as a email reader, a document reader, a causal game player – and several other things, which make it more useful for to you.

]]> http://thefreelanceresource.com/freelance-tips-2/twop-reasons-the-freelancer-should-have-a-smart-phone/feed/ 3 http://thefreelanceresource.com/professional-blogging/should-you-have-a-blog-at-wordpress-com/ http://thefreelanceresource.com/professional-blogging/should-you-have-a-blog-at-wordpress-com/#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:14:55 +0000 roydsilva http://thefreelanceresource.com/?p=33 At any given time, if one takes out a survey about five software and services that brought the Internet back to the lay person, WordPress will definitely make it within the first three.  Quite frankly, anyone who knows how to use a keyboard and has basic Internet and word processing skills can make a website using WordPress. Make no mistake about it, some of the most professional looking websites have been made using WordPress, which is essentially considered to be a blog software. As everyone knows, WordPress offers two services – a free blog at http://www.wordpress.com and their free software that can be installed via the cPanel of your domain and hosting server – known as self hosted blogs and of course both have their advantages and disadvantages.  If you are wondering whether you should have a blog at WordPress.com or go in for self hosting, here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Are You Going to Monetize It?

With the Internet becoming a great way to make money working from home, most people are itching to monetize their websites or blogs to make some residual income or whatever term the affiliate marketer will come up with next. So, if you are one of those who would like to monetize your WordPress blog, remember this:

WordPress.com does not allow JavaScript.

So, out goes your Google Adsense, your Adbrite and almost any ad network that offers only JavaScript. While many web developers and programmers are of the opinion that JavaScript slows down the website and should not be used – unless they come up with an alternative that is feasible, we need JavaScript enabled CMS to monetize your sites -  which WordPress is not. Technically, WordPress allows JavaScript, but only if your site/blog has more than 50,000 or something visitors. For those who would like to wait for that day, I’d say WordPress.com is great for them. My site gets 40 visits per day since the past six months, by the way.

• Do You Like Themes?

CMS like WordPress and Blogspot have made it possible for a webmaster to change the look and feel of their website with a simple installation or a copy paste job. There are hundreds, thousands and millions of free themes that are available for both WordPress as well as Blogspot. Of course, there is one hitch while using themes with WordPress.com

WordPress.com Does Not Allow Uploading of Themes.

When I was fiddling around with WordPress.com, Blogspot.com and WordPress.org, the moment I decided to go with self hosting blogs was that WordPress.com does not allow uploading of themes. Think about this site with one of those cookie cutter themes that are available default with WordPress. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with those, but then, a site is quite a personal thing for me, something that carries my personal touch. So, if you are as sensitive as me about WordPress themes, you could check out the free wordpress themes available at a click here and find out what you would miss if you go ahead with free hosting at WordPress.com.

Size Does Matter:

In an era when people want smaller and faster, would you like to go ahead with a web address that has something like .wordpress.com attached to it? Thought so.  The Internet is all about quick words and faster names, and though having a blog at WordPress.com is a good idea, you need to remember this:

You Will Always Be a .WordPress.com Child

That is correct. Though making a blog at WordPress may take away your name deciding problems, for example www.danieldsilva.com may be taken, but danieldsilva.wordpress.com may or may not be taken, it still is a pain the wrist to type those long addresses – unless you are so awesome that people are bookmarking your site at first instance. So, remember these tips when you decide whether you want a blog a WordPress.com or whether you want to go the self hosted way.

Freedom is not just a physical state of mind, but also a psychological one. While we are free when we are born, we begin to understand our freedom as we grow up. Once we attain a certain age, we no longer have to ask the teacher permission to go to the washroom, once we attain a certain age, we can drive, we can drink, we can vote, we can marry, etc.

However, there are various issues in life that we have yet to get freedom from, and the realm of freelancing is nothing new. Here are the top three aspects that I think most of us would want independence from. Feel free to comment to add your point of view.

#5

Scammers:

I guess all of us have had enough of these people and something should seriously be done about the scammers and their brethren. The simple reason that there are so many scammers in the realm of freelancing is that freelancing is the best way to make some quick money – not that all of us are in this business for the quick money, but it is what it is. We still cringe to hear stories about how noobs get scammed not just from their money, but also their enthusiasm and verve of working from home and being ‘different’ from the system. How many of us know people who left freelancing because of the scammers? How many times have you thought of taking a nine to five after you got stiffed for a considerable amount of money? It’s high time someone did something about the scammers.

#4

Content Mills:

Let’s be frank about it, content mills are bad for business. These content mills hire people for less than what would they are worth and give the clients products of questionable content. These are bad for business because for one they create a unwanted crowd which submerges the real quality workers and brings down the value of work. If you wonder where that golden opportunity of earning $20 per 500 words has withered into, you can blame the content mills for acting as middle men and finally giving huge discounts to the client because they took work in bulk, and paying a pittance to the writers because they were novice noobs who were looking for some pocket money. Of course, the trend set up and it is not going to change anytime soon.

#3

Unsympathetic Bidding Sites:

Even though I would grudgingly point a newbie to the bidding sites where one can get consistent work, I understand how frustrating it is when a person is stiffed for money and the bidding website wrings their hands away from the situation.  I remember one particular scenario where a  work for hire website suspended a freelancer’s account for a good one month, only because they suspected that he was using the account for money transferring.  It is high time that freelance bid for work websites should understand that it is the freelancers that make the website successful and not the clients.  For all the clients that sign up on these sites, none of us would be making even a cent if a freelancer did not take the risk to work via the site – and what do we get? Pathetic replies, huge cuts on our payments and generally apathy. Change this, now!

#2

Indecisive Clients:

So, how many of us have gone through situations where you send up some work to a client only to find out that they want rework on it because that is not ‘how they wanted it’? Or that client who thinks that they have bought your day because they are paying $3 per article?  All of us have had clients from hell – a breed that is quite different from the legendary scammers – but nonetheless dangerous. Someone should send them to eternity… now!

#1

Social Stigma:

I placed this at number one because the other entries in this post are something that we can still grin and bear, but this one is the real backbreaker. There are several countries which do not  offer a person a credit card,bank loans etc if they work from home – even if the person actually earns more than a major percentage of the bank’s loan population, or even if the freelancer shows agreements and contracts that he has drawn out with the companies.

That said, even the Government and authorities of some countries are not sympathetic to freelancers. If you come across a situation where you need proof that you are working, you would be surprised how many departments would not allow the ‘self employed’ tag or look at it with a smirk.

]]> http://thefreelanceresource.com/ramblings/today-we-celebrate-our-independence-day-what-would-you-want-independence-from/feed/ 2 http://thefreelanceresource.com/freelance-tips-2/how-distance-education-can-help-the-freelancer/ http://thefreelanceresource.com/freelance-tips-2/how-distance-education-can-help-the-freelancer/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:47:24 +0000 roydsilva http://thefreelanceresource.com/?p=16

Some would say that the biggest advantage of working as a freelancer is that they are their own boss, while others would say that it is the considerable amount of money that they save from the traveling and other expenses that they would incur if they had a common 9-5er. However, what we forget is one important advantage of working from home – discovering our true potential.

A freelancer has a greater chance of discovering their true potential in terms of what they can do and what they cannot do, and what they can learn to do and cannot because they are out in the open by themselves and have to either have to discover their survival skills or learn some new ones. But of course, while a person might have a talent to do something new, it is not necessary that they have the required skills too.

For example, a content writer may have a talent to become a crackling copywriter, but they might not have the requisite knowhow to make their copy good. Because a person does not have some skills, they may lose out on several lucrative assignments and stop their self-growth. This is because some simply do not want to go ahead and sign up for a course at a institute, because they think (and it may be true too) that they are quite old for the old school bench and table story, while yet others might have liked to acquire a new skill too, but their freelancing life is so full of chaos that they would never make it to the class on time.

However, there is one way to solve this issue – distance education. Distance Education works for a freelancer for many reasons, apart from the common one of saving time or flexible education time. Here are the different reasons distance education works:

Various Colleges, Various Degrees:

If a person researches a bit, they would be surprised to find that their educational qualifications have different weightage in different countries, states and cities. Because a freelancer has the whole world as their market, it is very important for them to take an education or degree that is accepted and revered all through the world. With distance education a freelancer can generally pick and choose any kind of institution and degree that they want.

Affordable Education:

Think about it, if you are undertaking distance education, you save a lot of money. You save money on your daily commute, on the ‘for school’ shopping that you would have to indulge in every six months or so and save up on the amount of money that you would spend on lunches, dinners, coffees if you were on campus.

Global Education:

So, you would like to be educated from an institute that is based in Connecticut but stay in Canada? No issues. Distance Education allows institutes and students to connect on a global level.  Whether you are from Melbourne or Connecticut or Stanford, you can choose and decide which institute that you would like to take your degree or certificate from.

That said, distance education is simple and easy, but that does not mean that there are no pointers to keep in mind. While pursuing distance education, you should first find out whether the degree that is being offered has any standing in the local as well as the global market.Though a freelancer has the globe as their market, they need to concentrate on their local market as well the international one.

Another aspect to keep in mind is whether the institution that you are planning to get your education from is legal and providing the educational qualification in the legal way. There are many fake Universities and Institutions that claim to be affiliated with some institutions and colleges, but are actually not.

To find out about the different distance learning colleges and which ones would make sense for you, check out the various websites that offer you information about distance education. These websites give you all the information about all the colleges that offer you distance education.

Add to this the announcement a few days ago where a Senator branded Infosys as a chopsop. Now, for those who do not know what Infosys, let’s give you some information.  Infosys is a software development country in India, which is basically the be all and end all of the software world, it’s the final come uppance of a software developer,  a post in Infosys, fondly called ‘Infy’ gets you the best seat in the house, the best dish in the house, the best everything.  No, the emotion of an American working in Microsoft or an Adobe comes nowhere near the emotion of an Indian working in Infosys – and I do not care about the financial comparisons of both these situations.

So hallowed are these portals, that one of the founders, N. R Narayana Murthy, has been considered to be able to do what Obama’ was/is considered to be able to do for India. Another of the founders, Nandan Nilekani is at the helm of a prestigious and ambitious project directly under the onus of the Indian Government, that is supposed to give all Indian citizens something that is akin to the American social security number.  Come to think of it, Obama was the first for America, I guess even Murthy would be a first for America. The first gentleman businessman who ventured into Politics and won! Anyway, I digress, this post is not another glowing tribute to Infy, it’s about that damn sound byte that the Senator gave.

So, let’s delve on the exact quip that Democrat (that’s interesting too, I thought Republicans were against outsourcing) Senator Charles E Schume said about Infosys. What he said was,

“The emergency border funds will be paid for by assessing fees on foreign companies known as chop shops that outsource good, high-paying American technology jobs to lower wage, temporary immigrant workers from other countries. These are companies such as Infosys. But it will not affect the high-tech companies such as Intel or Microsoft that play by the rules and recruit workers in America.”"

Now, I read this remark again and again, and I should tell you – I found nothing wrong with what he said. To understand what this is all about, I shall do what other Indian newspapers and magazines did – describe a chopshop. Yes, that is true. In this great country with one of the oldest civilizations and strongest education system, reading the newspapers would make one seem that the public at large doesn’t know what a ‘chopshop’ is. But I have played GTA in my time, so I can tell you what it is, since there is no Wiki description that is in context with the word here.

A chop shop is a car shop, where cars that are stolen are brought in, tweaked in, painted, and basically made to cover the crime. A chop shop has a number of highly talented people who can work at lightning speed and dismantle and remake a car in record time. And that’s what they should be good at, because the cops are hot on their heels and the wheels gotta go in a few hours anyway. Of course, sometimes a chop shop can be used for lesser harmful activities like illegal modification of the vehicle, but that’s all in the profile anyway.

So, leaving aside the essence of crime, a chop shop can be described as a shop that gets in a product, works on it so that it is better, enhanced, and unrecognizable,  in a record time.

Now, lets compare this to Infosys.

So, Infosys does not describe itself on its site, and the Wiki link to Infosys says that it is a Information Technology Services company. That’s correct, for those of who think that it is a Software Development company, that’s the description that it has on the big W and there’s no description of it on its site.  And I would like to someone better knowledgable about the realm of software to describe the difference between the two.

What I know, though, is that I have never seen a software from Infosys being as big a success as say a Windows, or even a Adobe Photoshop – and that’s where my issue begins.  If you go to their site, which seem quite daunting when you read about them, and I can quite understand if they were the ones that run the machines while I am at the mall, or if they are the ones that allow me to connect faster on my mobile web, so you can at least say that Infosys has done what it had to do in all these years.

And if it has done this, then the PR department of Infosys should have been guillotined a long time ago.  Essential software does not PR itself, it needs to be PRed by a talented group of individuals. So maybe the company does not believe in tooting its own drum – but that has never stopped the Indian media from creating a hype and reporting about something, right? And not for a moment do I doubt that it might company policy not to tom tom about their achievements – which is all right as far as corporate ethics go, but is Infosys doing the right thing by staying mum about their achievements when it is the single most recognizable face of a vibrant, talented and enthusiastic workforce that is derided as being ‘software coolies’?

At the face of it all, it seems that Infosys has done great for the situation that it is in, and it is only now that they are understanding what they have created – Infosys is just one of the Economical Frankenstein that has been created by rich countries to bored or lazy to do the hackwork.  Are there more? Sure. Are they as successful? Maybe. Do they pose a threat to the better settled companies? Of course they do.

What is sad for  India is that there is yet a Indian company that is even near the way their outsourcing counterparts work. They have a five day week, we have a six day week with Sundays probably an off if a system does not crash down on Saturday morning – and that is quite possible to happen because we are running on exclusive timelines – read fake ones. They have medical care, perks, etc, while we just have ourselves to look after if we fall down after working for a horse for fifty years – unless we have our medical insurance in place.

They consider Saturdays and Sundays to be religious offs, while we consider them a great way to either freelance or work double shifts to get that vehicle that we are planning on.

The problem is not a single phased issue that can be solved by cutting down two wires. This issue is a festering wound that has been consistently scratched by a paranoid and sleazy employer base and a guilty, greedy, mostly incompetent employee base  that have suddenly been shown the big show and wanna wear those cowboy boots too.

The question is, why do Indian companies not have the same services, features and amenities that are offered by foreign companies? Why do we still piss in our pants when we think about the loss of a big foreign client? Why do companies still close down if some vague foreign client stops giving them the consistent work:?

Infosys is just someone that is caught in the crossfire and unless we don’t set up our secure areas, it’s gonna get bloody.