Being a freelancer can be a huge challenge for us all. A lot of things have to be considered, and it can be tough to come to the point where you’re able to earn enough to cover all of your expenses. There’s always hope though, if you’re prepared to work hard and stay focused.

Here is ten great tips that can help you earn more money and succeed in the world of freelancing. Let’s have a look...

1. Do your best – always!

It sounds logical and is something you always should aim for, but it can be hard to remember this at all times. By always doing your best you’ll get happy clients. Happy clients come back for a second and third buy, they could give you new clients from talking good about you – and they are great to add in your portfolio.

2. Build a great portfolio

We’ve said it over and over and it can’t be said enough. Taking the time, money and effort to build a great portfolio will definitely help you get more customers and that way help you earn more.

3. Spend money on marketing

A certain amount of what you make should go back into building your business. To have more clients notice you, you have to spend some money in getting your name out there. This could be anything from leaving business-cards with everyone you talk to, making brochures for your services, advertising in a local newspaper, buying ad space on bigger websites and so on. You’ll quickly notice that this is a great way of finding new clients and that way earning more.

4. Stop Under-Pricing your work!
A lot of freelance workers, especially those that are newly started, tend to price themselves too low compared to competitors. This could give you an extra client here and there – but in the long run it’s bad for business. Make sure that you check out the prices of your competitors, keep budgets and keep track of how your time is spent.

5. Don’t be too expensive

Under-pricing your work is more common than being too expensive, but make sure you don’t do either. By asking too much, you’ll get fewer projects and your clients are more likely to be unhappy. Just like in #4 – remember to check out who you’re up against and how much everything costs.

6. Be open to including more products and services
If you’re working with design, it’s very likely that you have a couple of specialties. This is always good. Be aware though, that by including one or two more related products to your repertoire you could look at a potential income boost. This means more products/services that can earn you money, and more things to sell to every client. They’ll see that you have a more complete package to offer, which can be what has them choose you over your competitors.

7. Working with others

By working together with other freelancers on bigger projects, you will be able to serve bigger clients and give more complete packages together. This gives more work and often better prices as well. Example like logo designers and web designers working together. What I’ve seen and heard so far, witnesses of great possibilities from this.

8. Increase your online presence

New projects and new clients can come from everywhere, all over the world. By making sure you have a portfolio and galleries displaying your work in communities like deviantART. You should also make sure to be part of social media, like Twitter, Facebook – and so on. This way you’ll get a lot of valuable new contacts, get feedback, become inspired and pick up some tips on how others do things.

9. Contests & crowd-sourcing

These can be great ways of getting your name out there, possible earning a few bucks, making new contacts and practicing your skills. Many websites are available, and especially if you work with web design or logo design, you’ll find plenty of projects to join. This has a potential for you to earn some extra money and is definitely better than just sitting around hoping for projects to appear. Some places to check out if this is of interest would be Freelance.com Crowdspring and 99designs.

10. Write articles

If you’re good at what you do, explain it well and like to write – this can be a great source of extra income. Lots of websites related to design are looking for guest authors all the time and if you’re effective and deliver high quality you can earn a good chunk of money writing about it. Absolutely something to consider, and it gives quick results in form of payment and often a link bank to your website.

Conclusion These were our 10 tips on how to make more money as a freelance designer. Hope this can be of help to you either all the time or during dry periods. Remember that working hard and looking for options will get you far.

Good luck!

Author – Hilde

Search engine optimization or SEO is actually a complete package of services that every website needs to have these days.

The competition is such that if you are seriously focusing on internet as a means of marketing and making money, then you cannot do without an SEO strategy.

With search engine optimization, everything about the website, that is, on and off the page, can be improved.

Through SEO, the web traffic to the website can be increased and search engines will also find the website good enough to be ranked high. But all this is done in an effort to make the website more visible and be able to generate more sales.

For any business, every visitor viewing its website is a potential buyer. More potential buyers are brought in with SEO and this means that there are more sales.

SEO is also not a process which can be forgotten at any point or can be achieved fully only once. You need to always improve and improvise the SEO methods so that your website is always ranked high and is seen by more and more people.

Remember that nothing in the internet world is static. There is always movement and changes so you need to stay updated.

A good SEO strategy can be broadly broken up into four steps. Each of these is important and integral to the whole, as the whole thing can only provide the desired results.


The first of these steps is the website analysis.

1. During this phase you should do a detailed study of your website, analyze it point by point, its structure, layout, content, SEO details, visitor reactions and appeal.

2. You should be able to see what keywords are being used, how effective these are depending on the ranking of the website on search engines.

3. Then, you will see if the visitors are allowed to post their feedback, what the feed backs say, how good and relevant is the content, what follow-up procedures are done to keep a client, the RSS feeds on your page and links.

4. You should also be able to check which search engines your site appears on and check the effectiveness of your search engine marketing (SEM).

 
The second phase is to analyze your rivals or competitors in the same way.

While each detail is noted as for your site, a comparative study is also conducted. The competitors are first identified according to the audience and then every detail is noted starting from ranking to website structure and even links. These services will help to put your links on these sites on a sharing basis.

The third step is to define what needs to be done after studying your website and comparing it to your competitors' websites.

The three steps above should provide you with ideas on how to improve the web traffic to your page and in effect, increase your sales.

The fourth step is the implementation plan and the assessment of the results achieved.

Please note achievements do not happen overnight, they are a gradual process... so be patient ~~~

By Author: M. Moume

Online selling & auctions are great places for entrepreneurs and bargain shoppers alike. Online selling site or auction sites are like giant flea markets; they provide a forum for buyers and sellers to find or sell just about anything.

There are many ways to approach online auctions. For many, selling items on Internet auctions sites is a hobby and a good way to supplement their income. For others, it is a job and way of life. For buyers, it’s a great way to find good deals on rare, unusual collectibles or everyday items.

Here is few top sites you may look in to to kick off you business:

INTERNATIONAL SITE

eBay
www.ebay.com

Amazon
www.amazon.com

Webstore
www.webstore.com

Onlineauction.com
www.onlineauction.com

Quicksales
www.quicksales.com.au

Overstock
www.overstock.com

Webidz
www.webidz.com

Cqout
www.cqout.com

uBid
www.ubid.com

ePier
www.epier.com


MALAYSIA SITES

Mudah
www.mudah.my

Lelong
www.lelong.com.my

MyBarang
www.mybarang.com

Shoppy
www.shoppy.com.my

Autoworld - Car Selling Site
www.autoworld.com.my

Hope the above resources able to assist you search to selling online, if you have any good site that come across your mind and would like to suggest, feel free to leave at the comment. THANK YOU!!!

When pricing your design services it can be difficult to determine what is an appropriate and fair price. The resulting price should be influenced by a number of different factors. Unfortunately, many times it is just guess work from the designer.

Here are 12 factors that should influence how much you charge for your services:

1. The Time It Will Take

An obvious factor is the amount of time that a specific project will require from you. Some designers have an hourly rate that they attempt to get with each of their projects. Whether you have an set hourly rate or not, you need to consider how much time you expect a project to take and how much you would like to earn for that amount of time.

2. Your Availability

Are you currently overloaded with work? If so, why not price a project a bit higher than you normally would? If the potential customer is willing to pay the price you will be well-compensated for your efforts. If they’re not interested in that price, you’re still busy with your other work so it is no big loss.

On the other hand, if you are starving for work, why not consider making a small price cut if it will help you to get some work? Of course you’ll still want to be sure that you’re getting enough to make it worth your time.

3. Opportunity Cost

If you don’t take the job, what else could you be doing with your time? Don’t only consider how much you will be making for a particular job. You need to also understand what your other options would be. Maybe you know you can only charge X dollars per hour for a specific type of service, but for doing something different you can earn considerably more.

4. Potential for Future Work

Sometimes you make get the opportunity to take a job that has potential to lead to ongoing work that you would like to have. In this case there is more incentive for you to give a very competitive price. Sometimes getting your foot in the door by doing a small amount of work for less than you would like will lead to bigger and better things.

5. History with a Client

Have you worked for this particular client before? If so, what was your experience? Some clients you would love to keep and you may be willing to be more flexible with your pricing. Others you will be anxious to get rid of and you may want to inflate your prices a bit.

6. Quality of Your Work - Your Profesinalism

How does the level of your work compare to other designers? Obviously your clients will have a number of different options when choosing a designer. Your prices should reflect the quality of your work in comparison with your competition. Try not to overprice yourself, and certainly don’t under price yourself.

7. Costs Involved for You

Most jobs will typically only involve your time, but some may require additional costs for software, photos, scripts, etc. Always try to find any possible expenses that could arise when you are pricing a job and make an effort to pass these expenses on to the customer.

8. Opportunity for Growth

Some jobs will present challenges and opportunities for you to improve your skills and your experience. If you are interested in learning a new aspect of design, you may want to seek out projects that will provide those opportunities and price your services to be very competitive. Of course, if the job is a learning experience for you, you should communicate this with the client so they understand the situation and so they do not assume that you are an expert in this area.

9. Experience

In comparison with your competition, what is your experience? Experienced designers are usually able to charge considerably more because of their years of experience and the improved skills that have been developed as a result.

On the other hand, do you have a lack of experience that you would like to improve? If so, consider pricing your services on the low end.

10. Timeline

Will you be under a sever time crunch? If so, you should be able to charge more due to the increased pressure of the time demand. Those who expect a quick turnaround and need something right away will often be willing to pay more for the work.

11. Skills Needed for the Project

Basic HTML and CSS coding skills will not demand as much money as more advanced coding skills used in development of dynamic websites. Additionally, advanced graphic design skills can also warrant a higher price. Take into consideration the skills that are needed to complete the project and how much those skills are worth.

12. Is Outsourcing Needed?

Some projects and designers will require outsourcing part of the work to get the job done. If this is the case you need to know how much you will have to pay someone else. Outsourcing can be one more headache in the pricing decision.


From VandelayDesign.com

Billboards, print ads, paper leaflets, poster and all those you see when you walk on the streets are part of all companies; advertising strategy. We know that without advertising, a company won't be able to exist. "A business without a sign is a sign of no business". The main purpose of advertising is to promote and attract customers on their products. What if you sell a t-shirt and you don't even display it on your store, will someone buy that product?Of course, no one unless you promote or advertise it. The best thing about advertising is you don't need to go into streets and talk to all the people you encounter.


One way to market your product is by visually advertising it. By the help of graphic design, you can visually represent your product in streets, walls, and even in newspapers.


Kinds of advertisements that uses graphic design, here are few of them;

- Name cards
- Brochure
- Newsletter ads
- Flyers
- Premium Gift
- Display System
- T-shirt printed promos
- Billboards
- Signboards
- Promo signs

What are the advantages on using graphic designs for ads?
-Graphic design for advertisements can be cost efficient,"Less talk, increase in market", effectively appeal the audience,you can promote your product easily and better way to voice out your products.

Graphic Design has impacted advertising so much. One reason why companies get more market is that, a good graphic design for advertisement gives a visual taste of their product.

Signs of a good designed advertisements
- When people pays attention to what the visual ad wanted to say
- When you catch the attention of the people.
- When people you got lots of positive feedback from your costumers regarding your ads.

How to do a good graphic design for advertisements?
- Firstly, you need some skill and right mind in designing or hire a skilled designer to do the work
- Make a color schemes that are appealing to the viewers. Arrgghh..."not yellow and pink!!"
- Funny and humorous ads will do a good catch
 - Keep it simple but effective

- joshuastyles.com

Being able to take a look at the words and phrases people use when looking for things online is invaluable. Rather than listening to people say what they think they might do, you get to observe what they actually did. And when aggregated, you get a nice view of the words people most often use when thinking about and searching for a certain topic.

Once armed with keyword intelligence that’s relevant to your niche, you have the unique ability to create highly-relevant content that aids your site visitors and enhances your credibility. You’re speaking the language of the audience after all, and satisfying their needs.

And if you get it right, you’ll likely rank well in the search engines too, after promoting the content in a strategic way. It may seem strange to view search traffic as a secondary benefit in a Google-driven world, but that’s exactly how you should view it. Google won’t treat you as relevant until someone else does first.

The counter intuitive rule of search engine keyword research is to try to forget that search engines can send you traffic. View the data as free or low-cost market research and you’ll have the proper mindset to formulate a content strategy that has a shot at ranking well. People need to like your content before Google will.


Here are the 5 essential things to cover when it comes to keyword research:

1. Research Tools
Some will tell you that Google’s Keyword Tool is all you need for research. Another free option is Aaron Wall’s SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool, which incorporates Yahoo! Search data and other useful metrics. Paid tools may be superior choices to those provided by search engines since the proprietors are not motivated to sell you search advertising, and include Wordtrackerand Keyword Discovery.

2. Get Specific “Keyword”
The term that gets tossed around, but what you’re really after in most cases are keyword phrases. For example, a real estate attorney in Austin, Texas would gain very little actual benefit from ranking highly for the single word “attorney” (and good luck anyway), but specific keyword phrases based on geography and specialty would yield highly targeted traffic (“Austin real estate lawyer”). And don’t forget synonyms.

3. Strength in Numbers
Don’t take as gospel truth the reported number of monthly searches provided by any particular tool. But do pay attention to relative popularity among search terms. You want to make sure enough people use that phrase when thinking of your niche to make it worth your while, especially if this is one of the primary search terms you want to target for your site overall. At the same time, be realistic. If you are trying to rank in a very competitive sector, aim for something attainable first, or make sure that a certain keyword combination can rank for an easier phrase if the more competitive term ends up out of reach.

4. Highly Relevant
Make sure that the search terms you are considering are highly relevant to your ultimate goal. If you are a service provider or selling specific products, keyword relevancy may be easier to determine--you ultimately want someone to purchase the product or service. Other goals may require more careful consideration, such as subscriptions to content publications and contributions to charities, for example.

5. Develop a Resource
Here’s the key element. Can a particular keyword phrase support the development of content that is a valuable resource to readers?

Something that:

• Satisfies the preliminary needs of the site visitor
• Acts as the first step in your sales or action cycle
• Is worth linking to

by Brian Clark

Searching & hunting a good place to showcase your products, services and websites for free in the online world is a dream for everyone – Facebook has made this a reality. With half a billion Facebook users and thousands of online communities to choose from, Facebook has brought potential customers much closer to you.

There is much more to marketing on Facebook than just creating a profile. Keeping your fans engaged is the key. Don’t be a hard sales brand, but be a community they love being a part of. Here is few tips that able to show you how you can use the medium of Facebook to increase your visibility and your customer base as well as retain the ones you have!

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CREATE YOUR PRESENCE ON FACEBOOK 1. Facebook Profile: By creating a profile for yourself or your business, you are establishing your identity. This will take you a long way in developing relationships with fellow users and in positioning your business. You profile lets you interact with people on a personal note, more so if it’s a local business.

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o Profile Picture:Always put your best foot forward, which means use the most flattering picture as your profile picture.  No matter what they say, a book is judged by its cover. for examplae M.A.C makeup’s profile and thought it was really catchy with the colors used on the face. Hundreds of indifferent people with little time to spare are going to decide whether to add you based on your picture. So, make sure you get this one right!

o Add Friends: After creating a profile, don’t wait for things to happen. Add new friends every day and the word will spread that you’re on Facebook. Before you know it, you’ll be starting your day by accepting friend requests! However, make sure you don’t add more than 25 – 30 people a day as excessive adding can get your profile removed from Facebook.

o Wall: This is your main platform to interact with Facebook users. Post messages on your wall and also comment on members’ activities, though, only when relevant. A cafe once commented on my status when it was something about food. And there! A personal connection was built in a second! However, make sure you don’t spam people every other day or they may remove you from their friend list.

o Photo Albums and Videos: Photos and videos are a great way to showcase the latest collection of your product. I know many people who love to see what goes on behind the scene during a photo shoot or while a baker does his magic in the kitchen. Moreover, the first thing most Facebook users check are photo updates. So take your camera and start taking nice images!

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2. Fan Pages: Facebook Pages, known as Fan Pages, are designed for businesses, brands, companies, products and celebrities. It enables public figures, organizations and other entities to create an authentic and public presence on Facebook. You can encourage users to become fans of your page and share information with them by uploading pictures, videos, status updates, hosting discussions and displaying wall posts. Unlike Facebook Profiles, Pages are visible to everyone on the internet and are generally better for long-term relationships with your fans, readers or customers.
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3.Groups: Facebook Groups allow people to come together around a common cause or activity to express their views. One of the best features of groups is the ability to send messages directly to members’ Facebook inboxes.  It’s a great way to form a community and help your brand image.

Nowadays, it’s almost a necessity for movies to establish their presence on Facebook during its post-release period as Facebook users look for movies here. The good thing here is that you can send bulk invites to your friends, while it is manually done on Pages. Groups are generally better for hosting quick active discussions and attracting attention.

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4. Events: Simply put, Facebook Events can help you connect with your target audience and invite them for your events, even if they aren’t on your friend list or one of your fans. Events can be created individually or even from Profiles, Pages. What make it so special is Facebook gives you a choice between making the event Public and Private.
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HOW TO USE FACEBOOK FOR ONLINE MARKETING??

Social Media Marketing is still in its infancy. Lets consider this as an advantage because there are not many set rules, you can try & experiment with different methods & techniques. However, if you don’t want to experiment, here are some tried and tested methods that will ensure success:

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5. Be Unique and Keep Updating: There’s nothing more boring than bland Facebook pages. Add lots of personality and fun to your profile. If possible, try to create applications just for your page. Offer something different so that they keep coming back, instead of letting them wait for updates from you. If you check Dell’s Facebook page, you’ll see that it keeps updating its status and gives new information on their products and about technology.

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6. Use a Big Profile Picture: Who says size doesn’t matter?! Using a big profile picture is one of the best ways to brand your Facebook page. Facebook allows images of up to 200pix wide x 600pix high to be used as profile images Pages. This way, you stand out in a crowd.  Check out Bob Marley or Johnny Depp’s page on Facebook and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

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7. Tag Fans in Photos: You can tag your fans in pictures of new collections, or even ask them to tag themselves as a part of a game or contest. Musician Lenny Kravitz uploaded pictures of his concert in Italy in 2009 and asked everyone to tag themselves. This gave him good publicity as the update on being tagged appeared on the fans’ walls.

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8. Exclusive Landing Page for Users: Use different pages to target different sets of people. Take new users to a page that encourages them to ‘Like’ you or to a page they would find interesting enough to keep coming back. Members/fans can be directed to the wall or a game page that might interest them. Red Bull’s profile page is designed in a way that users are given a hint to ‘Like’ the page, while fans are taken directly to the Wall. You can get innovative in designing landing pages and targeting different people. 

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9. Reward Loyal Supporters: Encourage loyal supporters to join your Page and reward them. Tabs or badges like ‘member of the month’ that can be placed on their profiles for visibility can be awarded to them. A happy customer on Facebook can get you lots of attention.  Remind users to Like and Share information about you. When their friends see the updates on the News Feed, it’s highly likely for them to do the same.

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10. Use Contests and Polls: Holding contests encourage fans to interact directly with you. Domino’s ‘Show Us Your Pizza’ is a contest where people can send pictures of Domino’s pizzas they’ve orders. The best picture will be chosen by Domino’s and the photographer gets a prize of $500 and a chance to get his picture featured in an ad. This has received a lot of attention from Facebook users.

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11. Actively Participate Outside Your Page: Find other Facebook pages related to your industry or topic using Facebook Search & start actively commenting on their posts & updates. This is a great way to build relationships in your industry and even adds credibility to your business. If you’re willing to offer free advice on communities and discussions, it will encourage people to check your website out.

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12. Integrate Facebook Social Plugins to Your Site: The Like button on your site enables users to share pages from your site back to their Facebook profile and the Recommendation button gives users of your site personalized suggestions for pages that they like. There are many more buttons like LikeBox, Comments, Live Stream (Just like what you see in my website) etc that you can add to your website. With this, you can see for yourself what your target likes and design your product/service accordingly.

You can also integrate Facebook Connect Plugin in your blog which will enable Facebook users to leave comments on your blog without registering. The comment they make will be put up on their wall instantly which will be visible to all their friends. So, you effectively get a lot of exposure without doing much!

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13. Marketplace: With Facebook Marketplace, you can buy and sell anything using the listing service. The Marketplace application page displays all the most recent listings in your networks. The difference between normal listings and the Marketplace is that you don’t see another boring list of business, but they show up as the site’s own updates. For example, a sales listing would show up in news feeds as “John is selling Abstract Art.” In this case, John can be a ‘friend’ of your or even a friend’s friend. You can find out what people want, what they are offering and also how you are connected to these people on Facebook.
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14. Don’t Just Write for an Audience of Teenagers: It’s time we free ourselves of this misconception. Facebook isn’t filled with youngsters. Though Facebook has many youngsters who belong to the age group 16 to 25, we see an increase in the number of people from other age groups who use Facebook regularly. According to Pingdom, 61% of Facebook users are over 35 years old. In fact, the 26 – 34 age group rivals the 18 – 25 age group in both the US and the UK. So, make sure communicate to your target the right way.

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15. News Feed: The Facebook News Feed gives your posts wide exposure by syndicating it, like an RSS feed.  When a user joins your group, responds to an invitation, or engages you in any way, Facebook automatically adds that transaction to each user’s “mini feed” in the form of a “recent news” stream. This stream unifies all actions so that everyone can see what’s been going on with your business.

1. Keep in mind that networking is about being genuine and authentic, building trust and relationships, and seeing how you can help others.

2. Ask yourself what your goals are in participating in networking meetings so that you will pick groups that will help you get what you are looking for. Some meetings are based more on learning, making contacts, and/or volunteering rather than on strictly making business connections.

3. Visit as many groups / chapter as possible that spark your interest. Notice the tone and attitude of the group. Do the people sound supportive of one another? Does the leadership appear competent? Many groups will allow you to visit two times before joining.

4.Hold volunteer positions in organizations. This is a great way to stay visible and give back to groups that have helped you.

5. Ask open-ended questions in networking conversations. This means questions that ask who, what, where, when, and how as opposed to those that can be answered with a simple yes or no. This form of questioning opens up the discussion and shows listeners that you are interested in them.

6. Become known as a powerful resource (A Living & Moving Dictionary) for others. When you are known as a strong resource, people remember to turn to you for suggestions, ideas, names of other people, etc. This keeps you visible to them.

7. Have a clear understanding of what you do and why, for whom, and what makes your doing it special or different from others doing the same thing. In order to get referrals, you must first have a clear understanding of what you do that you can easily articulate to others.

8. Be able to articulate what you are looking for and how others may help you. Too often people in conversations ask, "How may I help you?" and no immediate answer comes to mind.

9. Follow through quickly and efficiently on referrals you are given. When people give you referrals, your actions are a reflection on them. Respect and honor that and your referrals will grow.

10. Call those you meet who may benefit from what you do and vice verse. Express that you enjoyed meeting them, and ask if you could get together and share ideas or opinion how to improve each business value.