Online money-making opportunities: March 23 to 29
Happy Sunday everyone 
Below are some online job opportunities this week.
Note: I try to list legitimate job opportunities as much as possible, but some illegitimate ones might fall through the cracks. Please use your best judgment when communicating with prospective clients, and make sure you get a signed contract before doing any work.
Blogging and Online Writing:
Web Design & Development:
- Landing page designer
- Company looking for part time coder
- Designer wanted for a project
- Designer/programmer for music website ($1,000 to $2,000)
- Firefox add-on creator
Miscellaneous:
- Video posting work ($10 to $40 per day)
When listening to experts, use your brain
Did you know that whenever you’re receiving advice from an “expert” (real or otherwise), it’s likely that you’ve turned off your own ability to make decisions?
According to a recent study, research participants were asked to choose between receiving a sure amount of money or gambling on a riskier, yet higher paying lottery. Scans showed that the participants were activating the brain circuits that weighed risk vs. reward.
But, when an “expert” (actually a computer program) offered his advice, those brain circuits showed no activity. This means that when faced with seemingly expert opinion, our natural tendency is to stop weighing the decision ourselves.
“Most average people have this tendency to turn off their own capacity for making judgments when an expert comes into the picture,” says Gregory Berns, a neuroeconomist at Emory University in Atlanta.
Source: “Brain quirk could help explain financial crisis”, NewScientist.com
While I don’t think that this is solely to blame for the financial crisis, it explains why some people would make risky decisions without thinking twice about it.
So how do we prevent ourselves from relying too much on experts and making blind financial decisions? We need to do the research. In a previous post, I talked about how I only invest in things I understand well. If I don’t understand something yet I want to invest in it, I do the legwork and conduct research from multiple sources. I try to gain an above-average understanding about it. True, this limits the amount of things I can invest in, but at least I know what I’m doing and I don’t lose my money. Or my head.
With that said, I’d like to remind everyone that although I give advice here at Frugal Pinoy, I’ve always been an advocate of doing your own research. If you go back and read my previous posts, I always phrase my advice this way “…this is a personal choice for me, but do what’s right for you…” or “it depends on the situation”. I do this because I know that we all have different habits, priorities, and needs.
Don’t listen to anyone’s advice blindly – even mine. Because you should be the prime expert of your own finances.
Read MoreOnline money-making opportunities: March 15 to 22
Happy Monday everyone Below are some online job opportunities this week.
Note: I try to list legitimate job opportunities as much as possible, but some illegitimate ones might fall through the cracks. Please use your best judgment when communicating with prospective clients, and make sure you get a signed contract before doing any work.
Blogging and Online Writing:
- Direct Marketing Blogger ($25 to $40 per post)
- Fashion blogger ($10/hour)
- True stories about a life without a dad ($25 per story, if published)
Web Design & Development:
- Developer wanted for Bandzoogle.com
- Ruby on rails developer wanted
- Rails developer wanted
- WordPress developer needed
- Landing page designer needed
- Web developer with Joomla experience wanted
- Quick edit of existing logo ($40)
- Site redesign needed ($320)
- Looking to hire CSS guru
Miscellaneous:
- Affiliate manager/recruiter wanted (commision basis)
Simple animation explaining the credit crisis
Today I found this great video explaining the details of the US credit crisis. I haven’t found an explanation as clear as this – it probably helps that it’s animated. It’s well made and you can learn a lot from it if you’re not sure how the credit crisis happened.
The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
Do you charge enough for your freelance services? (Part 2)
This is Part 2 of a series on raising freelancer rates. To read Part 1, please click here.
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In the previous post, I talked about the average rates that most freelancers are getting. The rates seemed like such a surprise, since they went from $41 to $73 per hour. In the same post, I also encouraged Pinoy freelancers to raise their rates.
But how do you go from charging very low rates ($1 to $3) to more competitive rates ($20 to $50)?
How to raise your rates
There are a few steps you need to raise your rates and prove your worth to your potential clients.
Understand the value of your work. The first step to raising your rates is to understand the value of your work. Apart from the finished product, what does your work do for your clients?
For example, if you’re a web content writer, the content you write may be used to bring in advertising revenue for your clients or to bring new visitors to their website. If you write ebooks that your clients sell, you could be bringing them $1000/month revenue for the sale of your ebook.
In other words, your work isn’t just the final product you submit – it’s also the value you give to your clients. Stop thinking of your rates as something that will cost a client, rather think of your rates as an investment that your client will have to make to ensure success. Until you understand this, you will never believe that you are worth $20 per hour or more.
Make sure that your web site looks professional. “First impressions last” is as true on the internet as it is offline. What does your professional blog or web site look like? Even if you’re the best freelancer in the Philippines, most of your clients won’t believe this unless you have a professional, credible web site. Here are some articles that can help you judge your site:
- Stanford’s guidelines for web credibility (a must-read)
- Check out this site if you’re looking for design inspirations
- If you don’t have solid web design skills, here’s a list of sites that give away free professional-looking templates. Also, here’s 3 easy ways to create professional-looking websites.
Have a solid portfolio. Your portfolio should only include a few key items that truly represent the quality of your work. Put the best (and only the best) work samples you have on your portfolio. Here are some additional resources you might want to look at:
Present case studies. Did your work increase profits for a certain client? How much? If you can present this data via graphs or a document, your potential clients will see the positive effect your work had on other businesses. They’ll see their future success reflected on those case studies. If you show potential clients that by investing $30/hour on you, they’ll be gaining $100/hour value in return, then they will accept your rates as the price they have to pay for quality work.
Be willing to go the extra mile. If you want your work to be worth more, you might need to give a bit more. Send regular email reports to your clients, especially for large projects, so that they’re aware of your progress. Don’t ever, ever receive an email where the client is asking “How’s my project going?” Update them regularly so that they’ll have ease of mind.
They might also want to have voice chats with you via Skype, even just once, so that they can tell if you’re a real person. Now, I’ve only had to do this around 3 to 5 times in my career, so not all clients will look for someone they can talk to on the “phone”. But if there are clients who want to hear you voice, you need to be prepared to talk to them.
Ignore or minimize low-paying jobs. You won’t have the time or energy to take on new $30/hour clients if you’re spending almost all of your free time on low-paying gigs. Drop the jobs that pay the lowest – or else, you’ll never get out of the $1-$3/hour bracket. Spend your extra time focusing on the things listed above. They’re worth the investment of your time if they’re going to bring in higher paying jobs.
Have a career ladder. You also need to have a solid plan for your freelance career. Just because you’re not working a traditional corporate job, it doesn’t mean you don’t need to have direction. This subject is quite extensive, so I’m just going to lead you to a post I wrote about plotting your freelancing career ladder.
Some of these steps might seem intimidating, but they’re really worth it if you want to thrive (and not just survive) as an online freelancer.
Do you think you charge enough as an online freelancer? What steps have you taken to get paid better?
Read MoreHelp Iligan and CDO
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