Social media is easy, isn't it?

One of the most aired stereotypes, that I am also guilty to nurture from time to time is that social media is a very easy trick. In other words, you need to read a couple of books, set up profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and who knows where and spend half of your life online. And after a short while, you get hundreds of 'likes' and 'followers' of all colours. Of course that the SEO is the piece of cake you can eat and have it too and your income will sky rocket and you will be in a short amount of time the start of the web.

You know what? It's stupid wrong to think that. If you continue to tell other people such a platitude you are disqualified from using your Facebook account even all you want to share with the worlds are pictures with your cat. 

In the last 2 months I decided that I have the time and energy to launch some nice travel projects that I always wanted to do but always avoided too because assuming I am busy making money. I got rid of this illusion and started to plan carefully my posts, and trying to be as marketable as possible. Almost two months of intensive work, sometimes till late in the night, I am still thousand of kilometres away from being a success story. Of course I did follow the social media path being very active on Twitter and posting lots of pictures on Pinterest and creating content and even doing some guest posting. I tried as much as possible to swim in the unknown, without using too much the support of friends that may help me to spread the word about my wonderful project. I wanted to test the water on my own and see how far I can do from the grassroot level.   

I don't know where I am exactly, but I know that it is a lot to work from now on. Things are moving, but I feel somehow that every 'like' or 'follower' joined me because I did something in exchange. There are no free presents and I am happy that things are not that easy. I see how things are growing up, little by little by steadily and it's no better lesson, especially in the world of social media until is first tested by the teacher. I wish I have more time and energy to do even better.

Tips to avoid scams on Freelancer.com

I will refer to Freelancer.com as for the moment is the only network of freelancers I am using regularly for getting new projects. The main advantage is that they target the biggest market of this kind and from my personal perspective, I already have enough reviews and a professional profile for getting more orders without too much difficulty. After all, I worked hard for over a year to arrive there, isn't it?

The main problem that I cope with more frequently at the beginning of my experience as a freelancer, in that network and in general, was the high concentration of scams. Scams are those dishonest people that have a anonymous profile and are aimed to use your brain for...nothing more than NOTHING. Now, either the administrators of the site are more careful to ban them or I am more experienced, I do not see them quite often, even though I can feel the smell of a scam in some of the very attractive offers posted by individuals from all over the world. No, the scams are no a Nigerian label and surprisingly for some of you maybe, one may find more scams covered under the Western flags, especially US and UK.

Despite my assumed experience, I got scammed again 10 days ago and was angry enough on myself to keep myself quiet for a while. Now, partially recovered and with other projects going on in my pocket, I want to share some of my modest experiences that may help the readers to take the right decision when it comes to freelancing. I use my experience on Freelancer.com, but it may be used for any kind of projects advertised through the networks.

1) Don't look for easy work. As I was told when I was learning in yeshiva, if it is too easy for sure it is not good.When a project mention that you can have a lot of money without too much effort - eventually with many !!!, go further, it's not good.

2) Avoid as much as possible the typing projects. I have not a single idea if people doing it are ever paid or what this work is all about. It sounds for me as a huge hacking enterprise using naive and poor people and I promise that one day I will use my journalistic skills to investigate the issue. Anyway, you better don't try to do it.

3) I don't want to disappoint you, but in general, people looking for work via Freelancer.com or for outsourcing in general do not have too much money. In the case of long-term, and full time projects, the remuneration is considerable, but such golden mines are posted twice or three times the year, if ever. If you find out some well paid project for writing, you must be very careful, it can vanish once you deliver the project. 

4) Don't accept to write any single word without a Milestone! Don't! Especially if it has to do with writing or ghost writing student papers. You know what the risk is? That once you deliver the paper you end up without anything in your account! Be aware!

5) If the country mentioned for the potential employee does not matter, the language used, and especially the grammar are a very good indication of the quality of the person. He or she may look actually for a good English writer and you can help them, but sometimes, it is important that you prefer to work with people with a proper language. The way you write tells something about the way you think.

6) As in the case of the employees, the companies or individuals looking for hire do have a list of credentials. I am always happy to contribute with proper reviews of the employers shortly after the project ends because it is important to offer a hint to other people interested to deal with the person. 

7) Don't accept communication outside the network, or at least, keep the Freelancer.com account as the main tool of communication. Sometimes you may need to skype or to send big documents attached - by the way, dear Freelancer.com, sometimes the 'attach option' is not such smart as I would expect - but communicate as often as possible via the network, especially when it comes to the financial matters and to problems directly related to the progress of the project. In case that it is a conflict, you will use the tools offered by the network and in general, the customer service work quite well and fast. 

Keep those in mind and happy freelancing, wherever you are!

Calculate your revenue

Changing your status from a full time employee to a freelancer may be a challenge for many. For instance, you should be aware that, unless you have some healthy savings put aside or some big big projects going on for at least one year, your revenue may not be as secure as it used to be.

I mentioned several time the problem of being paid late even one month after the project was finished, but also about the special situations when you are not paid at all, as the proud employer deleted his/her account on the network of freelancers or simply did not answer your e-mail. It happened for me very often in my first year of full freelancing, and it still happens - more about spams in a next post.

One of the biggest questions when you start freelancing is how to evaluate your work. For instance, do you need to set up some prices that may be negotiated with the employer or not. 

If you are part of a network of freelancers as Freelancer.com that I use regularly, some projects do have already the price set and it is up to you to accept or not the quotations. At the beginning, when I was very enthusiastic to put my writing skills on trial, I accepted quite law payments for my articles, but after I realized that one month and several dozen of articles later my revenue was the equivalent of a modest pair of Converse, I put on hold all the attractive and cheap projects - 0.50$ for 100 words sounds familiar to you?

If you have a trustworthy employer and a good system to evaluate your work, working per hour is a good opportunity. Honesty, I prefer to use this system because I am quite good to time management and I am more than scrupulous when it comes to the strict counting of the hours and minutes. Especially for my PR and customer service projects I love such a counting. 

However, when it comes to translation and proof-editing projects, my preference is for pay-per-page calculations. In the case of proof-reading it is very easy to show how much did you work with the help of the track changes. The translation projects are also suited for a pay/word, but in the majority of cases, most employers will prefer for the sake of simplicity a very clear counting.

As for the price itself, even though you are a very beginner, the evaluation should be realistic: be sure that your evaluation covers a minimum of needs that will bring you the necessary energy to continue the project - meaning that you will not starve or work in a park because no more money for food and/or rent. Even if you do such jobs for your perfect fun, be aware that once you set the stake low, your example can be used against freelancers auctioning on the market and it is not a good advertising for the freelancers' rights.

As a junior and middle level employer, you will need to wait a couple of months, or more than one year till you will be able to really enjoy your freelance life. Make sure that your career advances with decency and stability.

Good luck, freelancers!