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!

When content is really king

We often use words and expressions whose deep truth is revealed only through direct contact with the reality. No, I am not about to enter a mantra-type of PR consulting. I am talking about the simple reality of a communication consultant trying to promote her own business or ideas.

As I am testing the waters with a new communication project focused on tourist and travel information, I did follow the usual steps: a lot of reading and online connection, careful planning of the posts and networking to get the best information from the best people, blog posts and social media tools - Twitter and Facebook page and the exploration of other opportunities, such as Pinterest (which, by the way, is a little bit addictive). 

One month after, the results are modest - less than 100 'likes' and 'followers', after quite a lot of work, that even brought me close to the burnout. The reason? Don't believe in 'social media wonders'. Especially now, when specifically in the domain of travel, it's hard to make a simple selection of blogs and sources of information, the content provided is what matters the most. Your readers and followers need to be offered quality information, regularly and preferably as diversified as possible. The more you offer them deals and good discounts, the better. 

The best strategy is to set up modest goals, unless you have a strong pressure from the investors to jump up in the sky in only a couple of days or weeks. Start to build your credibility and your brand, engage with your audience regularly, answer their questions and avoid as much as you can the monologue. Three, two years ago maybe it was easy to have a Twitter account and post autistically what you wanted to read and say. Nowadays, such an attitude will not bring you anywhere closer to the objective of increasing the awareness about your activities. 

You need to improve your style permanently - especially as a travel writer -, post the best pictures, publish the most exciting interviews and never stop. The big good news is that the world is to rich that you can hardly complain about the end of the travel stories. The stable success is only the result of hard work and efforts. Always surprise your audience with quality and novelty. Make each reader that he or she is unique for you and is invited to share something beautiful yet useful. Read it as the opening message of the new kind of business model.

E-challenges at ITB Berlin

Busy days for the fans of travel living in Berlin or in Germany. Today is the last day of a busy week at the ITB Berlin, Europe biggest travel fair. The registration for bloggers went smoothly, but everything needed to be done online, as only the big print newspapers and tv and radio outlets were given the opportunity for a registration on the spot. The bloggers - as me - were present everywhere and many arrived from all over the world to cover the latest news on the industry or to meet other peer bloggers from Europe and Germany. 

There were many apps launched and presented at the fair - that I will present later after a basic testing - one of the most important offering free of charge navigation service for the visitors.

Another important aspect I noticed during my wandering at the fair in the last days was omnipresence of iPads. Many Pavilions used them as a way to present the most important hot-spots of their countries. I received some discounts instantly after I was shown on an iPad some interesting offers of health tourism. Not mentioning the dozen of iPads instantly used for the recording and making photographies of various happenings. The easiest way to introduce the locations was with CDs and I was more than happy to take a stick and a presentation on CD instead of a 100 pages catalogue. 

Overall, for me it was a very good experience that I hope to use at its best in the next days, weeks and months, eventually till the next ITB.

The amazing chat from Freelancer.com

One of the many reasons I like to use Freelancer.com for getting more work is their never ending capacity to surprise. Some conservative Europeans will not be interested and will mumble that they cannot keep the pace, but probably they are not aware how the future looks like for more than a decade already: you survive on the market if you bring something new to your customers and especially if you try to correct the previous problems, technical and communication-wise alike.

For the online marketplace, communication is essential. I remember how many good projects I've missed because I was not available at the same time with the potential employer. Also, without a proper communication I succeeded to get at least one bad review, because it was not possible to contact the employer in due time in order to correct some lack of clarity. 

Everything looks now different with the introduction of the chat option by Freelancer.com. The chatbox looks very close to the one used by Facebook - it is a familiar presence - and it operates in real time. You do not need to wait hours and days till you contact the employer, you can work with him/her online any time you need it. With such an option, you do not need to switch the conversation to e-mail - forbidden by Freelancer.com - and you can even realize if the project is what you are looking for before deciding to go further with the next stage. Also, if you find your employer online you can launch any question you want to about the payment and the deadline. Now, the 'online' mention for the users makes sense, as it ads value to your work spend on the platform. 

I don't know if they are the only one using this option, but whoever is using it, is a smart marketplace and they deserve to have me as one of their most active users. 

The free online market and it spamming enemies

Internet is, you know, this huge market where everyone can enter and do what he/she thinks can do it better. Some are making good money, some are helping the others to get a job and to transform their personality, some are cheating. Online you can overview without paying for a round-the-world ticket and without too much emotional involvement how the world is. 

When it comes to online working platform, the situation is following the same pattern. There are many opportunities to work as a freelancer without too many headaches and without being forced to relocate. For almost five years, I started to develop a network of work contacts that help me to honorably survive during the economic crisis, 90% of them I will never meet. Think about the advantages of the online world for people without any possibilities to find work in their immediate neighbourhood. 

But when you have to deal with the mentalities of old Europe, there you may discover that your enthusiasm is countered with narrow minded views. One of the most often remark I've heard in relation with the free online market, among German media and professionals, is that 'they' - people from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Kenya etc. - they 'steal' our 'jobs', because they practice low prices. It does not matter that they may provide better work than a German freelancer too busy to take care of his/her free time and low frequency of answers. 

The bigger the online portal is, and the more international is, the most dangerous for the local working force is may look. And this takes place in the context of an obvious lack of professional skills available locally, as for instance is the case with IT specialists. 

Another big issue outlined very often recently is that there are many spams invading the big online platforms and thus, it is not a good business card for the platforms hosting them. However, as long as people will be aware that some projects cannot be but spams and the users are educated how to chose their offer of work, the spams will pay their monthly registration but they will not get nothing in exchange. The articles on that topic I've seen till now do not mention that most likely, the victims of such spams are not the enlightened Western Europeans users but those people from remote villages in Pakistan or Bangladesh trying to make an honest living through the Internet.

My enthusiasm for the Internet is never diminishing, yet I am fully aware about the shortcomings and the risks. But, my appreciation for the online working platforms is even bigger, because I am aware how much it did change the way of work as we know it and the advantages are shared by all of us, in our 30s, using the Internet and being able to offer to our families a better future.