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Jul1

I Saw a Scam

add a comment Posted by Dave Robinson in Finding work, Philosophy of freelancing, What not to do

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So, the other day I was looking though my interview invitations and was surprised to see one in web programming.

I’m a writer, not a web programmer, but I opened it anyway in case it was someone wanting content who just happened to cross-post a writing job under web programming because it was for the web and some people do do both.

The cover letter opened with an invitation to take part in an “investment opportunity in your country.”

Well that funny robot I inherited from my cousin started screaming “Danger Dave Robinson! Danger!” Over the years I’ve learned to listen to the robot so I took another look. What I saw was the opening to a classic scam.

The basic outline of the letter was that the writer was a financial consultant who had investors who wanted to invest in my country through me. Last I heard that meant they wanted to have me deposit rubber checks for them and funnel the money to their agent over here.

So, what did I do?

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Jun30

A Moment With Bruce Lee: Maximalism vs. Minimalism

add a comment Posted by Nelson Manning in Philosophy of freelancing

Table of contents for Words of Wisdom

The (Freelancer’s) Gospel According to Tom Petty
A Moment With Bruce Lee: Maximalism vs. Minimalism

In the first part of this series, “Word of Wisdom,” I quotes Tom Petty songs and tied them in with the work of a freelancer. Now, I’m going to subject you to the same by quoting Bruce Lee.

My colleagues and I have started a writing movement called Musclemalism, and the philosophies of Bruce Lee resonate with the core concepts of Musclemalism. It’s starting to spread throughout the fiction world, and others are picking up the movement as well. We encourage people to do so because we believe that Musclemalism is a way of writing, a way of working, a way of fighting, and a way of life.

What is Musclemalism? For writing, it’s neither minimalism or maximalism. It is Jeet Kune Do of the written word. It takes the shortest path to the desired outcome. It cuts the fat away from your writing and leaves muscle. It defies the rigid standards of the old guard. One thing it is not, though, is a style.

Bruce Lee did the same things for martial arts. He saw where all of the forms and styles of martial arts were successful and where they failed, so he developed ideas and guidelines to fight better. Jeet Kune Do isn’t supposed to be a martial art in the traditional sense. It’s supposed to be a collection of ideas that help you adjust to your specific situation and react in a logical manner which utilizes your strengths.

The following is a taste of Musclemalism and how it can change your life:

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Jun29

Continued Education for Freelancers

add a comment Posted by Nelson Manning in Opportunities for Education

Yesterday, I was wandering around town and having a generally good time. I haven’t been to the library in a while because I knew I had some fines I needed to pay off. One short story collection I got the last time I was there was so bad that I think it ended up in the trash. Whoops. Regardless, I was there to pay for it with the knowledge that at least one copy of that literary upchuck will not be forced upon another reader.

Of course, paying what’s due and going about my way couldn’t be that easy. With anything established by a government–whether local or broad–you can expect long lines, an inability to assist you when you get to the end of the line, and a long wait afterwards while they decide what to do with you. I didn’t get to pay the fees, and I was also blocked from checking out further books until some arbitrary date when they think they will be done “reviewing my case.”

“Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.” — Oscar Wilde

Luckily (or tragically), I was on foot that day and had already walked a good distance to get there, so I wasn’t about to be thwarted so easily. Went on upstairs and read what I came there to find. However, I also wanted to bring some things home with me. There’s a bookstore in this library where they sell off all of the books they have taken out of circulation due to damage, lack of interest, or a myriad of other reasons. The prices were incredible, and I found several books that related to writing as well as programming, art, web design, and more.

Poet’s Market, 2004 - $3 (outdated, but the long-standing, credible venues will still be in there–it was for a friend anyway)
The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law - $1
Grisham’s The Firm (hardback), $3
Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs, $3

A total of $10 for four books. All in next-to-perfect condition. The AP Stylebook was an especially good find for me, but I saw tons of books on everything from C#/.NET to learning how to use Corel and Adobe Photoshop. This experienced opened my eyes. You can get your hands on very important career-enhancing material for a minimal cost!

If your local library has a free or low-cost book store, I would recommend checking it out frequently. While some of the books might be two or three years old, the knowledge is still useful if it’s a good book in the first place. Even for programmers, who work in a constantly changing and cutting-edge field, you can pick up one of these cheap how-to books to get started, and you can supplement your knowledge later by learning off of the web.

Don’t forget about the rest of the books in the library, though. You can check out a book for a while, absorb it, and not have to pay anything for it. The only downside to that method is that you won’t have it on your desk for reference at any point, and for certain topics, you need that.

As a freelancer, you need to keep moving forward in your skills. More knowledge is equal to more money. Even for physical laborers, if you know how to lay a brick wall better than your competition, you’ll receive more work. If you can write in a variety of styles, more buyers will want to continue their working relationship with you.

An easy way to do that is to read. Find all of the books that relate to your field, and read them. Even if you remember only a couple things from a book, you will find that to be useful later on down the road. If you read several books, you’ll be adding a few things from each and create an impressive knowledge base for yourself. It’s not cost-prohibitive, and you’ll earn far much more in return.

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Jun29

So Do Those oDesk Tests Really Mean Anything?

2 comments Posted by Dave Robinson in Finding work, Skills, Your profile

Lately we seem to have been blogging mostly about general freelancing, and today I want to get back to something directly related to oDesk.

One thing I like about oDesk is the test system. They’re freely available to all, and provide a common ground to measure providers against each other. However, the question that always comes up is do they do any good?

Read on to find out:

If you’ve taken any tests on oDesk you’ve probably seen the bit where they say that people who score in the top ten or twenty percent have their scores highlighted, and those in the top three receive a badge.

If you’re anything like me, you probably wondered if those badges really do mean anything. Is it really worth the time and effort to get a higher score on a test you have already passed?

At least in my experience, the answer is yes!

As a writer, I’ve focused on the writing tests, but the principle holds for any field.

When I first joined oDesk I took some tests and earned fairly good scores. Most of them were at least in the top twenty percent if not the top ten percent. I was generally satisfied with my scores until I worked on the oDesk Insider book and started paying more attention to things like the fact a provider can retake some tests.

Being the bright lad that I am, I took the English Skills (Sentence Structure) test again. I figured that was a good choice because it’s the foundational test for any writer. My new score was not merely in the top ten percent, but the highest on oDesk.

I had earned one of the coveted First Place Badges.

One thing I immediately noticed was that the number of invitations to interview I received went way up. I’ve been receiving invitations for a while now, but since I got the first place badge they have gone way up.

It’s great for me, now I have more ability to pick and choose what jobs I want and the knowledge that more people are looking at my profile gives me more confidence about raising my rates.

Putting the time and effort in to make sure I stood out through good test scores has worked for me, and it can work for you. It’s no substitute for great feedback, but test scores can be a great tie-breaker when you have two candidates with equal feedback scores.

Improving my test scores has directly translated into money for me. It can do the same for you.

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Jun22

Pacing Plus: How to Follow, How to Lead

add a comment Posted by Nelson Manning in Psychology

Table of contents for Psychology of Freelancing

The Psychology of Successful Freelancing
Pacing Plus: How to Follow, How to Lead

Hopefully, you’ve tested out pacing a little bit. Now, let’s take it a step further and learn how to lead a buyer. Leading is, in essence, shifting the tone of the conversation. You want to start out by identifying yourself with the buyer initially. Otherwise, you won’t be able to lead. Why would you want to lead? Because enthusiasm is infectious, and you want the buyer to be enthusiastic about their project and about you working on their project. Unless the buyer is already in that state, you’ll have to do a little work to get them there.

How To Lead a Buyer

First, you want to identify the style of the buyer. If they’re speaking in short phrases with a monotone pitch, you don’t want to bounce into the conversation with Shakespearean monologues. Instead, just pace them for a couple minutes. Once you know what their style is like, become more involved in the conversation by asking more detailed conversations and adding in commentary. As the conversation progresses, slowly (and I mean slowly) increase the length of your sentences, make variations in the pitch of your voice, and establish a regular cadence in your speech pattern. Just bump each factor up one notch and see if the buyer follows you and becomes more excited. If the buyer follows you, keep working them up until you both can’t wait to get started! If you notice that the buyer isn’t following you after you bump up the enthusiasm a couple notches, go back down. You haven’t established a solid connection with them yet, and you need to go back to pacing for a while before you try again.

It’s important that this process feels natural. If you try to force it what-so-ever, you’ll fall on your face and make the buyer very uncomfortable with you. To make the progression natural, you need practice. It needs to become a basic communication skill to you, and you should do it without even thinking. Practice everywhere and on everyone. If you have friends or family who seem down, try to cheer them up in this way. Remember, though, that to lead, you first must establish a connection with the person you’re speaking to by meeting them on level ground. It’s a call and response method, so you need to start by speaking the same “language” as the person you’re trying to influence.

How It Can Be Integrated Into Your Daily Life

The benefits of being able to effectively lead a conversation are innumerable. For the freelancing situation specifically, you will gain the confidence of buyers quickly, and they will be happy to hire you over the other providers if you appear to be excited about the project and make them excited as well.

For everyone else that you interact with, you will find that they respond to you better and will seek you out. If you know how to motivate people and create an atmosphere of success and fun, they will flock to you. It’s a skill which helps you form connections with people who can help you. It will make you more popular in your social group. You can even get discounts and things for free at stores if you’re good enough. It’s happened to me a few times because I established a connection and improved the other person’s mood, and they reciprocated by offering me assistance to a greater degree than others.

Now, go out there and practice.

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Jun21

The Psychology of Successful Freelancing

add a comment Posted by Nelson Manning in Psychology

Table of contents for Psychology of Freelancing

The Psychology of Successful Freelancing
Pacing Plus: How to Follow, How to Lead

Psychology is a field I find very interesting. I’m not too big on the stuff that’s way out there, but I’ve found many techniques which will boost your income as well as your overall happiness. That’s what I’m going to cover in this series: basic psychological concepts you can use on the job as well as in your every-day life.

The first thing I want to talk about is using phone interviews to your advantage. I hate phone interviews, but lately buyers have wanted to contact me via Skype, an internet-based phone/voice chat service. If you don’t already have Skype, you should get it. It’s free for Skype-to-Skype calls, and there’s several buyers who use it. For international calls, it’s very cheap as well. You can go pretty far on just 10 dollars. Just Google for “Skype” real quick, and you’ll find the place to download the program.

As I said, I do not like phone interviews, but they’re a fact of life for freelancers who want to work with larger companies. I’m more of a face-to-face person as I like to be able to read body language and respond appropriately. So, how do I use phone conversations to my advantage? Here’s how:

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Jun19

Who are you? Do you know?

1 comment Posted by Dave Robinson in Applying for jobs, Doing the work, Philosophy of freelancing

How well do you know yourself?

For example I’m a left-handed male in my mid-forties; I’m a Meyers-Briggs INTP, Astract-Sequential, Visual Learner who prefers compromise to conflict.

That all sounds really wonderful, but what does it mean? To some people it doesn’t mean anything, and to others it means a lot. I could also have thrown in that I’m a Libra, which would mean something to some people and not to others; or I could tell you I was born in the Year of the Rabbit.

All these descriptors have one thing in common: me.

So what do all these things about me have to do with you?

Quite a lot actually. Continue reading »

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Jun17

The Big Question: Is oDesk Economically Viable For Me?

add a comment Posted by Nelson Manning in Philosophy of freelancing

My friend and I were meditating over the greater questions in life, such as the meaning of llama fur, and he turned to me and asked, “So, is using oDesk an economically viable option for developing my career?” I turned to him and said, “My child, you are wise to consult me on these matters. To answer your question, you must travel into the mountains and contemplate this stone,” I said as I handed him a banana, “for seven years. After those years are completed, come back down, and you will know the answer.”

He’s up in the mountains right now. I don’t think he will figure out the answer by contemplating a banana–err, stone. However, that got him out of my hair for a while. Seriously–asking me questions like that while I’m thinking about something as awesome as llama fur. I had to get rid of him somehow.

However, it gave me a good idea for a post on here, so I’ll go ahead and tell you folks my thoughts.

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Jun17

oDesk Affiliates

1 comment Posted by Dave Robinson in Increase your productivity, Philosophy of freelancing, What not to do

So here you are, spending some time searching out work on oDesk and you keep seeing references to “Affiliates.”

That leads to two questions: What’s an affiliate? And, is it good for me?

The principle behind oDesk affiliates is simple: more people can do more work than one person. That’s why some people on oDesk band together to work on jobs that are too big for one person to handle alone. Another advantage to affiliation is that you can have someone with a good reputation find work and manage quality control while you’re finding your feet.

I’m not a member of any affiliate companies on oDesk and right now I don’t intend to join or start one.

I’ve seen a number of people succeed that way on oDesk, so it’s not a decision I’ve taken lightly.

Read on to see why I am not doing it, and why it may be the right idea for you.

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Jun16

Becoming Invisible

3 comments Posted by William Morrison in Doing the work, Skills, Toolbox, What not to do, Writing

As a writer, I’m interested in the written word. How it connects my mind to yours and how that process goes awry. I’d like to point out something that happens to me quite often on the Internet. I’m reading along, and like an electric shock, some error or other jumps off the page and jolts my noodle. The unseen, jarring pothole throws me off and for awhile I can’t focus on whatever the writer was saying; I can only ’see’ the error.

OK, we all make typos and grammar flubs. That’s not exactly what I mean. What I mean is a sort of usage error that has you publishing, ‘Don’t loose your bowel.’ instead of the intended: ‘Don’t lose your bowl.’

What the psychologists say.

Evolutionary psychology proposes that we are pattern formers because it allowed our predator ancestors to pick out the unusual from the background. And these ‘things that don’t fit’ meant food or danger or ‘go look– be curious’; survival for the guy or gal who could best pick out errors in the pattern.

The point is that the feeling of abrupt interruption is hard-wired in our brains. We can no more turn it off than we can turn off the ‘I think my foot itches’ switch. The significance for writing is that we strive to become invisible to our readers. Unless an article is about me, I shouldn’t appear in it. The dissonance our readers feel when a proofreading error gets onto the page yells out, “Look, someone wrote this– and they goofed.” Continue reading »

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