If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I haven’t posted here in a while. A long while. There’s one reason why: I went into full shutdown from freelance writer burn-out. I couldn’t even log into oDesk without getting a sick feeling in my stomach. The danger of destroying yourself from overworking is very real, and as part …

ShareThis

I bet that title got your attention; I know it would get mine.

I’ve been writing about money a lot lately, and not just because it’s one of my favorite things.   Today’s topic is a grab-bag of tips that can help you make more money for your work on oDesk.

Let’s start …

ShareThis

I am usually a very busy person. When I’m not working on fiction or projects for clients, I’m usually fending off supermodels with a stick. They say, “Oh, Nelson! How do you balance being a genius with maintaining that Olympian physique of yours? Is it a genetic predisposition to greatness, or do you put forth an effort?” My usual response is to shake the ice in my empty glass in the international sign of “less talk, more refill.”

Truth be told, it’s a little from column A, a little from B. Seriousness aside, I want to discuss one of the most neglected topics in the Freelancing World. Your butt (I said what, what?). If you’ve been at this a while, it’s probably getting bigger. For some, a lot bigger. As I said, I’m very busy, but there is always time to improve your health no matter how busy you are. Read the rest to see how you can improve your fitness quickly and make massive gains for both your health and your career.

ShareThis

I was recently reading a post of Nelson’s where he was talking about developing yourself and not losing sight of your goals just because you’re focusing on your day-to-day existence.  He made some very good points, which you can read about here.

His biggest point was that the only way to keep your dream alive is to actually do something, that just wishing and hoping isn’t enough.
He’s absolutely right.
Having said that, I do want to take a jump sideways and look at both serendipity and the so-called ‘power of positive thinking.’

Serendipity has an interesting history, being a word coined by Sir Horace Walpole from a fairytale called The Three Princes of Serendip, and referring to the kind of good luck that leads to making beneficial discoveries by accident.
It’s what my mother calls ‘The Luck of the Prepared Mind.’

ShareThis

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 …

ShareThis

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:

ShareThis