Telecommuting Writing Jobs
November
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Telecommuting writing jobs: make your own schedule, save gas and creatively make a living
Rich writers are not the norm. You probably already know that. Even best-selling novelists, while enjoying some fame, seldom truly amass a fortune. If that fortunate and talented writer has their book made into a movie, they just may get into some wealth. However, most writers write because they love the work and would rather write than do anything else. Writers are often not well suited to a corporate environment, as they prefer working alone. If you now write as a hobby, but fear that your day job may go by the wayside in these tough economic times, you should begin now to look in to the telecommuting writing job market. You may not get rich, but you can make a living doing what you like doing best.
Here are a few of the benefits of telecommuting writing jobs. You don’t have to be anywhere and punch a clock. You can work by day or night, or a mix of the two. You don’t have to make special arrangements with your boss to go to the dentist, doctor or your kid’s school events. Telecommuting writing jobs give you (almost) complete freedom to schedule your own life. Working at home means you don’t drive any distance to work, so you can tame your gas costs as well. Sounds pretty good, right?
So what’s the catch? You’ll find there are times when you’ll get a job with a very tight deadline on the turnaround. For example, you find a client who needs a bio written for their website by tomorrow morning. Yes, there are people like that. If you want the job, you need to be flexible and diligent and get that piece written before the coach turns into a pumpkin, if you want to be paid and keep your sterling reputation. If you are unable to meet deadlines, word does get around, with negative effects on your career and income.
Telecommuting writing jobs are actually on the rise now, while the brick-and-mortar opportunities are on the decline. If you’re a disciplined writer, you can succeed in this market. You need to have the ability to be your own boss. No one will be telling you what to do next, or when. You’ve got to consistently pursue your craft, without fail.
So how do you break into the telecommuting writing job market? Unless you have previously published work, you may need to write a few pieces for free. This is a common practice. Literary sites often advertise for writers, on a ‘contributing’ basis. If you see such an ad, it means they want you to write for nothing. Why would anyone do this? What it amounts to is that you’re giving your work to them in exchange for being published. Now you’ve got a clip, a url you can give to a prospective client. Accumulate a few and you’re on your way in the paying writing markets.
You should also prepare several samples of your writing. It’s important to diversify, with samples on various topics, demonstrating good research skills and a distinctive and consistent style and voice. If you’re rusty on your grammar, review! With a variety of sample topics to choose from, you’ll better your chances of landing that 24-hour turnaround job. Competition is stiff and jobs go fast.
While writing can be hard work, is there something else you’d rather be doing? If not, start putting together your portfolio now, before you quit your day job. A telecommuting writing job may be the most fulfilling job you’ve ever had!
Ways to Earn Extra Cash for Teens
November
Are you a teen looking for ways to earn extra cash? Ten profitable ideas!
Teens often feel at a disadvantage in the job market, especially in the current economy. While you might eventually land a fast food server job, it’s going to cost you money to get there and back and the hours might not be ideal. There are plenty of ways to earn extra cash for an enterprising teen. Here are ten ideas for you to roll around in your mind. Many are in the self-employment market, which makes you the boss. If you choose the self employment route, be sure you are sufficiently disciplined and are dependable!
If you’re one of those kids who still has every possession accumulated since day one, you might consider going through your room and the garage to collect all the stuff you no longer use. You might be surprised at what these items will fetch at a yard sale. You can also sell on eBay. Take clothes you no longer use to a consignment shop. You bring them in and receive about 40-50% of what the shop gets on the sale.
Yard work, dog walking and babysitting are all time honored ways to earn extra cash. Canvas your neighborhood and see what sort of jobs are there. Appear at the door looking presentable and don’t chew gum!
If you’re an older teen with a reputation for being responsible, check out house sitting opportunities. Be prepared with references from teachers, past employers and other adult references. Three ought to do it. These jobs often don’t pay much, but you do have room and board. When you’re looking for ways to earn extra cash, this can be a gem. You can still do yard work, dog walking and such other small jobs.
If you like making crafts, the holiday season and a great number of crafts fairs are in the offing. Christmas wreaths, ornaments, jewelry and gift baskets are always popular and are easy and fun to make.
Another of the ways to earn extra cash not only pays, but gives you discounted prices at retail shops! Many shops hire extra people for the holidays. Apply first in shops where you have some knowledge and would love a discount on what they sell. Music stores, pet shops, or whatever is in your skill set.
Most teens are more web savvy than the average adult. Make your own website or blog. Get into the Google Adsense program and make some money! Here’s a tip that gives you even more ways to earn extra cash in your net enterprise. Visit w3schools.com and go through their free tutorials and become an expert. There are literally dozens of topics and tutorials.
If you live in a big city, a newspaper route can pay well. Your customers will usually tip you each month for good service.
Other ways to earn extra cash require that you apply well in advance. Summer camp counselor, lifeguard and National Park guide positions may begin advertising in winter, so keep your eyes peeled now.
If you’re a whiz at math, English or whatever, advertise as a tutor. You can schedule sessions which don’t interfere with school or work and make some pretty good extra cash. You can even develop this as a business.
You can see that the ways to earn extra cash are out there. Just pick one or two ideas that appeal to you and go for it!
Help Finding A Job In Hard Times
November
Though you may not realize that jobs are hard to find today, you should know that this is a problem in many urban areas and will be trickling down to more rural areas soon enough. You may have already lost your job and are looking for a new one, or you are finding a job in a new field for the very first time. Some people are even looking for second jobs to help make ends meet even when they have never had a problem with money in the past. When searching in such a tough market, there are some things that you should know.
First of all, when finding a job, you dont necessarily have to aim lower than what you really want. Though you may have to later on, you should still try to find the jobs that you would have wanted no matter how well or how bad the economy is doing. There is always the chance that you could still get that job that you want. You should also think about jobs that are on par with the one you just had, even if it is not something you think of as a promotion. Staying in the same type of job is better than having no luck with finding a job at all.
What you have to decide is how far you are willing to drive when finding a job that is up to par with what you want. You may have to face the reality that you may have to travel. With the gas prices as they are, you should weigh your options carefully. Would it be worth a dollar less an hour to save a lot on gas? What other expenses would be involved with finding a job that is a bit of a drive? Can you spare that extra time that you would normally spend with your family?
However, when times are bad, no matter what, you do have to think about taking something you may not want or may not be ideal. You should always go for the jobs that you want, but you should be realistic and look for some that are related but not quite what you crave. You may not have a choice when things are tight and many are finding a job right along side you. Be careful, but be smart, or you may find that you can not get any type of work at all. Things will pick up, so taking something for a short time would not hurt, but still feeds your family.
Use the same strategies you would always use when finding a job. Use the classifieds, go to recruiters, and dont be afraid to try temp agencies. You should use online sources for finding a job, as well as networking with others in your field. They may know of jobs that have not been advertised that are just what you are looking for. Just know your hunt may take a little longer, but you do not have to look at it as an impossible endeavor.
Barack Obama’s Tax Cuts - Fact or Fiction?
October
The Obama / McCain tax cuts is one of the hottest contested debates on the campaign. Obama says that his taxcuts will benefit 95% of the working families and provide three times the tax relief for middle class families than the McCain / Palin ticket.
One of the biggest commitments that Obama is proposing is to not raise taxes for families making under $250,000 per year or individuals making under $200,000 per year.
If you’d like to vote on this issue before we go on, here is a site that is collecting data:
To prove some of the points, there is a great new site called www.taxcutfacts.org. It leads you to a cool calculator that acutally compares for you how many Americans will benefit from Obama’s tax cut. You essentially fill in pieces of information such as your income, # of dependents, etc. and the calculator will show you the difference between the two proposed plans.
Obama’s plan is geared to lower federal taxes by about 19 percent below what they were under President Reagan. In addition, Obama promises tax cuts for families to help with health care college and to save for retirement. On the contrary a McCain tax cut is estimated to increases by about $3.6 Trillion, which would mean tens of millions of middle class families will end up paying more taxes, not less.
Another cool feature of the taxcut.org site is that it gathers different media sources and provides you information about they’re saying about the Barack Obama and Joe Bidens’ tax cut plan. This is very useful if you really want to see additional details behind the plan.
According to a Washington Post article Obama’s tax cut will benefit more Americans, especially those who make the least, while McCain’s tax cuts will benefit the very wealthiest, top 0.1% in the country.
Obama’s plan also proposes to eliminate capital gains taxes for entrepreneurs and small business investors, as well as cut corporate taxes for those corporations that create jobs in America. These plans appear to stimulate jobs creation in America, which is dearly needed during this economic crisis that we face.
Forbes Magazine recently described Obama’s tax cut calculator as one of the most useful and simple gadget that they’ve seen on any political website in while. www.taxcutfacts.org is great calculator to use for those who want to know the real facts and savings between the Obama and McCain tax cuts.
Part-Time Jobs For Students Not Only During The Holidays
October
Part-time jobs for students are plentiful but knowing where and how to look is the trick. While many household breadwinners may be struggling to keep the family income at an acceptable level, it’s somewhat surprising to realize that students are now in pretty good shape in the job market. However, when you take a closer look, it makes sense. Employers who may previously have employed full-time workers might now have downsized staff, with an eye to managing more efficient and cost effective operations. This isn’t good news for people who need a full-time income, but it’s a boon to students. Part-time jobs for students are actually plentiful. If you’re a student, let’s see how you can capitalize on this job trend.
Cultivating flexibility is one major key to success in the part-time jobs for student market. Unlike your Mom or Dad, you can adjust your class schedule such that you’re available for odd shifts, sometimes of short duration or even split shifts. For example, you have classes from 8 a.m. until noon, with an afternoon free before your last class at 7 p.m. Including travel time, you have at least five hours you can work each day. You can grab lunch and then work that odd 1-6 p.m. shift. That employer will have a hard time attracting full-timers for such a schedule. For you, it’s easy money, sufficient for your needs.
Major corporations are advertising part-time jobs for students which offer full-time benefits for part-time work, and sometimes, educational assistance amounting to thousands of dollars per year! Flex-time schedules are now a popular incentive to attract you.
Here’s how to conduct an effective search through the part-time jobs for students market. Be sure your resume is smooth as silk and have ready references available. Go online and search out websites which focus on the teen and college part-time jobs. One example is snagajob.com. Look for sites that offer listings for students, employers and have affiliations with colleges. Posting your resume on any of the big name job boards is another good move. These job boards provide articles and tips to help you make a good presentation and land that job.
Here is a guide on how to find flexible jobs that suit your schedule:
Make an objective assessment of any special skills which might gain you flexibility and/or a better rate of pay. For example, if you’re a math whiz, you may be in great demand as a tutor. Seasonal jobs, as a river rafting guide or ski instructor, are other possibilities.
Don’t neglect leads in your local newspaper. Most have websites where you can peruse the classifieds at any hour of the day.
What leads should you ignore? If a job site requires payment before viewing jobs, pass! Also, don’t waste your time on pie-in-the-sky promises, such as Make $100 an hour! There are plenty of legitimate and realistic part-time jobs for students to keep you going all year long. To your success!
http://siliconvalleyresources.com/flexjobs
Careers in today’s high technology sector
September
The high technology job sector has evolved quite dramatically over the last few years. The technology infrastructure that provides us with broadband access, mobile everywhere and anytime, anyplace access to information has really spurred a plethora of new services and by inferrence has created enormous job opportunities for the right people.
Case in point is the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. His campaign team was able to garner an enormous cache of money, because they learned to leverage the web’s ability to touch huge numbers of people simultaneously and oftentimes with different messages. In addition, with the ability to target, iterate and re-focus the message at a moments notice, Mr. Obama’s campaign team showed that they are an online marketing force to be rekoned with.
Oh, and by the way, did you know that Senator Obama’s Twitter profile is the most followed Twitter account? What is Twitter, you ask?
This is the new world within which you must learn to work. I cannot count how many employers now employ or seek to employ the new generation of marketeers and sales agents. If you don’t know SEM, SEO, PPC, CPA, blogging, wikis, twitter or the numerous other direct marketing concepts, you will surely be left in the annals of the technology dinosaurs.
I recently attended an Adtech conference in San Francisco. Picture this … at the Moscone Center … 100s of new wave technolgy companies that just 5 years ago were barely a blip on the screen … commission junction, hitwise, double click, hydra networks … All of them giving out free food, booze, and chatchkas. And, to top it off, “booth babes” galore. This reminded me of the heady enterprise software days of the early to late 90s. You’d think that the real estate fiasco was over and the “happy days are here again”.
The truth is, though, that every major and minor company is integrating online marketing with their offline marketing at incredible speeds. In fact, there are many companies who are even forgoing offline in favor of online. And, the reasons make sense: wider audience, faster target response time and most often a lot less money.
What should you do to prepare for this new approach? As Nike’s slogan says “just do it”. Or, David’s iteration of this slogan, “get on with it”. There are many ways for you to participate in this market with little or no capital costs. Work with your local school, non-profit, or sports group and help them with optimizing their websites.
You can also create your own websites and create adsense ads or PPC to CPA type offers. If you want to get in on the new action, you MUST learn these techniques now before the storm really hits.
Once you’ve ventured into this realm, there really is no turning back. Emphasize your experience, highlight your successes and tout your ability to move a company’s Google PR from 0 to 8 and Alexa rating down from 1M to 1K and then give me a call.
A Tip On Doing A Local Job Search
April
When you need work, you need to make sure you are doing all you can to find the right job. If you skimp on your job search, you may end up taking a job that you dont want just to get the bills paid. The more thorough of a search that you do, the more options you will find. When you have more options, you have more from which to choose. Wouldnt it be great to get three or four great job offers rather than just one so-so one? When you do a local job search, you have to think outside of the normal venues for finding a job.
Most of the good jobs you will find wont be listed in the classifieds. Your local job search might first lead you to the paper, and you should definitely look there. You may also do a local job search online, and you may find things there that are not in your local paper. However, you should know that some of the best jobs are not listed in either place. You may have to send your resume out to every company that you might want to work for. Often the good jobs are not advertised at all. You have to do the legwork, but it may well be worth it.
A big part of your local job search should include networking with those in your line of work. Quite often this is how you find the best jobs. Those who work in your field often know of job openings before they even open, and they might be able to give you a lead or even recommend you. Networking can be hard to do when you are new in town, but you have to make it a part of your local job search if you hope to find the job of your dreams.
Another key to a good local job search is to be persistent without being overbearing. You cant just send out resumes and sit back and wait for the phone to ring. There might be ten other people with a resume that looks just as good as yours. You up your chances of getting an interview if you do a follow up call. There are always people with your qualifications doing a local job search, so make sure you stay one step ahead by selling yourself effectively without going overboard. This might take some practice, but you have to learn how to do it for the very best jobs out there.
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