Why Online Work Makes Every Day Earth Day

Anyone who works online could be the poster child for Earth Day. The green advantages of working at home, for both workers and employers, are astonishing.

The environmental benefits of using public transportation or biking to work are well known as viable alternatives to traditional passenger car commuting. Incredibly, our recent research based on Census Bureau data shows that in 5 of the largest U.S. metro areas, more employees telecommute than travel to work via public transportation, taxi, motorcycle, bike or walking. How’s that for eco-friendly commuting!

Those same online workers are saving their employers about $10,000 a year each, too, thanks to increased productivity, reduced facility costs, lower absenteeism, and reduced turnover. Those aren’t Earth Day benefits, per se, but if companies do more with less, an indirect benefit is less pollution.

The Importance of Improving Your Skills

One of the great things about working for yourself as a contractor is having more control over the direction of your career. However when you are meeting tight project deadlines while simultaneously interviewing for the next job, it’s easy to overlook the bigger picture. It’s vital to set aside some time and start thinking about how you can forward your career by adding new skills, qualifications and experiences to your resume.

Here are eight reasons why it’s important to improve your skills:

1. You’re the driver!

It’s worth remembering you are your own mentor, HR department and boss. Nobody else is going to be looking after your contractor career development except you, so you need to be the instigator of change. Rather than resting on your laurels, make sure you are moving forward to ensure you don’t get stuck in a rut.

2. Win new work.

One of the main reasons for adding to your skill set is to be able to win new types of work, which may be more interesting or lucrative. It may be as simple as completing one of the oDesk skill tests in order to seal the deal, or you may want to branch out into something completely new–which involves retraining and new education courses.

3. Increase your hourly rate.

Job satisfaction is important, but so is getting paid. If that summer vacation still looks out of reach, you may need to invest in some training or certifications to ensure you end up with a better rate of pay.

4. Play catch-up and stay knowledgeable.

Many professions require you to keep on top of new developments, which can move very fast. So if there is a new software release, or a dynamic new design trend, you may need to have that knowledge under your belt so you’re better equipped to compete on your next job interview.

5. Stand out from the crowd by combining skills.

Over the next few years the world of contract work is undoubtedly going to get more competitive. You many need something extra to really stand out. Sometimes unusual combinations of skills can result in you having a unique selling point. Are you a programmer who also knows about accessibility? Are you a graphic designer who can also write great copy? Merge your talent and your passions to find creative combinations that make you more marketable.

6. Highlight your talent.

If you know that you have a talent — such as writing — but it is rather unproven, and you don’t have enough experience in that area to get hired, then having a formal qualification may help you get your toe in the door on relevant projects.

7. Impress employers by demonstrating your character.

Employers love self-improvement. They greatly respect individuals who are moving forward and developing themselves, and if you can demonstrate this — particularly at the interview stage — then they are likely to consider you the type of person they would want to work with.

8. Reap the personal rewards

The most important part of learning a new skill or undergoing training is the sense of achievement you will feel when you move forward. Moreover, the whole process of learning is rewarding and interesting, and you can gain insights into your own capabilities and character. You may also meet friends and valuable business contacts on the way. You really can’t lose when educating yourself, improving your skill set and advancing your own contract career.

Reference:
1) www.odesk.com

Freelance Career Advice from Paris Hilton

Sometimes career advice is lurking just around the most unlikely corner. For example, we recently discovered that Paris Hilton had a few things to say about online freelancing and contract work.
With nearly 3.5 million Twitter followers, Paris’ morsels of wisdom are obviously in demand. Here’s our take on some of her most notable quoteables:

PARIS SAYS: “Trust me, people act differently toward you when you’ve got jewelry on your head.”

What It Means: You might be thinking having “jewelry on your head” means wearing a tiara. However, in this case having “jewelry on your head” is, we’re pretty certain, just a fancy socialite euphemism for “looking professional.” If your online profile/portfolio picture makes you look professional, then online contacts will treat you like a professional. (Trust us.)

7 Things Freelancers Should Never Say

In freelancing and contract work, there are some unspoken rules about professional behavior–many of which focus on what is not appropriate to do or to say to your employer.

No matter the temptation, here are seven things you should never ever say to your employer:

About Online Freelance Jobs

We’re not trying to beat a dead horse here, honestly. Freelance, contract and online jobs are for real. And if you have the right technology skills, well, you can piecemeal steady and consistent work in hot areas following the buying patterns of consumers.

The economy has been somewhat stagnant over the past few months, with unemployment numbers ticking up to 9.8 percent, and technology jobs inching up only slightly in November but nowhere near the peak of hiring in 2007. Despite that, consumers are gobbling up iPhones, Androids, iPad tablets and other sleek, lightweight devices for easy mobility while purchasing inexpensive but useful applications intended for these devices.

Finding Online Jobs To Make Money

Finding online jobs is not an easy feat if you don’t know where to look. But it’s not all about just knowing where to find freelance job marketplaces. The right combination of luck, bidding prowess and the ability to deliver plays a major role in landing freelance gigs.

I’ve tried quite a few of the most popular freelance job matching services such as GetaFreelancer.com, RentaCoder.com and Scriptlance.com but I’ve won no projects using them. Either that I’m no good in bidding or the competition was just too stiff or a combination of both.

But just recently, I’ve learned about oDesk and tried my luck. After two applications, I was able to get a data entry project! I thought that the stars have finally granted my wish and let me win one project from a freelance project bidding site.

However, while working on the data entry project, I was alerted by the service buyer that to get paid, whenever I work on any project I need to be logged in to a certain oDesk application called oDesk team.

I looked up the said online app and I’ve found out that this program includes a feature that I’m not so comfy with, whenever I’m logged in, the app will take screenshots of my monitor every few minutes or so. Called Screensnaps, these screenshots will be seen by the service buyer to verify work time and to collaborate more easily with the service provider.

I’m still in the process of completing the project and I’ve just started to use oDesk team. Although I can always delete anytime those screenshots that I don’t want my client to see, I’m still trying to get the hang of it and all, you know… I still get startled a bit whenever I see the small screenshot prompt which signals that my monitor is about to get captured for the whole world to see! Ok just my clients.

Now how about you? Would you mind being required to use those software programs that take screenshots of your monitor every now and then for monitoring purposes? Why and why not?

Reference:
1)http://www.justmakemoneyonline.com