While not all web worker are freelancers, a good portion of them are — and a freelance lifestyle is part of the appeal of working from home. The fact is, working as an independent contractor is not all wine and roses. Personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way, but there are some key facts people should consider before leaving more permanent work situations for the freelance world.
I spend a lot of time on this site talking directly or indirectly about why I love freelancing, or what makes it so great, but in the interest of being fair and balanced, I want to take a break from my regularly scheduled gushing to point out some very serious pitfalls about working on your own. Many may seem like common sense, but it’s amazing how often it happens that people forget to consider these downsides when choosing to pursue this lifestyle. Read the rest of this entry »
If you don’t have a professional blog or web site, you may think that you don’t need to worry about content strategy. Think again. Celine gave some great advice in her article “How to Develop a Content Strategy for Your Professional Blog,” but these days our blogs and web sites aren’t the only windows to our professional souls. If you use social media platforms for professional purposes, you should consider having a content strategy for the material you publish on them as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Just about every organization can use video to tell its story. Video producers tell that story by creating a product that entertains, educates, informs, promotes, captures or markets.
While video production may involve location-specific elements where you need to go out to capture visuals and sounds, you can still make it a career where you can work anywhere you want.
Is video production the career for you? Read the rest of this entry »
A friend of mine who’s worked in a slew of web jobs that have sorely disappointed him has finally found a role he thinks will be fun, challenging and rewarding.
He knew of the company, met multiple times with different team members, had been taken on a tour of the office space, and was happy with the offer they’d negotiated. It all looked good. But before he jumped in and signed up, he made one final check that all web workers should undertake.
He called a friend of his who used to work for the company to get the inside story on what it’s like there. Read the rest of this entry »
In the corporate world, it’s easy to track positive mobility in your career. You could get a promotion (a move upward to a position of higher rank or pay), or laterally to a position of similar rank, but with different tasks or projects. Advancement in a freelancing career is not so easy to track, possibly because we each have different definitions of what a freelance “promotion” consists of.
Here are some ways you can climb the freelance career ladder: Read the rest of this entry »
There are a lot of professions where continuing education is an absolute necessity. For professionals providing financial or legal services, for instance, it’s often a legal requirement to take a class every year or two. Even if it isn’t legally required, though, continuing education can be very useful. It allows you to stay up to speed in your field, which can be an important deciding factor if you’re trying to get hired by a new employer or want to take on a new type of project. Read the rest of this entry »
So you’re well into your web working career (hopefully thanks, in part, to the posts featured in our just-released free “Web Work 101″ e-book), and you’ve gotten off to a great start, but after a certain amount of time (it will differ from person to person), things start to lose their zest. The honeymoon is over, so to speak, and it’s time to dig in and build a solid foundation upon which a long lasting career can be built. Read the rest of this entry »
Including free or “freemium” elements in online software and products has become the norm. There are several existing discussions about this business model, some questioning its effects on the industry, others touting its success. Whatever opinion you may have, freemium is the model commonly adopted by web app software startups. In fact, most of their users probably expect it.
This trend is not exclusive to web app startups, however. Even freelancers seem to apply some aspects of this model to their services. Let’s take a look at how it’s done and how to make it pay off. Read the rest of this entry »
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
