Breaking Freelance Rule #4: You Gotta Be An Expert

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Back when I was hired to do technical support for a major biotech firm here in town, I was really worried about being exposed as a fraud. Sure, I knew a thing or two about science, but to knowledgeably discuss and (gulp!) troubleshoot through nearly 2,000 biological products, assays and even instruments? C’mon! You had to be an expert to do that.

And yet, just a few weeks later, I was doing exactly that. And just a few months later, I was even getting bored because the questions weren’t challenging enough. That’s not to say that certain customers didn’t stump me- but the work became easier and more predictable even after a month of time. I stayed in that company for over five years until I went full-time with my freelance writing career.

So, what did I learn from my time as technical support scientist that can apply to any freelancer who does not consider himself/herself a “subject matter expert”?

Stop thinking of yourself as not an expert.

Unless you’ve been living under the rock, you already have expertise in a wide range of topics. Do you think you know nothing about retail business? If you’ve worked as a cashier at Walmart, you’ve had some exposure to business topics like inventory control, branding, sales cycles, etc.

If you’ve worked part-time as a line cook at McDonald’s or as a waitress at Applebee’s, you probably know a thing or two about the restaurant business. I myself started becoming very knowledgeable about work-at-home job opportunities and making an online income because I was always hustling to make some side cash while in grad school.

If you keep your eyes peeled and ears open, you will hear all kinds of expert topics discussed by your bosses, colleagues and customers. All you need to do is look, listen and learn. For example, here’s how I became an expert in crowdfunding.

Master the Pareto Principle

Known also as the 80-20 rule, the Pareto Principle proposes that 80% of the outcomes are the result of only 20% of all possible causes. Thus, if you can pinpoint and learn about that vital 20% of expert information, you will be able to resolve 80% of the questions, issues, etc. that you encounter as a bonified “expert.”

I saw this occur during my own tenure in biotech technical support; although my company sold numerous products, most of my calls were on 20% of them. As a result, I became very proficient on those 20% of products.

Know just a little bit more…

I currently do a lot of SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) work with several of my clients. Between keeping track of the Google zoo (e.g. Penguin, Panda) and figuring out how to tighten my ad groups, there’s a lot to absorb. I still don’t know everything about the e-commerce world- and I doubt I ever will.

However, as I’ve learned, I don’t need to know it all; I just need to be one step ahead of my clients. Thus, when I pick up on the latest news about corporate blogging, I’ll casually mention to my clients how blog posts need to “soft-sell” a company’s products. And you know what? Everyone thinks I’m a genius for making that suggestion, despite the many published articles on the topic.

If you’re about to teach a class on a given subject or just meet someone over lunch to talk about X, Y and Z, don’t sweat it that you don’t know everything. Just read up on the latest news surrounding that topic and carefully incorporate the newest and snazziest buzzwords that the “real experts” are using. Adopt a “niche-within-your-niche” that you can learn about and know quite well; this narrowed expertise can help you if you are suddenly called upon to provide an example.

Control your exposure

I noticed long ago how many subject matter experts rarely teach “live” classes where students can just ask any question and obtain an immediate response. Many courses, especially those offered online, are prerecorded, and the submitted questions have often been hand-picked (and answered) ahead of time. It’s not that these experts are faking it; however, crafting careful and insightful responses to questions on a range of topics is a challenge. And it’s a challenge that’s far better addressed if the expert has had some time to think of and look up additional resources.

If you are concerned about being asked a question that you don’t know the answer to, consider providing your audience with written and/or recorded information ahead of time. Have your audience submit its questions to you so you have the time needed to formulate a good answer. Once you’re more confident and know what kind of questions to expect given the Pareto Principle, going “live” won’t be as intimidating for you as before.

Craft your message

Most of us are experts at something if we examine ourselves carefully enough. And typically, our expertise is in a very defined subject matter. As such, if you are going to tout yourself as an expert in warm water fly fishing in ponds and lakes, don’t start talking about salmon. In fact, don’t even answer questions about salmon because that’s not your niche. Knowing what you don’t know is just as important as talking about what you do know.

If you know just one area of a really large topic, establish your expertise in that niche and take advantage of it. That’s what your clients will be looking for anyway. Also, by establishing yourself in a very defined area, you won’t have to worry too much about competition. Your clients, though small in number, will know whom to reach out to for additional work, information and products.

The Bottom Line

As a freelancer, every new project or client you take on puts you in a “non-expert” position, forcing you to learn and grow. I was trained to be a scientist, not a writer. I have no journalism degree, yet somehow I’ve become a newspaper reporter. I didn’t even know what SEO stood for back when I started talking about it.

Face it: if you wanted to be comfortable and do only what you’re good at, you would’ve stayed at your old (employed) job. In the process of becoming an expert, you must dive into the discomfort of not knowing. To grow (as an expert, a person, or just about anything else) is to be uncomfortable. And when you’re too comfortable, you’ve stopped growing.

Interview with Carol Tice: How to Make an Online Income as a Writer

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My inglorious beginning as a low-paid content mill writer

When I first started writing online, I was ecstatic when one of my clients paid me 5 cents/word to generate e-commerce content that kept me up until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. I’d turn in my 1,000 word article and beam at the $50 I’d made for literally 2 straight days of work. Then, I’d “punch in” a few hours at Associated Content (now Yahoo! Content Network) and eek out another $20 for expert content that would take me 3-4 hours to write.

Back then, I had no idea that my e-commerce content would’ve easily fetched 10 times the amount I was earning had I started marketing my expertise and querying companies. I didn’t even know what the words “content mill” meant, although I was writing for at least three of them on a weekly basis. Over the years, this ignorance cost me an untold number of dollars. Even worse, the hours upon hours I spent generating low-paid content prevented me from learning how to find better paying “real world” clients, networking, or simply enjoying myself with my friends.

My Introduction to Make A Living Writing

Luckily, while surfing the Web one day I came across a freelance writing blog called Make A Living Writing. The blog’s owner, Carol Tice, stated in many of her posts how writers get sucked into low paying or otherwise disadvantageous work situations with their clients. Perhaps what struck me the most about why writers need to stop writing for low paying clients was Carol’s following statement:

“If that’s all I’m going to make, I’d rather go out on the lawn and play Frisbee with my kids.”

Time is an asset and, unlike money, you can’t make more of it. Thus, at least in my mind, time is more valuable than money. And if a writer is going to spend his time writing for someone else, that someone else should pay a living wage.

Because time is not replaceable, it’s imperative that aspiring writers do what they can now to obtain the training and resources needed to succeed in this business. Sure, if a writer stays in the business for 10 years, eventually she’ll figure out that content mill writing is a dead end. Or that negotiating for better rates is not only normal, it’s expected. Or that a query letter should include a call-to-action. But is it wise waiting those 10 years and losing out on high paying clients, notoriety and career advancement?

To help writers achieve their writing ambitions and grow their income quickly, Carol Tice started The Freelance Writers Den. In this den, writers can take e-courses like Break Into Business Writing and How to be a Well Paid Blogger. They can post questions on the den’s forum and have them answered by a team of established freelance writers, including Carol Tice herself. They can scour writing gigs on the den’s junk-free job board. They can also participate in weekly live trainings that feature bloggers, journalists, book authors, copywriters, etc.

My interview with Carol Tice, owner of Make A Living Writing

Recently, I interviewed Carol Tice about what writers can do to make more money writing. Carol explained how she got her own start in writing and how much she made as a full-time freelance writer (spoiler alert: it’s a six figure amount). For I’ve Tried That readers, Carol and I discussed the following topics that are critical in the success or failure of any would-be writer who wishes to make an actual living from his writing:

  • Why content mills don’t pay well- and why they never will.
  • Why content mills don’t lead to better paying work.
  • Four places where you can easily gain clips to show to editors, bloggers, publishers, etc.
  • How you can use your own blog to win clients.
  • Which industries/topics pay writers well- and which ones don’t.

Carol also talked about some of the major psychological stumbling blocks of many writers- and how to get over these hurdles:

  • Not being “good enough”
  • Not being an “expert”
  • Query letter rejection

Carol’s interview is posted below as a video file that she was kind enough to generate for me during our recorded Skype call. Carol’s voice comes through crisp and clear; my own voice, unfortunately, is too loud for the call. I apologize for that technical boo-boo. Fortunately, I edited most of my yelling out of the file, so you’ll hear Carol the majority of the time.

For those of you who would prefer reading the interview, I’ve posted the transcript of my interview with Carol Tice here.

A critical question that many I’ve Tried That readers might have is, can I be a freelance writer and work from home? Absolutely. In her interview, Carol Tice mentions how she currently has no in-town clients and does all her work online with the help of her phone, email and Skype. So yes, it is possible.

If any of you would like to learn more about The Freelance Writers Den or even sign up for it, you can go to it directly by clicking here. Please note that, at this time, you will need to get on a waiting list in order to eventually join the den. Den openings occur roughly every few weeks.

Generating a Second Income as a Poor Graduate Student: Free E-Book!

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Young, bright….and broke

If you’ve gone to graduate school or college, you know that money can get pretty tight during your years as a student. Even with careful budgeting, you can end up living on Ramen or macaroni and cheese- and that’s on a good day. The plights of poor students are well noted, from Marie Sklodowska-Curie, who frequently fainted from hunger while studying at the Sorbonne, down to Lindsay Milgroom, who advises readers to fill up on free food samples at the local mall food court and give up on shopping at Whole Foods because “this is about budgeting, not living a healthy lifestyle.”

An unhealthy lifestyle, credit card bills, growing student loan debt- these are just a few of the issues plaguing today’s college and graduate students, increasing their chances of suffering from depression or just dropping out of school altogether. Many of these issues are caused by a lack of money. However, most hard-core college and grad students don’t have the time to work a full-time or even part-time job. Strapped for both time and money, many students languish or go into serious debt. However, there is hope.

What if you could generate a second income without spending a lot of time and money?

What if, instead of being broke and hungry, you could make a second income while still in school? What if, instead of wondering what food you might steal from the communal fridge, you were making money online and being able to afford that pizza- with extra cheese and even pepperoni? And more importantly, what if, instead of being worried about employment post-graduation, you had job prospects already lined up thanks to the real world marketing and sales skills you had acquired while making a second income online?

Meet Ryan, the owner of and blogger at The Grad Student Way.

raverpic

Ryan, like many graduate students, was chronically broke. He had a small stipend coming in but that wasn’t enough; on a month-to-month basis, Ryan would find himself “caught short.” While asking his parents for money got him by in the short-term, Ryan knew he had to become more proactive about his cash flow problem. He also wanted to help out his fellow graduate students solve their cash flow problems. This led to Ryan publishing the e-book “Generating a Second Income for the Poor Graduate Student”.

I had the opportunity to talk with Ryan in lovely downtown Madison last week. Ryan is currently hustling to finish up his thesis, but he was gracious enough to grant me an interview. In this interview, Ryan noted a couple of key factors that hold many promising would-be entrepreneurs back and how to work around them. He also shared some pertinent financial information with me, including how much it cost to create his e-book and how much money the e-book generated for him upon its initial release.

In short, writing and selling an informational product (in this case, an e-book) that relates to your particular situation and helps others solve a problem is a good way to make extra money. Doing this over and over can even become your livelihood.

There was something else that I learned from my interview with Ryan: By creating and marketing his own e-book, Ryan opened up a very unique job opportunity. This job opportunity would never have materialized if not for Ryan’s initiative and drive in creating his e-book.

But, you don’t have to take my word for it: Here is Ryan’s story in his own words:


This podcast opens up as an MP3 file. If you would rather read Ryan’s story, I’ve included the transcript of his interview here.

Does Ryan’s story get you all revved up to create your own product and generate a second income? Then read on…

“Generating a Second Income for the Poor Graduate Student” teaches students several valuable lessons including:

  • How you can capitalize on the knowledge and information you already possess.
  • How you can test your market before ever releasing your e-book, thus ensuring its success.
  • How you can save time and create your product quickly and easily by outsourcing certain tasks.

It also provides poor college and graduate students with the following resources:

  • A 10-day plan for creating and putting your e-book up for online sale.
  • A compilation of free and paid resources for marketing your e-book online.
  • A list of 5 income streams that you can tap into and multiply your product’s earnings.

Ryan’s e-book normally runs for $4.99 on Amazon. However, for a limited time, “Generating a Second Income for the Poor Graduate Student” can be downloaded absolutely free. Just lick on the book link below- and be a poor college student no more!

Second_Income

Generating a Second Income for the Poor Graduate Student

Pump-and-Dump Stock Scam Alert: Bollinger Report

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Back in late July, I wrote how I’d been scammed out of $13,000 through a pump-and-dump stock investment scam perpetrated by Bollinger Report. Just when I thought I was done licking my wounds from that particular hit, these scammers decided to start calling me on my cell phone and recommending yet another pump-and-dump stock scam. Their continued onslaught inspired me to research the company in question and its methods. What I found out was quite revealing and has taught me some important lessons about investing in stocks. So, without further ado…

What exactly is a pump-and-dump scam?

When company stocks are offered to the public, they go through an initial public offering or IPO. The stock is typically priced at a reasonable dollar amount; for example, Google went IPO to the tune of $85/share. However, some company stocks go IPO at very low prices (i.e., under $5/share); such stocks are often termed penny stocks. The reasons for such low prices include small company size (e.g., 5 or fewer employees) or miniscule private investment. The company’s business model is also often based on speculation; many penny stock companies are involved in exploratory drilling or mining operations where the payoff could be huge- or absolutely nothing.

Because many penny stocks trade, quite literally, in the pennies, they are also often subject to artificial (and illegal) price manipulation through so-called pump-and-dump scams. In a classic pump-and-dump, a small pool of sham investors will buy a block of penny stock shares in order to raise the stock trading price. These investors will also initiate a marketing campaign to alert outside public investors about this penny stock’s “opportunity” to break out of penny stock territory and become “legit”. The hype continues until a finite number of investors have been duped into buying shares, effectively raising the price of that penny stock. At that point, the sham investors quickly dump their shares and pocket the difference. The outside public investors are now not only left with nearly worthless shares of stock, but that remaining stock is so lightly traded that it’s hard to sell to other investors.

How the Bollinger Report fits into the pump-and-dump scam model

The Bollinger Report (http://www.bollingerreport.com) is actually a series of websites, all operating under the same Denver, Colorado-based ISP of 72.18.133.75, that promotes various penny stock companies through pump-and-dump scam operations. Here is the list of all the websites found to date:

http://www.brightonmarkets.com

http://www.equityleader.com

http://equitymarketsinc.net

http://globalequityalert.com

http://www.marketfoundations.com

http://www.breakoutfinder.net

http://www.risingsunreport.com

The Bollinger Report scam begins when potential investors go to one of the above listed sites, leave their information, including a phone number, and request more information about a stock of their choosing. The person who calls them back will discuss the mentioned stock and then start promoting (i.e., pumping) a particular penny stock. The investors are also emailed reports that tout how that penny stock is about to appreciate anywhere from 100%-500% in the next month. Once enough investors are recruited to a particular penny stock, raising its price, the calls and emails stop. At that point the price of the touted stock suddenly drops (i.e., dumps) by as much as 90%, sometimes in a matter of minutes. Investors are left with a case of vertigo and are in shock over the loss of their investment.

My personal experience with Bollinger Report

In my particular case, in late August I started receiving calls from Mr. Brad Romero of Bollinger Report. Initially, he discussed another “successful” penny stock that his company had promoted, Independence Energy Corporation (ticker: IDNG). Independence Energy is an oil and natural gas exploration company with no known land assets or revenue. If you look on the stock chart below, you will see how IDNG underwent a classic pump-and-dump “needle” lifecycle including a sharp rise to a point (the pump), followed by a dramatic drop (the dump):

 IDNG pump and dump scam

When I countered Mr. Romero on his view that this was a successful (successful for who?) stock investment, he held how the company had unexpectedly made a 5:1 forward split, thus dropping its share price for certain investors. Because of this issue, Bollinger Report had itself experienced some backlash and was currently reorganizing under a different name and website (surprise!). That information should’ve ended our call right there but no: Mr. Romero now had another “hot investment tip” to share with me. That tip consisted of Punchline Resources Limited (ticker: PUNL). Located below is Punchline’s stock lifecycle- notice any similarities to Independence Energy?

Punchline Resources pump and dump scam

Being that I received my call(s) from Mr. Romero in late August to early September, Punchline had yet to deliver its classic punchline to unwary investors. However, having already looked at IDNG, I noted that PUNL was following the same pump-and-dump pattern as IDNG. I also noted this fact to Mr. Romero, telling him outright that this looked like another pump-and-dump scam. However, neither my mentioning of “pump-and-dump” nor “scam” fazed him. He just kept cheerfully jabbering on about how Punchline was going to deliver some amazing profits for investors who got in on it NOW. I’m sure there were profits to be had, at least by a few “investors”. I then asked Mr. Romero who was paying Bollinger to pump up this stock.

Brad didn’t seem to understand my question so I rephrased it. In essence, I told Brad that Bollinger could not be making any money if all it did was send out free stock alerts to subscribers. So, how did the website make its money?

Brad cheerfully replied that Bollinger Report made its revenue through ads and through third parties that wanted to raise awareness about a particular company. Hmm…now we were getting somewhere. Since I had some time to kill, I asked Brad about these third parties and who they were.

Unfortunately, Brad was not aware of their exact identities at the moment (however, the following website discloses the sham investors in IDNG). He then quickly redirected my attention to Punchline, asking if he could email me additional information about the company. I happily agreed to that offer, figuring it’d provide me with some critical details about Bollinger Report, or whatever the scam had decided to call itself. Unfortunately, that report never showed up in my inbox.

The end result- and a lesson learned

I watched Punchline’s rise until it unexpectedly decided to drop in mid- to late September. And just as unexpectedly, my calls from Mr. Romero stopped too. Who would’ve thought? The hard lesson I learned here, if you go back to my post from July, is that investment scams are out there and scammers have no qualms about cold-calling/emailing prospective investors in order to scam them out of their money. Thus, before you plunk down your hard-earned dollars on an offer that’s just too good to pass up, carefully consider who might be benefiting from that offer.

Scam update (April 14, 2013)

The Bollinger Report URL is no more. However, the IP address that Bollinger operated under (72.18.133.75) is still active and contains two other penny stock/pump-and-dump domain names: gainhunter.com and brightonmarkets.com.

Brighton Markets, along with Bollinger Report, both promoted prior pump-and-dump stock scams Independence Energy (OTC BB:IDNG) and Punchline Resources (OTC BB:PUNL).

Until late February, Gain Hunter was still touting shell companies such as Green Innovations Ltd. (GNIN:OB) to investors through email. With the rise, and the inevitable fall of GNIN, both Gain Hunter and Brighton are still online but their websites have been completely stripped down. Another online incarnation of the Bollinger Report is likely in the making and the group is probably biding its time until things cool down.

While perusing the skeleton site of Brighton Markets, I was intrigued by its disclaimer. Here is an excerpt from the site:

“We are engaged in the business of marketing and advertising companies for monetary compensation.”

Perhaps most enlightening was the following passage:

“Please be advised that BrightonMarkets.com has been paid in the past by third-parties, and expects to continue to be paid by other third parties, to perform promotional and advertising services. These services include the issuance of this release and the other opinions that we release concerning a profiled company. BrightonMarkets.com has not investigated the background of the hiring companies. Anyone viewing this newsletter should assume the hiring parties or affiliates of the hiring parties own shares of the profiled company of which they plan to liquidate, further understanding that the liquidation of those shares may or may not negatively impact the share price.”

In other words, groups like Brighton Markets are hired by inside traders of companies whose stock they then promote to naïve outside investors. Those inside traders, meanwhile, are simply trying to raise the stock price of the company that is about to be shut down. When enough outside investors have bought the company’s shares and raised its stock price, these insiders quickly start selling. Such a sell-out not only lowers the company’s stock price, and oftentimes in the space of a single day, but the glut of sell orders makes it virtually impossible for later orders by panicked outside investors to be executed. Those hapless outside investors are now stuck with their worthless shares.

It’s too bad that Brighton Markets didn’t provide their disclaimer as follows: “Before you invest with us, please watch the movie “Boiler Room”.

Breaking Freelance Rule #1: You Must Make Cold Calls

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Back in my undergrad years, I remember reading a career book called something like “How to Get a Job in 30 Days”. I was about to finish my junior year in college and sit out my summer months with no job and thus no money. The idea of finding work in a month sounded very appealing so I decided I would thoroughly read and follow every piece of advice this book gave me.

As it turned out, most of the book’s advice centered on making cold calls to potential employers. The idea was to make contact with the hiring manager and, before this person could even say no, schedule an appointment with him/her.

The conversation was supposed to go like this:

“Hello, my name is Halina, and I noticed you have a job opening in your forensic sciences department. I’m a perfect candidate because I’ve watched numerous episodes of CSI and have also appeared on COPS. I have the first of April available for a meeting; how does that work for you?”

Figuring that anyone who had actually published a book on how to find a job (in just 30 days!) knew what s/he was talking about, I dutifully started making cold calls. Half the time the employer’s voicemail picked up my call; I gave my shpeel and, with a sigh of relief, never heard from that person again. On occasion, I would actually reach the hiring head; luckily, I had my pitch written down on several crinkly notebook pages and that helped me as I recited my stage lines.

After about two weeks of making cold calls and having no one return my requests for a meeting, I gave up. I guess I’ll never know if, having put in the full 30-day cold calling effort, I would’ve been rewarded with a job. However, I did  realize something: I am not cut out for cold calling. And also, after spending the last 15 years of my post-undergrad life receiving cold calls from everyone from insurance salesmen to career coaches to mortgage refi experts, I’ve realized that no one is really cut out for cold calling. There are three reasons why:

1. Cold calls put clients on the spot.

When you cold call someone, you never know just what s/he was doing right up to receiving your call. If that person is having a lousy day, you can bet that your call isn’t going to make things better. Alternately, that person may be having a great day and is about to head out for drinks- just when the phone rings. Out of sheer politeness, that person will pick up the phone (especially if colleagues are watching)- and then try to get rid of you as fast as possible.

Even if the person hears you out , s/he can’t just agree to meet you or hire you without at least first consulting with colleagues. Furthermore, taking on a new person, even on a contract basis, requires careful consideration that cannot be completed in the space of a single phone call. Thus, you often get stuck making an average of five calls to the same person in order to score just one lead.

2. Cold calls waste time.

The consensus amongst professional cold callers is that you’re lucky if you get even 10% of respondents to not instantly say no. Gee, that’s encouraging. In other words, 90% of the time you spend researching potential clients to cold call is wasted. Indeed, you shouldn’t even bother researching potential clients and what they do because, 90% of the time, you won’t even get beyond “Hello, my name is-” before you’re told to #%$! off.

Even proponents of cold calling such as Mike Schultz of the Wellesley Hills Group state that, when “done right”, cold calls bring in just 13% of new business. Maybe I’m just not easily satisfied, but I get a higher percentage of clients by using LinkedIn and in much less time.

3. Cold calls put you on the spot.

I’m not saying all cold calls won’t work. Admittedly, cold calls, just like door-to-door salesmen, have had their place in history as a way of making customers aware of businesses and products. And sometimes those door-to-door salesmen do get into the customer’s house. But once that point is reached, what then? At least that salesman could quickly look around the house and assess whether the homeowner needed a new vacuum cleaner. What can you really assess from your end of the phone?

As a freelancer, you’re probably dealing with complex businesses with complex needs. Your job is not as simple as just providing content, or writing a software program, or fixing a leaky faucet- at least not if you want to keep your clients and have repeat business. To truly understand your clients and their needs, you must look beyond the “one-and-done” job and find out where the problems really lie and what you can do to decrease losses or raise profits. That includes even something as “simple” as fixing a leaky faucet. And that kind of in-depth analysis is not going to happen instantaneously, such as during a 5-10 minute cold call.

How can you generate sales leads and win clients without making cold calls?

You can generate strong sales leads and have potential clients approach you- yes you- without making a single cold call. There are many strategies involved:

1. Write warm emails.

Do some careful research on your potential company or client and find out what issues and crises are at play. Then, find the hiring manager/client and write him/her regarding your observations and what you can do to improve the business’ bottom line. Give specific suggestions for improvement, then follow up with examples. If posible, back up your suggestions with your personal work experience. I provide an illustration of this technique on my LinkedIn post.

2. Network-strategically.

Traditional networking events where everyone gets too drunk too fast on free booze may not work for you. However, you can achieve a far higher networking success rate by actually joining your prospective client’s network. How does this happen? Use the power of Google and LinkedIn to research your prospects, then get involved in whatever organization or cause they’re involved in.

Yes, this is a back-end strategy and it also takes more effort- but it’s a great excuse to become more involved in your community. Just make sure that you actually like the organization you join because it’s hard to fake long-term sincerity. You’ll also find out that your prospective clients typically share connections with other likely clients who are also involved in the same organization or cause. Coincidence…or not?

3. Work/help/teach for free.

Many freelancers shy away from doing free work, fearing that it will result in never getting paid work. However, in many cases, you can use free work to make prospective clients aware of you and the types of services you offer. In the course of time, when these prospects have a need for your services, they’ll be more likely to hire you than someone whose work they haven’t seen directly and whose personality may clash with theirs.

For example, if you’re hoping to get hired as a staff writer for a magazine and you know that a given organization regularly publishes with this magazine, it would be wise of you to volunteer your writing efforts to this organization. Alternately, you may wish to give a free seminar or class at a school or company you’re trying to crack into. Just make sure that your freebie item relates to the skill set you’re trying to sell; in other words, don’t offer a class on brewing beer -however tempting that might be- if you’re trying to sell your C++ programming skills.

Even offering to help someone out can sometimes land you in that person’s good graces. I honestly suspect I landed one of my clients simply by helping him unsubscribe from Facebook.

4. Conduct interviews.

As a writer, I have a natural excuse for interviewing people; in fact, some of my work demands it. However, it has occurred to me that interviews themselves can be used as another back-end or extended networking method. Let’s face it, people love to talk about themselves and will typically agree to your request for an interview. And once that interview is completed, that hour or two of feel-good face time is bound to be remembered by the interviewee.

Interviews need not always be work-related; maybe you’re considering changing careers and would like some advice. Maybe you’ve always been fascinated by a potential client’s work and just want additional details. My natural curiosity about other people’s work has landed me in some interesting situations including the following: getting a furniture store tour (plus a killer offer on a dining set), having a top-to-bottom tour of the “W” hotel, being treated to a private candy kitchen tasting, running the movie projector at a D.C. theater for an evening, and engaging in melanoma research. If I play my cards right, I might soon be conducting neuronal electrophysiology experiments.

In none of these situations was I actively considering landing the client or business; I was merely curious about the people and their jobs. But I could easily have transformed the information I gathered into an easy job opportunity or three, now that I think about it.

Don’t be a mercenary- don’t make cold calls.

The bottom line with cold calls and why I don’t believe in them is that cold calls place you in a mercenary role; i.e., you must make this sale/land this client/score an interview- or else. The person you call ends up feeling manipulated and used. You fail to establish a personal relationship with the client or business, resulting in you losing out on follow-up business even if you do get the initial sale/job/interview.

Instead of being a mercenary, be an ally.

Approach your clients or businesses by first seeing things from their point of view. Try to help first without thinking about money or making that sale. Taking this approach will require some effort (and a change in mindset) and will not be achieved in the space of a 5-10 minute cold call or even several cold calls. But the end result of your extra effort will be worth it. And should all else fail, you’ll have gained a friend.

Why Giving Away Free Stuff Actually Helps Your Business

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Perhaps you’ve noticed the following online trend: Many websites offer a lot of good stuff completely free to their readers. To begin with, there’s I’ve Tried That and its 7-Day Intro to Success email course. Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income currently offers an ebook on how to publish and market your own ebook. And to poor graduate students trying to make some extra money on the side, UW-Madison’s own Ryan Raver offers a free second income ebook.

How can these online entrepreneurs afford to give away so much of their stuff for free, and especially when many of their readers would gladly pay for this material?

A tale of two social experiments

To answer this question, let me tell you a little story about some behavioral research scientists who had a little (too much) time on their hands and decided to run some human experiments (incidentally, human experimentation can be quite lucrative). These researchers offered their subjects two types of chocolate for purchase: Hershey’s Kisses and Lindt truffles. While both items are made of chocolate and are certainly a treat, Lindt truffles are hands-down a better quality chocolate and far more expensive than Kisses.

The Kisses and truffles were priced at 1 cent and 15 cents, respectively. Normally, Lindt truffles cost about 30 cents per piece, so the 15 cent price tag of these truffles was a good value for the money. Naturally, about 75% of the subjects chose to buy the truffles over the Kisses.

Then, these researchers altered the pricing structure of the chocolates by a single penny; the Hershey’s Kisses were reduced from 1 cent to free and the Lindt truffles from 15 cents to 14 cents per piece. Again, both chocolates were offered to the test subjects. What happened?

In this situation, 69% of the subjects chose the free Kiss over the value-priced truffle.

The results and analysis of this intriguing human experiment are discussed by one of the researchers, Dan Ariely, in his book “Predictably Irrational”. Suffice it to say, people go nuts when something free is offered, even if that free item isn’t that great.

However, people will still go nuts over a free item even if that entails buying more. When Amazon ran a global “Buy a Second Book, Get Free Shipping” promotion, every country jumped on the offer…every country except France, that is. When Amazon marketing execs examined why France wasn’t taking the bait, they found out that the promotion had been slightly altered in that country: Instead of being offered free shipping, the French were being offered shipping for only 5 francs (our equivalent of 20 cents).

It was still a fantastic deal…but it wasn’t free.

Once Amazon execs restored the free shipping promotion to France, the French also jumped on the bandwagon and started buying books galore.

What the emerging field of neuromarketing is showing us is the following: Consumer psychology is messed up. Furthermore, it’s not just messed up- it’s predictably messed up.

This means that you can use the concept of free to your advantage.

People like love go krazy for free stuff

It’s no secret that people will spend an inordinate amount of time- a resource that, like money, is limited- to obtain something for free. Just look at The Krazy Coupon Lady, a super-couponing website that often advertises small items that can be obtained for free if the correct alignment of coupons is used. These coupons take time and effort to acquire. Some super-couponers spend 20+ hours or more per week obtaining and matching coupons to store sales. Such time would be better spent at a part-time job. However, no “sane” super-couponer will listen to you if you try to point out that fact.

Because people are innately attracted to free stuff, you can offer free ebooks, software, courses, etc. as a way to build traffic to and interest in your business. However, you might be wondering how these interested parties won’t just leave your business page as soon as they collect their freebies. After all, once the free item has been obtained, what’s there to keep your audience interested and loyal?

Give away the store- for a price

Savvy Internet marketers know that there’s no such thing as free and even items advertised as free come with a price. In many cases, that price is the consumer’s name and email. Thus, the actual price of “free” stuff is usually information.

Once a potential customer’s information is known, he or she can be placed on an email newsletter and contacted directly with promotional materials, programs and offers. The email list is where most business is done and where the real sales are made. In fact, there’s even a saying: “The money’s in the list”.

Additionally, an email list is forever. If you lost your business website or blog or were otherwise forced to close up shop, you could still take your email list with you and use it.

Give away the store- but make sure your customers return

There are several ways you can help ensure that your audience takes your free items, uses these items, and then comes back for more.

1. Give away the highest quality. The first way to ensure audience return is by giving away only your highest quality items for free. Yes, this tactic may seem odd, but hear me out: If your audience downloads an ebook or other item from you that is filled with blatantly obvious or general information, it will assume that you have nothing of value to offer. That audience will never return to you.

However, let’s say your audience downloads something from you that is just packed with useful and even unexpected information. Not only will your audience be impressed with what it received for free, it will automatically assume that what you are selling must be even better. After all, if even your most useful advice is free, imagine how good your paid stuff must be. In this case, your freebie has served as a great promotional item by establishing your credibility and expertise in the field. But wait- there’s more…

2. Go viral. A quality freebie is invariably shared with others. Your audience members may find your free content so useful that they end up passing it on to other people that they know. These people are also wowed by your freebie, visit your website and even sign up for your email newsletter.

You can help initiate and perpetuate a viral share trend by announcing your free content on social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook, or making social media syndication a requirement of content download.

3. Provide payback opportunities. If you consistently impress people with your high quality freebies, many will look for ways to pay you back for your gesture(s) of goodwill. Don’t pass up on these opportunities! Create areas in your free content where readers/users can actually buy a product that relates to your freebie item and helps them become more adept at whatever they’re learning or doing. Likewise, be sure to mention that you have more in-depth versions of the same content, software, etc….for a price. Don’t be shy about tooting your own horn and discussing all the benefits of the paid-for item. If possible, give your audience the best sample of the touted item so they understand why you’re charging for it.

The Bottom Line

The concept of free, especially in the hot and emerging field of neuromarketing, works best with consumers because it is an emotional trigger. Roger Dooley, the primary blogger at Neuromarketing, aptly explains how free works to not only make us buy, but buy even more than we originally intended. Thus, if you’re worried about putting out high quality, free stuff on your website or blog, don’t be. By offering “something for nothing”, you’ll not only be establishing a sense of goodwill and credibility with your audience, but you’ll also be helping your business grow and generate revenue.

Should You Form an LLC?

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Let’s say you’re running a small business from your home or in-town office. Maybe you’re a freelance worker, self-employed or just making money in your spare time. Many small business owners and other individuals eventually form LLCs (limited liability corporations); however, is such a move right for you?  Sure, having the LLC distinction on your business may look snazzy, but is it worth the trouble? To answer this question, let’s first consider what an LLC actually is (and isn’t).

A really brief history of the LLC

Way back in ancient 1977, Wyoming businesses petitioned the state to create a commercial enterprise system similar to the German Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH or, in essence, a company with limited liability), which itself had been around since 1892. In response, Wyoming passed the LLC Act, which was modeled on the GmbH. What did the German GmbH and the American LLC have in common? Both enterprises allowed businesses to be taxed and run like partnerships while being protected from personal liability like corporations. This new corporate model quickly spread and was enacted across all states. In 1997, the IRS allowed the LLC distinction to be applied not only to partnerships but also sole proprietorships, further validating this business model.

How does the LLC fit into the corporate world?

There are four main types of business entities: sole proprietorship/partnership, LLC, S-corporation and corporation. Here are their distinguishing features:

Sole proprietorship/partnership: You and your partners are the business and are personally responsible for all of its debts and liabilities. Business profits are “passed-through” to you and taxed as your personal income.

LLC: You have limited personal liability for your business’s financial and legal liabilities. Business profits are still “passed-through” to you and taxed as personal income.

S-corporation: This more formal business entity can include you and your partners (also known as shareholders) as well as investors (e.g., venture capitalists). As with an LLC, you are not held personally responsible for business debts and liabilities. Also as with an LLC, profits are subject to Medicare and Social Security taxes unless they are paid out in the form of salaries.

Corporation: This entity is akin to the S-corporation except that profits are taxed twice: once under the corporation, then again when paid out in the form of a salary to you and other corporate shareholders.

Why is the LLC so popular with businesses?

Imagine that, in your spare time, you make rechargeable hand warmer mittens (a personal invention idea of mine). These mittens sell like hot cakes (no pun intended) during the football and hunting seasons, when lots of people are out in the cold for long periods of time. You’re making a handsome profit on these mittens when one of your customers reports that your product shorted his house circuits and set the place on fire. Now that customer is going to sue you over the loss of his house plus hospitalization costs. You end up losing the lawsuit and have to pay damages totaling half a million dollars. Suddenly, your business has cost you everything, including your personal savings and possessions.

How could this situation have been avoided? Had you created an LLC for your hand warmer business, the LLC would’ve been sued, not you. After losing the court case, the cash and assets of only your LLC would’ve been used to pay off the court’s award to your customer. Your own savings and possessions would’ve remained untouched.

Because many businesses have a high risk of being sued, the LLC has become rather popular in recent years. Likewise, businesses that have multiple partners also form LLCs because this insulates members from the possible bad business decisions of the other members. Other LLC advantages include the following:

Credibility: People and businesses are more likely to treat you as a real business when you carry the LLC designation than when you are only a sole proprietor/partnership. It’s also easier to obtain business loans from banks, credit unions and associations.

Less formality: With corporations, there is an excessive amount of legal and accounting paperwork and record-keeping. The LLC, meanwhile, is more of a “safe haven”, simply protecting you from personal liability.

Separate entity: The LLC is regarded as a separate entity and can be sold, transferred or inherited. When you die, the business does not die with you but lives on.

Different profit/loss structure: You and/or your partners can receive different portions of the company’s profits or losses regardless of how much actual company you or they own. This option is not available to shareholders of an S corporation, for example.

Lower tax liability: Business losses can be deducted from your personal income taxes, lowering your tax liability.

Some disadvantages of the LLC include:

Costs: A yearly state fee must be paid in order to maintain the LLC status. Forming the LLC can cost up to $1,000, especially in states like California which charge $800 to submit the business’s Articles of Organization.

Taxes: If you have employees, you must pay unemployment compensation on all those employees, including yourself. Business profits that are retained in the LLC (as opposed to being paid out as salaries) are subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes. You must also file a tax return for the LLC itself.

IRS scrutiny: Because the IRS may wish to audit your business, separate bank and credit card accounts for the LLC are a must. Creating monthly/yearly fiscal statements for your LLC is also a good idea.

The LLC: To form or not to form?

If your business carries a lot of debt because of capital expenditures and investments, you can best protect yourself by forming an LLC. Likewise, if your business has many partners, an LLC distinction shields you from legal repercussions on account of bad business decisions or even fraud by your partners.

You should also consider how much “dollar-cost-averaged” tax you will pay for the LLC. Since this type of business is treated as a “pass-through” tax entity, business earnings are taxed as your personal earned income. Social Security tax on the first $90,000 is subject to a 15.3% tax. A Medicare tax of 2.9% kicks in for all income above $90,000. This means that, if your LLC is earning under $100,000/year, you’re paying a higher tax rate. However, if the LLC is earning over $100,000/year, your “dollar-cost averaged” tax rate is lower.

10 Totally Free Educational (and Other) Resources for Freelancers

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The world is full of freebies- if you know where to look. And that also includes the online world; nowadays, there is more free stuff online and on the Web than ever before. Part of the reason has to do with simple supply-and-demand economics- having more people online also means more competition for traffic and page views.

Internet marketers and subscription sites are more willing to give away educational and other resources for free. Likewise, by giving away some free stuff, these businesses hope to entice you into eventually purchasing the full package deal. For freelancers just starting out in the freelance world, having access to free online courses, ebooks, magazines, etc. can be a real help.  Here is a list of 10 totally free resources for freelance workers:

1. Online courses from top universities

If you think you can’t afford a Stanford or Harvard education, think again. Sites like Coursera and Udacity offer various courses from different state and private schools as well as through leading industrial experts. Khan Academy is well known for offering free online educational courses to some of the most remote geographic locations around the globe.

MIT offers a huge selection of courses on its MITOpenCourseWare website, where you can learn about topics as diverse as cognitive robotics and game theory. Of course, as a freelancer, you might just be looking to enhance your web design or editing skills or pick up some medical terminology for a white paper you’re writing. Not to worry- these websites offer basic undergraduate-level classes as well.

2. Legal documents

Whether you’re a freelance business consultant, web designer, writer or something else entirely, you are well advised to create and sign certain legal documents before undertaking or paying for any work. With Docracy, you can access a wide selection of free legal documents such as contracts, work agreements, employment offers, etc.

Docracy also allows you to e-sign the document and then generate a .pdf version to send to your client or employee. For freelancers and business start-ups, having documented proof of a business transaction is imperative if you wish to ever take legal action against client non-payment, intellectual property theft, etc.

3. Magazine editor information

For freelance writers trying to write for or even become employed by magazines, finding editor information can be tricky. At Mastheads, you can quickly browse through a plethora of magazines such as Seventeen, Good Housekeeping and Guns and Ammo to find out who is editing what. Mediabistro offers informational posts on how to pitch writing ideas, which magazine is looking for new blood, and how much certain publications pay per word.

The site also has a job board; however, most of the jobs, even those listed as freelance, are location-specific (i.e., not work-at-home). Finally, if you want to know the scoop on which editor has been hired or fired, what jobs may soon be opening up at XYZ magazine (via the trademarked WhisperJobs site), and the probable contact email formats of major magazines, check out Ed2010.

4. Photos and images

You can obtain completely free photos and other images at Pexels. When using this free content, be sure to comply with the originating site’s rules and regulations.

5. Work timers

There are many work timers out there, helping you keep track of your billable hours and better stay away from time sucks such as Facebook and Angry Birds. One of the simplest and free time trackers out there is SlimTimer, which allows you and other members of your project team to input tasks and maintain timers on all of them.

All work data can be backed up and imported into an invoice. Another free time tracker is Tick; the no-cost subscription option comes with one project tracking, project reporting and exporting (including RSS). Tick projects can logged into and used by an unlimited number of users.

6. Audio recording and editing software

At Audacity, you can create, convert and edit audio files from the comfort of your own home office without needing to purchase any software (although you may wish to invest in a microphone if you’re creating podcasts). This is because Audacity offers open source audio software that is completely free to download and use.

7. Photo and image editing software

Love PhotoShop but can’t afford its price tag? GIMP is an open source PhotoShop-like software program that you can download and use for free.

Just like PhotoShop, GIMP allows users to upload and edit images, changing such features as exposure, contrast and color saturation. Users can also utilize the advanced scripting functions (via Basic Scheme) of GIMP to add in images or create new effects.

8. Web development tools

While you can view the source code of almost any web page by simply going to its “View” tab and clicking on “Source”, you cannot perform very much editing or debugging work unless you really know the code. Plus, most web pages are such a mess, script-wise, that it’s a headache trying to get anything done with them.

With Firebug, you can more easily see and edit a site’s code, whether that code be in CSS, HTML or Java. Furthermore, Firebug will even point out certain scripting errors to you, streamlining your editing. The free open source software will also monitor your network, reporting where sluggishness is occurring and why.

9. Keyword tools

Sure, there’s always the free Google keywords tool to help you figure out which keywords are the most commonly searched. However, the Google keywords tool was developed with PPC advertisers in mind, not folks trying to create searchable content for blogs or business websites. Likewise, the tool doesn’t report on keywords that your competitors are using to become #1 on the SERP (search engine results page).

To this end, sites like KeywordSpy are much more apropos. Although accessing all the site’s features requires a paid subscription, you can gain many of the tool’s benefits by signing up for a free subscription and plugging in some candidate keywords. WordTracker is another useful keyword tool that you can use for free (although for a very limited time) to check on your competition.

10. Magazines

For several years now I’ve been receiving an absolutely free subscription of Website Magazine. This publication offers timely e-commerce news and advice that has served me well with my online (and even offline) clients.

I also receive a bunch of other free (or really cheap) magazines like Money, Forbes, The Economist, Martha Stewart Living, etc. through ValueMags and Mercury Magazines, both of which periodically offer free trial subscriptions of 6 months to a year to some very well-known publications. These free magazines are a veritable font of writing inspiration as well as information for me. And they sure give my mail carrier a workout!

Bonus freebies!

Go to any well-known website and you will invariably be “encouraged” to sign up for its email newsletter by being offered a rather chunky educational product (e.g., e-course, e-book). These products were likely sold at-profit some time in the past but are now available for free.

Sites that offer some rather hefty sign-up products include Marketo, Smart Passive Income, Make A Living Writing, The Extra Money Blog, etc. They are great instructional products and packed with useful information.

How to Build Your Own Revenue Share Site

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Do you currently generate content for revenue share sites such as HubPages, Examiner, Infobarrel, Helium or Yahoo! Voices? Do you envy the money that these sites make and how little of that cash goes to you (via page views)? If you’ve dreamed about collecting all the revenue that a site like Yahoo! Voices makes or even selling such a site one day (Yahoo! paid $100 million for Associated Content), then read on. Here are the steps that you will need to take to build your own revenue share site:

1. Buy a domain name and web hosting.

Obviously, you need to have your own website before you can generate any income from it. Fortunately, the cost of doing this is rather minimal with sites like HostGator and GoDaddy charging you roughly $10/year for a domain name and another 10-$15/month for web hosting expenses.

2. Create a Google AdSense account.

Google AdSense is probably the most ubiquitous adshare program around, offering instant platforms through which publishers can generate income via posted content including articles, blog posts, photos, videos, etc. Google AdSense also offers a range of useful tools to track page views and ad clicks and generate ad campaigns. For the purposes of a revenue share site, Google AdSense offers a software tool called the AdSense Host API; this tool offers the opportunity for a pool of publishers to each earn his/her own separate income from one publishing site.

3. Install Google AdSense on your website.

Before you can install the AdSense Host API, you should first install Google AdSense on your website. AdSense will report how many visitors your website is getting, where these visitors are coming from (both geographically and online), what keywords are being used to locate your site, etc. Having such information is critical for increasing your site traffic and recruiting other publishers. It’s also imperative because, as step 3 notes, you won’t be able to implement the AdSense Host API without a certain level of traffic.

4. Install or build your revenue share infrastructure.

Google releases the AdSense Host API only to those websites that generate at least 100,000 page views a day. Yes, Google’s page view requirement does make things difficult for publishers who are just starting out with a revenue share site. If your site is hovering a just a few 100 page views/day, you may want to take these alternative approaches to AdSense revenue share:

a. Create your own revenue share infrastructure. If you have any programming knowledge, you can generate code that will allow you to incorporate different Adsense codes and payment percentages into a single revenue share site.

b. Hire a programmer. With sites like oDesk and eLance, your outsourced programming costs could be rather minimal; i.e., a few hundred dollars should have you set up with your own personalized AdSense revenue share site.

c. Find and install a clone script. Sites like HotScripts offer scripts that can be used to implement a revenue share model onto your website. Likewise, you can look up and copy the coding of revenue share sites like HubPages, then make some edits to that code and use it on your own site. However, unless you’re familiar with coding programs and what they are capable of, your best bet is to go with option b and work with a programmer.

5. Decide how you will pay your publishers.

Now that you have your revenue share model up and running, decide how you will compensate your fellow publishers via Google AdSense earnings. Some sites initially give publishers 100% of their generated earnings in order to inspire more and better content. However, if you are concerned about covering your investment costs, you could set up a 60/40 earning model where publishers receive 60% of all earnings and you receive the remaining 40%. You might even wish to pay certain publishers up-front for selected pieces of content that you request. Such up-front payment could go a long way towards promoting your site and attracting a higher caliber of publishers.

6. Promote your site.

The hardest part of owning a revenue share site is driving traffic to it. Traffic is the lifeblood of your business because it generates AdSense income, thus keeping you and your publishers happy. Traffic can also lead to lucrative ad offers from outside advertisers, lessening your reliance on just Google for your income. Finally, traffic works through a positive feedback loop: more traffic equals more publishers signing up to your site, which equals more content, which equals more traffic and more publishers producing more content, ad infinitum. Of course, once your traffic levels reach 100,000 page views/day, you can implement the AdSense Host API and receive account help and information from Google itself. How can you best promote your site? Here are some time-tested methods:

a. Create a referral program. Provide your current publishers with a strong incentive for bringing other publishers on board. Those incentives can include a share of the new publisher’s earnings, a referral bonus or a prize.

b. Use social media. Use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to talk about your revenue share site and what it offers to publishers. Encourage content submission by posting a contest or some other buzzworthy event.

c. Go local. Consider setting up a booth at your city’s or town’s next career fair and advertising your website. Place an ad in your local paper. Put up flyers on college campuses and in town (with permission, of course). Don’t forget to talk about your revenue share site with everyone you meet; oftentimes, you might recruit publishers simply by the fact that they know you.

7. Create incentives for star publishers.

How do you motivate your current publishers to stay with your revenue share site and keep publishing good content? By providing them with various incentives. For example, you could create publisher levels based on a certain number of page views; with each page view level surpassed, that publisher earns a higher AdSense income. Alternately, you could target certain assignments and payments to a select group of “emeritus” publishers.

What else can you do with your revenue share site once it’s generating page views and money? In some cases, you may receive a buyout offer from a major online player such as Yahoo! or even Google itself and thus ensure a very comfortable retirement for yourself. You might also team up with another revenue share website or two and create an online network such as Demand Media has done. In short, the sky is the limit and you will definitely be surprised by where your revenue share experiment takes you.

How to Wake Up Better Each Morning

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This post is a little off the beaten track, but this is I’ve Tried That and I am trying something new. But first, I have a confession.

I hate winter.

I don’t do winter. The cold. The snow. The constant gray skies. Gah, I want no parts of it. So much so, that I spent an entire day last month planning to move to Australia for the next few months. I looked into plane tickets, dual citizenship and even picked out some nice looking real estate near a beach.

Pipe dreams of course, but man do I hate winter. It doesn’t help that I live in Pittsburgh either. It snows often and the overcast is relentless. I wish I could hibernate to be quite honest.

The mornings are the worst. My bed is fitted with a heated mattress cover and an incredibly heavy down comforter. It’s my own little cocoon that I try to spend as much time in as possible. As you can imagine, getting out of bed each morning is quite the struggle and I wanted a solution.

A few weeks ago I was reading an article on light therapy and how you can use certain lights to simulate sunlight and improve your mood. These lights are widely used to help treat Seasonal Affective Disorder and help regulate sleeping patterns. The article had briefly mentioned “wake up lights” and how they can be effective in helping people wake up in the morning.

Basically, there are alarm clocks which feature bright lights to help ease the wake-up process. The alarm clocks gradually get brighter as they near your set alarm time effectively simulating a sunrise. Your alarm goes off and you wake up to a fully lit bedroom and an energized body.

This piqued my interest since I refuse to do winter and I set out to try one of these wake-up lights. If there’s a light out there that could help me deal with winter mornings, I am going to use it.

Enter the Philips HF3470 Wake-up Light

I started shopping around, comparing different models, and reading customer reviews. The model I ultimately settled on is a Philips HF3470 Wake-up Light.

Philips HF3470 Philips HF3470

It is an alarm clock. You set a time for an alarm to go off; however, about 30 minutes before the alarm sounds, the light kicks on and gradually gets brighter. It reaches its full brightness just as your alarm sounds. You have three options to wake up to: music, chirping birds, or a more traditional, albeit less annoying, alarm tone. Your body is subconsciously adjusting to “rising sun” providing you with a much better wake up experience.

I chose this model largely due to the reviews and the price. One feature that really stood out was the user replaceable light bulb. A lot of other models required you to send the alarm clock in to replace the bulb if it ever burnt out. That sounded completely unacceptable. It’s changing a light bulb for crying out loud. I shouldn’t have to send the alarm clock away to change a bulb. The fact that I could service this model myself sealed the deal for me.

I placed my order and said goodbye to my old alarm clock. That night, I went to bed skeptical, but woke up energized. It was quite amazing. I didn’t have to struggle to get out of bed or bargain with the clock for more time. The birds chirped, I woke up to a completely lit room, and I sat up ready to go.

It’s just such a better and more pleasant way to wake up each morning. My typical morning used to consist of a god awful high-pitched beeping to scare the hell out of me in hopes of waking up. This usually followed by at least 45 minutes of pressing the snooze button and hearing the siren go off every five minutes. After I finally convinced myself to get out of bed, I’d plod my way over to the coffee pot and contemplate going back to sleep for a few more hours. It was a struggle each and every morning.

Now my wake up process is awesome. I wake up to a fully light room and birds chirping. My eyes pop right open and I’m able to get out of bed without having to feign sleep for nearly an hour. I still make my way to the coffee pot, but with a spring in my step and a song in my heart.

Okay, that’s a bit much.

But in all honesty, I feel much more awake when I use the wake-up light and have a much more positive mood throughout the day. You know that super heavy eyelid feeling you get each morning? Well, I haven’t felt that at all since using the wake-up light.

Winter mornings have finally become bearable.

The biggest downside is the price. I spent $90 on my Philips Wake up Light. That’s a tad expensive for an alarm clock. However, this is going to be something that I use on a daily basis for years to come. It helps me wake up better each morning, helps me focus on work easier, and has generally improved my mood. For me, it is well worth the price. I would gladly buy it again and am completely satisfied with my purchase.

If you’re like me and struggle with the mornings, I highly recommend trying out the Philips HF3470 Wake-Up Light. You can check it out at Amazon.com by clicking here. It comes with a 45-day money-back guarantee. If you try it and don’t see any results, return it! I started seeing results after my first night with it. This baby isn’t going anywhere. It might not be Australia for the winter, but it sure does help.

Funding Your Invention (Without Going Bankrupt)

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If you are a creative individual at heart, you may already have an invention idea or two up your sleeve. However, realizing your invention requires a more entrepreneurial spirit. Even if you never intend to start a business based on your invention, there are still the matters of finding a market for your invention and filing for a patent. Once these preliminaries are complete, you might consider licensing your patent and collecting royalties. Alternately, you may wish to sell your invention idea outright.

However, before any of these actions can take place, there is usually the matter of locating interested parties who will provide up-front capital for you to build and market your prototype. Where do you find these interested parties? There are actually many different sites and approaches. Listed below are the most common ways in which inventors can obtain funding for their invention idea.

1. Venture capitalists/angel investors

Traditionally, inventors looked for venture capitalists and/or angel investors to pitch their invention ideas and receive funding. This is still the path that many inventors take; however, such funding has its pitfalls. For starters, venture capitalists, or VCs, are typically looking for big-time inventions that can net $100 million in a year. VCs will also “take the reins” of your idea and hire their own business executives, manufacturing company, etc. As a result, you and your invention might be completely written out of the picture.

Angel investors are more of the mind to simply provide you with your requested funds and leave you alone; however, angels are also looking to make a good return on their investment. Thus, angels will want to know if you have a product development team and if the group has any business experience. As a result, securing the typical angel sum of $50K-$2 million is very unlikely- or it might simply be more money than you’ll ever need.

2. Invention “realization” sites

There are online invention sites like Davison Inventing that will build and pitch your prototype for you. In exchange, you are asked to pay for prototype creation and any associated marketing fees. While some of these invention sites may be completely legitimate and helpful to budding inventors, my experience with Davison was not ideal: while the site does have a self-publicized track record of bringing some inventions to the marketplace, there is also a lot of criticism from burned inventors who shelled out $10K+ and never saw anything result from their investments.

Personally, I became suspicious of Davison’s business practices when any invention idea that I pitched to the company was immediately accepted as brilliant and marketable. I also did not hear of any inventor receiving his/her rejected prototype back after spending the money to have it built.

3. Crowdsourcing

For about three months, I participated in an invention crowdsourcing site called GeniusCrowds. This site solicits invention ideas from an online community in the categories of children’s toys, tools, hobbies, etc. Community members vote for their favorite invention ideas and those ideas with the largest number of votes are supposed to receive special consideration by the participating companies (which are never named). These companies also perform their own evaluations of the invention submissions.

Some community members were in fact selected for “the next step”, but no one was really informed what that step entailed. There was also a lot of community controversy concerning idea theft, since most of the product ideas presented on the platform had not been patented. In the end, I quit GeniusCrowds because I found it to be a waste of my time; furthermore, I preferred to keep my bigger ideas under wraps until I received at least a provisional patent for them.

4. Invention contests

There are quite a large number of invention contests out there with the prizes being rather hefty: for example, Walmart sponsored an invention contest that offered contestants the possibility of having their inventions stocked on Walmart store shelves. Other invention contests include the Rubber Band Contest, Collegiate Inventors Competition, Wood Stove Design Challenge and Proto Labs Cool Idea contest. There are also invention sites, such as Invent Help, that aggregate invention contests.

Sure, contests can be a long shot and require a lot of preparation, but most do offer honest feedback about your invention idea if you are not selected as a winner or finalist. Such critique can be invaluable for your future work. Furthermore, most contests make the utmost effort to protect your intellectual property rights. Of course, winning an invention contest is even better and offers you the opportunity to build your prototype, show off your invention in magazines and/or trade shows, work with a company to commercially develop your product, etc.

5. Crowdfunding

Lately, the best resource for budding inventors has been the rise of crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter an Indiegogo. These sites allow inventors to post their invention ideas along with funding goals (e.g., $5,000) and have the online community “back” those ideas with pledges. In many cases, backers have funded invention prototypes that have then gone on to attract attention from outside manufacturing companies. Backers are usually rewarded for their pledges with the actual invented item; for example, Pebble Technology Company raised over $10 million on Kickstarter by promising to ship a Pebble watch to any backer pledging $99 and above.

While there has been some worry over publicly disclosing invention ideas through crowdfunding sites, these ideas should be reasonably protected from being scooped if they have at least a provisional patent filed with them. Also, the inventor is not obligated to form a partnership with or otherwise hand over control of the invention to his/her backers. Due to these advantages, crowdfunding may be the best and fastest way to fund your invention.

Writing for Content Mills – Revisited

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Recently, I pitched the following article idea to WritersWeekly:

“Unexpected Sites Where You Can Market (and Profit from) Your Freelance Writing Skills: “Content Mills” (e.g., Squidoo)”

The response I received back was a bit of a shocker:

“I’m sorry but we never suggest writers write for content mills. They are horrible.”

Needless to say, I didn’t win that article pitch.

What I had failed to realize was that content mills are a big source of debate and contention among freelance writers. Some writers’ organizations refuse to even speak about them. Other freelance writers take a difference stance and view working in content mills as a kind of internship.

What are content mills?

In essence, content mills are low-paying online writing sites that either pay you an up-front free for your submitted content and/or make you a part of their revenue-sharing program (based on your content’s page views).

Some example content mill sites include HubPages, Yahoo! Voices, Infobarrel and, as mentioned above, Squidoo. Other sites, such as Textbroker and Constant Content, post specific writing requests from individual clients that are paid on a per-word basis. Unless you are writing 20+ articles/day for these sites, you will probably NOT get rich from content mills. At most, you’ll be able to purchase groceries or holiday gifts from earnings deposited into your content mill kitty. Oh, and don’t forget that even these piddly monies are still considered taxable by the IRS.

Why write for content mills?

While many freelance writers would disagree, there are several benefits to writing for content mills, especially if you are just starting out in your writing career:

  1. Practice, practice, practice. You get to practice on your writing, make your mistakes and learn from them. You see what works- and what fails- in terms of reaching your target audience and getting page views. You certainly become a better writer.
  2. Learn. Content mills like Examiner offers tutorials and lessons on how to write better through its Examiner University. HubPages asks writers to produce content on demand with the “30 Hubs in 30 Days” challenge. Obviously, improving the quality of your writing is of benefit to the content mills since they achieve higher traffic and ad revenue by doing so. However, these same benefits also trickle down to you, increasing your up-front pay and page views over time.
  3. Benefits. When I first started writing for Associated Content (now Yahoo! Voices), I had to be satisfied with earning $5 per article or fewer. However, as my seniority with the site increased, so did my opportunities to write for specific content niches such as personal finance. This increased my pay rate substantially. I was also offered partner assignments that were published on big-name sites like The Huffington Post, Oral-B, AT&T and CreditCards.com.
  4. References. As my content mill library grew, so did outside interest in my work. I gained one full-time client because of my work with Textbroker. Another client liked the fact that I was submitting content to sites like Yahoo! Finance and MSN Money and asked me to write financial articles for him too. In short, although content mill work wasn’t paying me all that much, it was certainly getting my name out there.
  5. Confidence. I knew the kind of praise some of my best work had won for me and I used that praise as impetus to approach potential clients. Thanks to various partner assignments, I also had actual “outside-of-mill” work that I could show off in my resume. Clients starts noticing- and hiring.

Why you should NOT write for content mills

So, if “working in the mill” helped launch my own writing career, why are content mills looked upon as “horrible” by many freelance writers? Here are a few quite valid reasons that I’ve received:

  1. Slave wages. Content mills ask for stellar, SEO-qualified and interesting content- and then pay you a penny per word or even fewer for something that takes all day to produce. Many writers end up earning below minimum wage for their work. Others work 12+ hour days in order to eek out a somewhat decent living from their writing efforts.
  2. Low quality writing. Let’s face it: You simply cannot hope to produce your best work when you’re hustling through 10 or more writing assignments each day. The quality of your submissions will suffer- and so will your reputation as a writer. High paying clients may pass you by once they review your articles and see them riddled with spelling errors and/or mindless drivel.
  3. Wasted time. Writing for content mills uses up the time and energy you could’ve put forth to attract big name clients and budgets. Many content mill writers never send out a query letter that might help them land a better job. Others never have the chance to write for charity and other free publications that at least build up their writing resume. “Penny-wise and pound foolish” becomes the underlying motto of many content mill writers as they chase after a few dollars here and there and miss out on five- and six-figure writing incomes.
  4. Lack of respect. The French author Jules Renard stated, “Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.” Some writers won’t work in content mills simply on a matter of principle. In essence, they view writing as a job, and no recruiter in this day and age would expect an employee to work for 50 cents an hour with no benefits. If corporate writers receive $30-$50/hour, then so should freelance writers doing the same type of work. Settling for anything less sets a bad norm for writers and makes other professionals lose respect for them.

The Bottom Line

In the end, is working for content mills a worthwhile venture or a waste of time and effort? It depends. If you can look upon your “time at the mill” as a proving ground for honing your skills and talent, then your efforts are not in vain. If you make sure to allot some of your time towards sending out query letters and courting potential clients with free articles and blog posts, then at least you are making some headway into a more stable and lucrative writing career.

Unfortunately, the biggest mistake that most content mill writers make is to have no exit strategy in place. Year after year, they settle for less money than they’re worth and miss out on valuable job opportunities. Some content mill writers who have sent out query letters and been rejected feel that “the mill” is the only place that they’ll ever find work, a feeling that becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy once they stop making plans to find anything better.

Personally, I never had an exit strategy in place during my time at “the mill”. In fact, I still submit content to various mills from time to time- especially now that I have clients willing to pay me additional money for that option. However, had I started reaching out sooner to private clients, I would be much better situated today. I also would’ve been able to quit my “real job” sooner to start my freelance writing career. Knowing what I know now, I certainly would’ve taken a different approach earlier on. Alas, my hindsight has always been about 18/20.