Estimacs

Working on weekends - Is it a choice for freelancers?

2010-05-13T11:36:00.001+05:30

Freelancers are looked at with envy by others who take up regular jobs. Many people assume that freelancers are making loads of money without working hard. The reality is that freelancers are working their heads off, sometimes more than others.

For those who take regular jobs, weekends are a great pleasure and they commit not to work on weekends. Freelancers on the other hand don't practically see a difference between weekdays and weekends. When clients request for a job to be done, they just start working on the project without worrying about the day. Ironically, this is the freedom for freelancers. Unless you are very well established in your niche, you can't pass away a couple of clients because the work load requires you to work in the weekends.

Many freelancers are actually more worried about whether they should work on weekends, rather than do they like working on weekends. Personally, I feel that the freedom of freelancing allows you to decide what you want to do. No one is going to question you for turning down clients because you don’t like to work on Saturdays and Sundays.

I have not established a full fledged career in freelance writing and hence, I don’t mind working on weekends. At the same time, I don’t work for forty hours in five days. I schedule my work so that I don’t miss the entertainment I don’t want to miss. I happily distribute my work on weekends and just consider week days as weekends. I am not going to travel to any place to work, so it doesn't hurt me to work on Saturdays and Sundays. Sometimes, my clients give me loads of work to be completed on Monday and in those cases, working during weekends is what I love.

Does Microblogging Signal the End of Blogging?

2010-03-21T09:57:00.000+05:30

Microblogging has become the latest trend lately. Previously, those who were active online are considered active only when they have blogs. Now, people don't trust you if you don't have an account on Twitter. There are a lot of debates going on about the advantages and disadvantages of microblogging. I am not going to go into the detailed statistics of how much Twitter has become popular. There are people who are saying that blogs will become obsolete sooner or later. However, I have to contradict those experts.

Tweeting is great fun and it is the easiest way to get in touch with people you know and you don't know. If you have a message to spread to the world either about your personal or professional life, all you have to do is come up with a short sentence and the world will know about it.

Blogging on the other hand is more time consuming, but you can get into details only when you have an area to express all your views. Sometimes, you want to elaborate on your success or failure and your readers can learn from your experience only through your blog posts.

Lately, people have started using Twitter to have a personal relationship with readers and clients while blogs are considered more professional. Those who have serious business blogs never send out blog posts about their recent illness, but they can tweet about it right from the hospital bed.

According to me, microblogging should be exploited right now for everyone who wants to create an online presence. That does not mean that blogging can be forgotten altogether. For success online, microblogging and blogging must be used. Understanding how both works and what you need to do to make things work on blogs and microblogs solely depends on what you want to achieve.

Coping Up With Distractions Is Difficult For Freelancers

2010-03-20T11:59:00.001+05:30

Enjoying all the freedom of freelancing can be too overwhelming at times because distractions are too huge to be ignored for freelance workers, especially writers. When you go to your office and work for 9-5, you are forced to stare at your computer and work whether you like it or it. However, when you are freelancing, you know that you have all the time in the world and you can work too flexibly.

When working at home, a huge number of distractions creep up to swallow your time. I like watching movies and sometimes, I find myself glued to television even though I have loads of work to do. Household chores is another massive distraction that most people working at home have to face. I like to keep my house clean and I will often end up spending hours organizing my wardrobe. Guess what? After doing everything I can, I will still find it to be untidy. If you have got kids, then distractions are even more.

Internet is the major distraction for freelance writers. You start with searching for information to write on the topic and after a few minutes, you can't just resist yourself from reading several interesting websites that are way off your topic. I have been caught up with this for a very long time. I will realize that I am reading something that is not useful for the topic I started to write only after spending at least half an hour.

Now, I am managing to cope up with distractions. The first thing in the morning I do after having a steaming hot cup of coffee is to check my mails and develop my To-do list for the day. I will set tighter, yet achievable deadlines for myself. This greatly helps me deliver work on time. Sometimes, I will switch on my television and try to multitask watching TV and writing at the same time. Eventually, I will find TV to be a great distraction and I will switch it off. Playing my favorite music and tuning my favorite FM radio channel drives away boredom and keeps my mood alive. Music is definitely not a distraction for me :)

From my experience, if freelancing is what you want to do to make your living, prioritize your distraction and forget about everyday entertainment. Getting glued to your computer that you use for freelancing and falling in love with it is the best way to cope up with distraction. This may be totally rude for someone trying to enjoy freelancing freedom, but this is what helps me stick to my schedule.

Moneybookers Vs Paypal Vs Payoneer debit card - Which Is Better For Indians?

2010-03-19T13:22:00.002+05:30

My Indian peers are very much confused about the cheapest way to withdraw money from various freelance websites to their bank accounts directly. Until Paypal India outrage, things were going smoothly with Paypal. Now, with the Goods/Service payment alone allowed for Indians, it incurs a 3.4% + $0.30 fee for every transaction for people like me, who don't reach Paypal's merchant rates.

Since I have personally used MB, Paypal as well as Payoneer debit card, I felt like making a comparison between these three payment methods, basically because I can find out which one is affordable for me.

I am considering that a payment of 200 USD will have to be sent to MB, Paypal as well as Payoneer. I am considering the currency conversion rates as of today, 3-19-2010. I am assuming that you make request with freelance websites to get $200 to your account. $200 is the amount that you intend to receive after deducting associated withdrawal fees. So, here goes my calculation:

Paypal (in USD):
Amount: $200
Fee: $7.1
Net Amount to be received: $192.9
Net Amount that will be credited to your Indian bank account : INR 8.499.21 (1 USD = 44.0602)

Moneybookers (in INR)
Amount: $200
Net Amount to be received in INR: 8905.15(Approx value after applying 1.99% to current USD to INR rate)
Net Amount that will be credited to your Indian bank account: INR 8579.47(Approx after converting INR to EUR @MB, deducting MB withdrawal fee and finally converting EUR to INR at bank side)

Moneybookers (in USD)
Amount: $200
Net Amount to be received: $200
Net Amount that will be credited to your Indian bank account: INR 8788.33 (Approx after converting USD to EUR @MB, deducting MB withdrawal fee and finally converting EUR to INR at bank side and deducting forex fee)

Payoneer (in USD always)
Amount: $200
Net Amount to be received without fast loading: $200
Net Amount that can be withdrawn after deducting maintenance fee (considering no of transactions to be less than 5 previous month) : $197
Net Amount you can receive from ATM: INR 8842.29( Approx after deducting Payoneer fees and bank charges)

In the case of Payoneer and Money Bookers, the net amount you can receive in your bank account and ATM is unpredictable because bank charges apply. Paypal withdrawal takes around 3-4 days and MB withdrawal takes around 4-5 days. If standard load is preferred in Payoneer, load takes around 4-5 days, whereas immediate load is on the same day. Once money is loaded to the card, you can use it to withdraw cash from ATM on the same day.

So, as I see, Payoneer is a better option even though it has monthly maintenance fee. I am also intrigued by MB in USD too.

P-S- I am not selling anything to anyone. I am just trying to figure out what will work for me best.

My Favorite Freelance Jobs Website - Freelancer.com

2010-03-07T15:07:00.001+05:30

Freelancers are always on the lookout to find well paying freelance jobs. Without proper reviews and feedback, it is difficult to find a project that meets your demands. However, I am very much satisfied with Freelancer.com. This is a great website where you can find a number of projects in various categories. Formally called as GetAFreelancer.com , the new website is completely revamped with interesting new looks.

If you are a newbie freelance writer, you should be ready to write for lower rates for a couple of months to gain reputation in the freelance website. Once you get a few feedbacks and reviews, you are welcome to set your own states. Many users complain that you will find many low paying projects at this website. I have to accept that it is true, but you can take a look at featured projects, which are usually high paying projects.

As a service provider, you have to pay 10% of project value or $5 only for the projects you win. You are not charged anything to bid on a project and signing up with Freelancer.com is free. Once you upgrade to become a gold member, the project commissions drop to just 3%. Also, gold members get more exposures and if you are interested in taking up new projects, your bid will be brightened up with your gold membership. GAF allows buyers to provide full time projects for $99.95 and providers are not charged any commission. I think, this is a feature specific to GAF.

You can get payments from your GAF clients and you can also get payments from others with Transfer option that costs you 2.5%. Escrow feature is something that deserves a special mention at Freelancer.com and the website comes to rescue when you have disputes with buyers.

Further, GAF has affiliate program that helps you earn money when you help others. The earned money can be withdrawn using Payoneer card ordered through GAF, Paypal, Moneybookers and wire transfer. You need to know what methods are available for you, though Payoneer debit card is available for everyone.

As far as my experience is concerned, I got my first few projects only from GAF. I have got a couple of long term clients from GAF. These people send me assignments almost everyday to keep up my earnings. You should definitely try bidding on Freelancer.com as hundreds of projects are available for bidding everyday.

Indians Can Withdraw Funds From Paypal To Their Bank Account Using Purpose Code

2010-03-03T12:21:00.001+05:30

During my previous post about mail from Paypal, I said I was confused what to do with the export code. Now, Paypal has announced that bank withdrawals to India will be reinstated and while withdrawing funds, Indians have to specify purpose code and not some export code. Now, that is a pretty good news for freelance writers like me because we don't really export anything.

From the information available in Paypal blog, it seems that freelance writers should be using P0805. But it can be really confusing when you get paid through Paypal by providing multiple services. It will be a frustration again for many Indian providers who provide multiple services like SEO, marketing, affiliate marketing and others.

I am going to receive funds through Paypal this time and check out how bank withdrawal goes with purpose code. May be will update after a week. I am skeptical though :(

Till now, personal payments are suspended. So, you can't receive donations and if you have donate button in your blog, better remove it. And those living in abroad using Paypal as a remittance service should start to look out for other alternatives because no purchase code is available for such a service with Paypal.

Earning Online Passive Residual Income Needs A Lot of Work

2010-03-02T12:27:00.000+05:30

Online passive residual income is an attractive term for those who want to make money online. Honestly, I too was fascinated by the fact that you can generate passive income once you have initially setup everything. Many programs can be found online advertising that you can make money even while you sleep without doing any work. It is important that we shouldn't get carried away by these words and we need to look at the inner meaning.

It is certain that we can earn passive residual income even while we sleep, but to make that happen, we need to do a lot of work. Setting up things once for all and just watching money growing is only in dreams. Putting forward a lot of work to make it happen is essential.

As far as passive and residual income for writing is concerned, I have read about some great writers who make at least $1000 passive income. The point here to be noted is that these people are able to generate passive money by working for it. Simply posting a few articles in Adsense revenue sharing website and hoping to make that whooping amount is foolish. You have to work hard to make residual income from paid to write sites. These websites pay you depending on the popularity of the articles. You need to write more to become popular.

People should trust you and visit your website to extract information so that you can generate passive income. Now, this requires a lot of marketing. Creating online web presence is more important and networking with fellow writers is even more important to make passive income.

So, basically, passive income needs you to be active online. It takes time to write some useful articles on the paid to write website because there are already loads of stuff there. If you don't provide something interesting, people won't bother to read what you have written. It takes even more time to let people know that you are sharing something useful.

Forget about getting rich quick by writing online because it is impossible. Carving your name as a freelance writer takes a lot of time and it needs patience. Once you are popular and you have at least a few hundreds of people following you, then you can reduce the number of hours you work and still maintain your income status. But, still, you need to work continuously to keep the passive income flowing. Agreed, no gain without pain.

A new Building Vocabulary page

2010-02-27T16:40:00.000+05:30

As a writer, I want to learn new words and expand my vocabulary. I have added a new page to my blog, Building Vocabulary. I will be updating this page regularly with words and their meaning. This is going to be my reference dictionary to keep track of my devotion to improve my writing.

Paypal Update - Bank withdrawls to India Resumed

2010-02-27T10:55:00.000+05:30

So, there is some good news from Paypal that bank withdrawals to India are resumed. I got a mail from Paypal about this today. You can check https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2010/02/resuming-local-bank-withdrawals-to-india/ for details.

It seems that it requires Export code when withdrawal to bank is requested. Frankly, I don't understand what it means and I think it is something for those people who export goods from India and get paid through Paypal. But what us, freelancers are going to do about it? I don't know. I don't export anything, but I get paid for my services. I guess we have to wait until March 1st when Paypal comes with a valid explanation hopefully.

Still, personal payments are suspended. Kuddos to Paypal for at working diligently for Indian users. Now, I trust Paypal more.

Paypal India Outrage - Pity on Indians

2010-02-26T20:54:00.000+05:30

If you are doing something online and earning income, you would have definitely used Paypal. For two years, Paypal has been my friendly pal. I don't make a huge income writing online, but I have been using Paypal right from the beginning. I had no issues with Paypal for so long and I don't mind the lower conversion rates that may other users complain. However, now, I am totally distressed because Paypal has stopped withdrawals to bank account. Personal payments was also withdrawn, but that is at least tolerable as far as I am concerned.

I spoke to one of the Paypal representatives, Grace (I used skype) and she wasn't able to give me an estimate on when the withdrawals and personal payments stuff will be reinstated. However, she ensured that Paypal is working on it and issue will be resolved God knows when.

If you folks are trying to reach Paypal, you can call +14029352050. I need to warn you, it takes a couple of minutes to get past the IVR and you will be forwarded to an American. Somewhere in the middle of IVR, keep telling "Agent" and you will be directed to an agent automatically. You have to spell out your email address and verification details asked. I called from India and I was transferred to another IVR which never accepted my input from Skype. So, I had to initiate call again and I told the agent to connect me directly to another agent. I don't know if this is for Indian users alone because the first American said I have to another agent after I said I am from India.

Ok, so withdrawals to bank is ruled out and I am not sure of withdrawal to credit card. I initiated check withdrawal and it is still in pending state. Keeping my fingers crossed.