Frugal Freelancers Are Successful Freelancers

saving on housingLearning to be a successful freelancer means mastering more than the skills and expertise you are selling. One of these success skills is learning to manage cash flow. Inevitably, you’ll have a client who pays later than when your bills are due.

Since you no longer rely on a regular paycheck, this can be a rude awakening for the newly self-employed. First, you must learn to build a savings buffer to weather the dry spells. Next, it is necessary to evaluate all of your monthly expenses and see what areas can be made less costly. Both of these strategies give you more control so you can work the other side of the coin: booking more work at higher fees.

But the fact remains that at the core a successful freelancer is a frugal freelancer.

“Frugality” means different things to different people. Some have a negative association with the word because it reminds them of jerks who don’t tip wait staff, or blockheads who demand special treatment or excessive discounts for the same money. Others have a negative association with the word “frugality” because they have a mental image of someone scraping by for survival — and no one wants to picture themselves darning socks and reusing tea bags in order to survive.

Both of these and other misconceptions about frugality can hurt a talented freelancer. That’s because truly living frugally is self-defined. Being frugal doesn’t mean someone else has to lose so you can win. Nor does it mean that you’ll always need to suffer to save a few nickels. In fact, it only makes sense to control your expenses.

So, how do you do it?

While the answer is completely unique to you and your situation, let’s look at three big areas of expense most of us share. Examine these for the biggest frugal “wins” first, and then decide if you want to double down with other cost-saving measures. After all, it matters more what you keep than what you earn!

Rent or Mortgage

We’re all emotionally — and fiscally — tied to where we live. If we are honest with ourselves, many of us choose to live where we do for the status it connotes. For many of us it is inconceivable to live anywhere but the absolute best apartment or house your money (and perhaps the bank’s money) can buy.

I know; I’ve played that game. I once lived on trendy street addresses in Los Angeles and New York City. Know what I have now? An unknown address in small-town America. Know what else I have? The ability to pick and choose projects, and money left over each month, too. In other words: more freedom. However, my frugal-living housing story isn’t even that dramatic.

Here’s a more radical example of frugal living for greater financial return. A friend I admire saved her money and bought a small piece of rural land in cash. Then, on weekends, over the next year, she built herself a tiny home made of almost entirely of recycled finds on Craiglist. She now has no rent payments, and no mortgage, either! She freelances only on projects that “mean something” to her and spends the rest of her time and money traveling the world with her boyfriend. Awesome, right?

You might not want to live in a self-sustaining cabin in the woods, but you can look carefully at your housing expenses. Which ones are necessary? Which ones are tied to your ego? Are you conforming to a script that doesn’t make you happy? Smaller spaces, for example, tend to cost less to maintain.

Examine where you live now and if, truly, you need to live there to do your work. Some professions do require you to live a certain place, but many more do not. In fact, it is easier today than ever before to make your money in one market but live somewhere less expensive. It takes determination and the ability to nurture your professional connections.

Transportation

Members of Gen Y are already familiar with a freelancer’s reality of fluctuating job opportunities. Gen Y, and others, are buying fewer cars and choosing to live in more walkable and bikeable areas. On the surface, this is great because owning a car — even if you own it outright — can be expensive to insure and fuel. However, on the flip side, walkable and bikeable neighborhoods tend to command more expensive rent and higher mortgages.

So, you need to strike a balance between the cost of where you live and your transportation costs. One key thing to ask yourself is if you are paying for the exceptions.

For instance, let’s say you own your car outright but you have to pay for monthly parking. If you only use your car once a month to leave the city, maybe it is more cost-effective to use a car-sharing service like ZipCar for irregular trips. Similarly, it might be more cost-effective to have a membership to a bikeshare service like Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C., than it is to live closer to the nearest transit station.

Similarly, are you paying monthly car payments so you can drive a “safe car,” or are you chained to those payments because your ego won’t allow you to drive anything less than the kind of car you currently drive? If you’re driving a vehicle to impress others, is it really worth the hours you spend earning the money to drive it?

These are the difficult questions to ask, but considering them can yield tremendous savings. I spent years making car payments, but found that by moving to a walkable neighborhood and paying for a clunker in cash, I have all the transportation I need — with few of the ongoing expenses. Wish I had done this years ago!

General Consumption: Buy (Nearly Everything) Used

If you had to choose one thing to always buy new you’d probably choose underwear. At least, I would. But, no matter how far (or not) you want to stretch a dollar, consider that we live in a land of tremendous waste — and opportunity. It is possible to live comfortably by intentionally focusing on buying “pre-owned” items, from housewares to clothing. One caveat? Avoid older appliances because most will be more costly to operate compared to the more modern, energy-efficient versions.

Look for the greatest deals when you buy quality items that can be repaired, reupholstered, or otherwise renewed. Often, shopping second-hand can be a creative goldmine because you can take someone else’s stuff and really make it your own. You get the satisfaction of owning something more unique than the masses, and knowing that your efforts are very “green,” too.

Before you can object and say, “But I don’t want to buy out of date fashions!” consider your freelancing goals of freedom and flexibility. As is frequently said, “What you own owns you.” For inspiration, watch this TED talk, “Wear Nothing New,” about second-hand fashion by Jessi Arrington.

More importantly, being frugal can give you something priceless: more freedom. The decision to live frugally makes freelancing easier and more enjoyable because you’re no longer taking clients “because you need the money.” This gives you added power to be more selective about what clients and projects you accept.

Remember: How you live frugally is a reflection of your own values. Being frugal won’t automatically make you a cheapskate, and, more importantly, will go a long way to ensuring your success as a freelancer.

As you reduce your overhead in these three key areas, you’ll discover more freedom to choose the projects you want and reduce your overall stress so you can focus on booking more work at higher rates. Being frugal isn’t just a mindset but a necessity for successful freelancers seeking maximum effectiveness.

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Katie McCaskey is a freelance journalist who writes for Vistaprint Deals, the official provider of Vistaprint.com coupon codes to help freelancers and small business owners save on custom marketing products. Katie also owns a small business in Staunton, Virginia, and has covered marketing techniques and social trends for over 10 years.

Will Guest Posting Ever Become Obsolete?

Anyone with an interest in SEO, or who has put together a campaign for their own website knows how important link building is in respect of a well-rounded set of SEO activities.

However, with every Google Panda or Penguin update seeming to target links of some description, many are asking whether guest posting, as a means of gaining a link, is set to become obsolete.

Not the First to Go

Of course, the link building landscape has changed massively over the years, with certain ranking toppers of years gone by now consigned to the history books. Article directories and private blogs offering paid links are probably the two best examples of these.

Once link building winners, they are now represent little value and can even see you dropping from search results altogether if you’re still using them.

Google’s Guest Posting Outlook

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As for guest posting, Google aren’t as against it as many would have you believe. Their problem is more when guest posts are appearing on irrelevant sites, are filled with spam content, or the same anchor text is used hundreds of times over in a blatant attempt to rank for one keyword or phrase.

In general, however, Google actually encourage webmasters to link build. There is a worry that this encouragement doesn’t mean anything in terms of the bigger picture, especially as Google has, in the past, been notoriously fickle, at least from an outsider’s perspective, with certain elements of their algorithms.

Is Guest Posting Becoming Worthless?

We never know what Google is going to do, and our only clues often come whenever Matt Cutts decides to drip feed some information to various media outlets. However, we’re confident that guest posting isn’t going to become obsolete and go the same way as article directories.

What Google is likely to do, however, is become much more focussed and stringent when it comes to identifying what represents a good blog or a bad blog. So, if guest posting is a major part of your search marketing plan, you’d better look to improve your content quality as well as finding the best blogs to target.

What Is a Good Guest Post Opportunity?

Again, who knows how Google is going define a good guest posting opportunity? We can already use several discover which posts are the best, and these are unlikely to change too much should Google change the way they treat links from guest posts.

Consider these factors when identifying opportunities:

  • · Does the blog have a large following that regularly get involved with comments and ideas?
  • · Is it a regular blog with a common topic, or a glorified directory made up of random guest posts?
  • · How does the site rank for various metrics?
  • · Is the blog authoritative, and are there strict guidelines to adhere to?

Positive answers to those four points indicate a quality guest posting opportunity, and definitely represent a relationship with a blogger that you will want to build.

The Future of Guest Posting

Guest posting is unlikely to become obsolete, but it will become a much more focussed and specialized aspect of SEO campaigns, with those providing the best quality to the best blogs seeing the biggest benefits.

Robert is a passionate local SEO professional who is regularly seeking out great guest posting opportunities for local businesses to help them make a name for themselves both online and in their local area.

Why Do Women Struggle With Work/Life Balance?

Achieving something that resembles a healthy work and life balance is something that many of us aspire to.  That said, there are various studies and reports from around the world that suggest that women struggle a lot more than men when it comes to achieving this.

We explored why this is the case, and while some of these reasons are exclusively linked to women, there are others that could also affect a man’s ability to achieve a balanced lifestyle, too.

Fashion Fixes

One huge problem for women is that a lot of ‘professional’ clothing isn’t the sort of thing that they would wear in a social setting. On the other hand, men quite happily head out to the bar after work in their suits before making a longer night of it.

In contrast, while women might go for a quick drink, they are more likely to want to go home and get changed into something more comfortable. Then what happens is that they get home, realise how tired they are, and don’t head back out.

Although women’s fashion has moved forward in recent years so that there is more functional and comfortable clothing that can be worn in any and all environments, work clothes are still a problem when it comes to work and life.

The Need to Impress

There is a school of thought that suggests, somewhat accurately in some cases, that you need to work ridiculously long hours in some industries in order to be noticed and progress. Of course, for ambitious individuals this means they often have no life outside of work. They will work hard to achieve promotion, then continue putting the hours in to prove they deserved it. Having done this, they continue to work in order to achieve the next level on the scale.

Although this can be said for both sexes, many work environments are still male dominated, meaning women have to do that little bit more in order to be noticed, with their social life often being the thing sacrificed.

Dominant Parent

Despite what modern think tanks and research groups may tell us, it is clear that women remain the ‘dominant’ parent in most cultures around the world. This often means that their lives are taken up with either work or their children, meaning no ‘me time’ for those in this category.

At the same time, it can also mean that opportunities for getting into work are limited, therefore shifting the balance too far in one direction.

Getting it Back

How can everyone, but women in particular, improve their work and life balance? The truth is that there is no easy way to do it. We can all say we are going to leave work on time, but how many of us will really walk away if there is something important to be done? In the same context, we promise to meet up with friends but decide that a Facebook conversation will have to do, instead.

Still, at least social media is a ‘social life’ of some description, and better than none at all. In future years it may even become our only type of social life!

Aisha Malik is a fashion consultant who specializes in desirable Islamic clothing, and items such as the hijab, that modern Muslim women are increasingly wearing as they play multiple roles in today’s society.

How To Boost Your Facebook Page With Apps

Facebook applications or as everyone calls them ‘apps’ are the new value for entertainment and functionality.

By adding them to your Facebook profile or fan page you can definitely increase the number of followers you have as these apps will provide people a great deal of enjoyment. They are a good trick marketing since you don’t have to pay anything extra to install them.

Some great apps

It is very necessary to correctly choose the app that you want to install to your page. It needs to attract more visitors to your profile without compromising the quality of the content that you put in. Here are some of the apps that you might be interested in.

Network Blog – You can install this one directly on your page or even your profile. Some people who write blogs tend to add them to their notes section in the profile. That gets a little troubling for other people to check out and give out their feedback. By installing this, all your writings from your WordPress or fan page blog will directly get posted on your profile. No need for extra work plus people can access your work easily and that enables you to get better public feedback.

Video apps – There are a variety of video apps that you can add to your profile which enable you to interact with your customers and clients better. You could also set up live streaming here and connect with your potential clients. People will look ahead for your videos and you can include them in all your parties or product launches. It’s a great marketing technique plus people can get to know you personally. It gives a great business insight too. So all you need is a webcam and your videos can get posted almost immediately to your page or any other site.

Chat apps – Live chatting apps helps you to interact better with people. There are a few apps of this kind where people need to like your page first and then they can be automatically directed to a live chat. Zinzz is a chat app that allows people to interact with you or even amongst them. It is great for networking or expanding your circle. This live chat will be posted as wall posts where people can ask you questions regarding your products.

Location Based apps – These apps allow people to check in a physical place using their mobile devices. Firstly you need to register with Foursquare enabling them to know that you have claimed the place. Once that is done, you can install it on your fan page since it will display your area and address on it. Then, you can keep track of all the people that will physically check in your business location.

You could also visit a few websites and add some contest related apps to you profile. This helps interacting with the people better. You can also copy the URL address of your recently uploaded posts and paste it on your Facebook page from your blog to expand the number of visitors. All of these are simple ways to turbo-boost your Facebook with apps since they don’t require spending of too much money.

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Dholakiya is SEO & VP of Marketing at Ny Seo solutions, a company that specializes in SEO Services. Follow him @Dholakiya.

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