Helpful Hints For Finding Work From Home

In today's world, making ends meet can often be difficult and not even possible at times. A lot of people often give up hope because of how difficult the job market has become. A decade ago, it was more than enough to have a regular Bachelor's degree; nowadays, a Master's degree is not even enough to land a job for yourself at times.

Did you know that freelancing has actually become a mainstream method to provide an income for both single people and couples alike? The most popular form of freelancing from home has become writing for others. I was very skeptical myself when I was first told about this eighteen months ago, but then I began to explore my options and I actually found very viable websites that would act as a "go-between" for you and the potential employer. It was like the best of Monster.com meets eBay, and I quickly dove in and started participating.

A friend of mine was doing online article writing, and he was making enough money to pay all of his bills every single month. I asked him for his secrets, and he told me to check out vWorker, Elance, and oDesk. After I looked into all three, I quickly chose vWorker as it seemed the simplest option to me. (Elance and oDesk were actually more popular, but I still prefer vWorker as it seemed to give me the most options.)

Creating an account was simple and no different than signing up for a Gmail or Hotmail account except I had to provide either a checking account or Paypal account so that I could get paid. There were no fees and I quickly starting bidding on jobs.

The first two days, I probably placed 50 bids and I was turned down for every single one of them. I am a quick learner, however, so I kept on reading and I kept experimenting and, after two more days, I was able to land my first writing gig. I was so nervous because I had never written for anyone else, but I sent a few questions to the employer and found out exactly what he wanted me to write about. I needed to write 5 articles of 500+ words, and he was paying me $25 to do it. This was killer money for me as it was the first money I'd ever made online, and it would give me gas for a week!

The articles that he wanted were geared for his website, meaning that they needed to be keyword-optimized for great on-page SEO. That is a lot of technical jargon, so let me give you a brief explanation:

Keyword - What the article is about. This is generally a specific word or phrase that a person is attempting to rank for in Google.

Keyword Optimized - To be keyword optimized means that an article has the keyword in it around one time for every 100 words.

On-Page SEO - this can be several different factors and ranges from guru to guru, but it basically means that certain elements are included in the article that will allow Google to know what the article is about.

It took my five hours to write those five articles as I had to research the materials and I was extremely nervous the entire time as well. I sent them to the employer the next day and he responded by giving me a "perfect 10" rating on the job. I was ecstatic and immediately went back to work bidding on more jobs.

As I wrote more and more, my writing time decreased. I am now at a point where I can research and write a 500 word article in about 15 minutes. In most cases, the topic has no effect on how long it takes for me to write an article. My quality is always top-notch as well. To this day, I still maintain a perfect employee rating on vWorker across all of the jobs I have taken.

Here are a few tips that I can give to you that will help you maintain a perfect rating as well:

    Always deliver more quickly than you promise. If you bid on a job and give the employer a five day window, deliver in 3 days or less if at all possible.
    Read through your finished articles 3-4 times before you consider them completed, and then get a friend or family member to read them again.
    Never, ever, EVER submit work with typos in it. Ever since the Penguin update in April 2012, Google is even using typos and spelling errors to affect search engine rankings. Don't cause your client to lose ground because you mis-spelled something.
    If you are not sure what a potential client wants, ask. There's nothing worse than researching and writing an article from a certain point of view only to find out that the client actually wanted it from an opposing view.
    Never forget that you are the employee working for the employer's money. It is up to you to earn that money by meeting and exceeding the client's needs.

Here is the most important thing I can tell you for freelancing, though: Your virtual reputation is everything. Whether you are using sites like vWorker or finding business on your own, your clients have nothing to go on but comments and referrals from previous clients. Word of mouth is the most powerful advertising medium we have as humans; it can make you extremely wealthy or it can leave you broke and destitute. Keep your reputation spotless and you will build a stable of repeat-clients who always come to you for more work.

Thousands upon thousands of people freelance from home every single day. Some do it to earn extra cash while others have made it into a full-time career. If you are interested in learning more about working from home, make sure to visit http://freelancefromhome.net for more information and a free report to help you get started.

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