(Guest post by Donna Jackson)
Just recently I posted on my blog over at www.digitalmoneyworld.com about working online and the hazards of invoicing, getting paid via palpal or ebullion and registering as a soloist for tax etc. Many freelancers who work on line like us bloggers, writers, social network engineers and the like, need to be paid. Yes we have mortgages and grocery bills too! So how do you get paid? And even before that, how do you find companies or individuals willing to hire you for the services or brain power you’ll bring them.
The answer is networking. Yes that little old nugget “networkingâ€. However, just going out to dinner,coffee mornings and wine bars with people who you want to do work for, and just hoping they will hand you a contract, probably won’t work. People may be fascinated about your writing and even envy you, but they don’t understand how you get your money.
So how do you make peace with promoting yourself?
Plugging into a peer group can really help you to get with the movers and shakers. Here at b5media we have that big peer group of bloggers. We are a community, we write to, we learn from, we feel with, we advise, one other.
There a great conference going on in Switzerland this Friday called “going solo” www.going-solo.net Visit the site and see if you can attend, pass the word around, or put a badge on your site.
Going Solo has cutting-edge PDF posters too.
Donna Jackson blogs about digital currency for the b5media network at Digital Money World.
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post Donna!
I fully agree with you that we have nothing to lose and everything to gain when we connect with someone through networking.
It really pays in the long run.
Michael Taylor
I really enjoy reading this blog, but this post makes no sense whatsoever.
The part about Going Solo is in the least poorly researched. The event took place two days ago, on the 16th May 2008.
Put some more juice in the article
Regards,
CA Ashish Ahuja, FCA
A Roaming Blogger and a CA
Indian Chartered Accountant New Delhi India
Indian Company Formation Delhi India
My guest blog post was sent before the event happened. People here in Europe were excited about this and many attended as Tickets were sold up to the last minute. It’s was and is very innovative for those of us that work on line. I researched it very well actually, as there were and still are, podcasts attached to the site, which I feel are vital for freelancers working online. Have you looked at the site. Stephanie?
Joseph do you work online, as thousands of free lancers do? If you do, I can’t see how this post would not be of interest to you. The top two reasons for freelancers who work online and fail to make it are; building a presence, and getting paid. I covered both.
Thanks Michael, for your comment. I thought the points were of value to all of us. Having now visited your site, I see why you got it. I’ve subsribed to your site. Thanks for the good content. Donna
I frequently network with people through sites like LinkedIn and also in real life
most of those people if we decide to work on a project together I refer to my prefered freelance site: odesk. I prefer it because they can see what I am getting done, we can work jobs either hourly or flat rate and the escrow side of things is all taken care of. Escrow is the biggest reason I dislike using paypal after having had some bad experiences with not getting paid.
Thanks for your comment Doug. I agree about the Paypal and escrow side of getting paid on a project. I checked out odesk, and found it interesting. I completely second your opinion about the importance of networking to keep work flowing in
Donna
Thanks a lot Donna.
Michael Taylor
Donna: if you sent in your post before the event, then it makes complete sense. But you’ll have to agree that it feels a bit weird to read a post saying “come to the event” published two days after it took place. I’d add a note or something to make that clear.
And yes, I’ve looked at the site — I’ve written it myself, as I organised Going Solo.
Thanks for your enthusiasm about the conference, and for writing about it. I’m sorry I reacted badly, but the date issue really made your post look like you hadn’t even taken the trouble to look up the conference date. You should get the people at b5media to add a line of explanation for you.
Hi Stephanie I knew about the event, and listened to all the podcasts and couldn’t be free on that day.
It was a guest post and others had priority, that’s always a dilemma with a “date”.
I felt it was valuable to report on as freelancers really need to know about such a resource, whether or not they could attend the actual event. Keep in touch http://www.italyexpat.blogspot.com
Donna
i would like to see more site of this because allout of people would be coming to see more