Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Earning From Blogging

This is something I'm very interested in. I enjoy blogging anyway so why not earn from it?

The upside in this is, I could write anything I like in my blog. The downside is, my joy in writing and the therapeutic effect I derive from it could be overshadowed by my desire to make it more profitable. The way things are now, I'm not compelled to do massive promotion of my blogs but once I decide to really earn from my blogs, promoting them will become one of the top priorities.

In so many ways, I'm still an infant in blogging. I have been part of the blogosphere for less than 2 months. In human terms, I still crave for my mother's milk and not yet ready for solids. But I'm ready to learn more about earning from blogging so that if ever I do decide to monetize my blogs I will have the basics in place.

I have to admit, I'm just not good in promotion. And if I will not promote my blogs, how would I expect to earn from them? I guess I'm not as shameless or as bold as some people are. I have no problem promoting my sites to people I know. It's doing the promotion to virtual strangers that I'm not yet comfortable with.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Article Writing Again

I found myself pondering the possibility of writing articles for website content again. This time, I'm doing it without the pressure of deadlines. I have been presented with pretty limited topics though, none of which is really of interest to me. But I will still give it a try, not for monetary reasons but simply to assess myself better as a writer.

These past weeks I've enjoyed writing in my blogs and I figured, why not start earning from writing once more? I have been blog surfing for a week and I have been exposed to different writing styles as well as to different topics. I believe I can be very good at it. I will continue to improve myself until I reach that "very good" status.

It's fun to write about things I'm really interested in but I have to mentally prepare myself to write about topics I know nothing about. I aim to write at least one article (minimum of 400 words)weekly to pump up my creative juices until I can do more.

If you are interested in getting me for writing projects, just give me a shout. I'm going to give it my very best shot.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Looking For Online Job

Some readers of this blog have been asking me where I got all my paying jobs from. With the World Wide Web at your disposal, there are many sources for jobs online but the real question is, how can you differentiate a scam from the real thing? Well, you can't really tell but there are ways you can employ to lessen the risk of falling prey to scammers.

Check out the web site. If a web site is mentioned in a job ad, make sure you give it a visit and check its contact information. A single different number, letter or symbol is already a big difference so be attentive to details. You can also do a "who is" query about the site.

Google it. Search the company and add the word scam, complaints or whatever other word you can think of, to know more about the experiences, especially negative ones, of other people with regards to the company. You can use whatever search engine you like, I just prefer to use google.

Trust your gut feel. In case of doubt, don't. If you smell something fishy, then it's more likely there's a stinking fish in there. Move on to the next opportunity.

Don't give out too much details about yourself. Unless you are very sure about the legitimacy of a company, it's advisable to be prudent. You can certainly enumerate your skills and previous work experiences but be very careful in giving out your personal details. Identity theft is something you should be wary of.

Now, where can you start looking for online jobs? Ad jobs are everywhere. If you are interested in bidding for work, you can try sites like Getafreelancer or Elance. I personally haven't won any bid yet as I don't like bidding too low. My time is precious and I believe I'm making a fair bid. There are just other jobseekers who are willing to work for almost nothing just to get a rating. Some people complained of not receiving their promised pay after winning and accomplishing the work so you have to take note of this risk.

Craigslist is also a good source of work but it's also littered with scammers. You just have to take extra precautions and carefully screen the work offers. Another site I visit is Genuinejobs.

While it might not help you find jobs directly, joining online forums can be worthwhile. You can get involved in discussions with like-minded people and get tips on how or where they get their work. There could be times when someone will post a wanted ad or get to know you in the forum and offer you a job.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

HTML Tweaking

Feeling envious of other bloggers, I also installed a widget here on my site. Now I can see people and pictures. Being on the low tech side, I had a hard time trying to create the right colors for the widget. Good thing, my husband is more knowledgeable. He helped me tweak the html code to suit my site.

Now, I am eager to know basic programming so I'll be able to do things with my site. I know, I know. In tweaking html codes, one does not need to be a programmer. But I have greater things in mind. Well, actually my brain doesn't know about the greater things yet, but they'll come in time. I just hope I won't find it too hard or I'll probably mess up everything. Come to think of it, learning to be a programmer is a mighty great idea. There are lots of earning opportunities out there for programmers. But if I do decide to learn programming, what is the best way to do it? Think, think, think. Hmmm... my mind is on weekend mode so I'll just think about it another time.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Transcription Work (Part 2)

Transcribing audio files is really tough if you don't have any transcribing tool in place. One tool I can do without is a transcription playback software. In my case, I discovered and made use of Express Scribe, a free transcription helper software. I haven't tried any other software yet. I'm quite satisfied with Express Scribe and it has really helped me in my work.

I don't have a foot pedal and I don't have any plans of getting one since I'm not exactly a full time transcriber. I don't know if it will make a big difference in the amount of work I can get done, but at this point it's not really practical for me to buy a foot pedal.

With Express Scribe installed on my computer, I am able to adjust the playback speed from slow to fast. I can also rewind, play, stop and do other things with the recording using my keyboard. I just haven't figured out yet how to completely do away with the mouse while transcribing.

I've noticed that sometimes I am able to comprehend the recording better when I'm listening from a distance (I don't like using headphones at all), sometimes it's clearer when you are nearer. Getting another person's opinion is also necessary to clear out some incomprehensible speaker (maybe I'm just the one who can't seem to get it, ha ha). But sometimes, it's just simply an impossible task for anybody to figure out what was said in the recording (imagine a person talking with a stuffed nose and his head stuck in a pail).

My typing and listening skills are improving and I'm also earning. Pretty soon I'll be able to transcribe faster and earn better. Hmmm... it doesn't sound bad at all.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Transcription Work

I am always ready to try any work, as long as it is legitimate. I am also willing to learn new skills. The latest work that I've been doing is transcribing audio files.

I don't have any transcription experience but I got myself hired as a transcriber. I have been transcribing conferences and interviews on different topics. I am still learning the ropes but I think I'm getting better in every assignment.

I am getting a minimum of $15 per audio hour transcribed. At the start, I thought I could easily transcribe 3 audio hours daily, but I was greatly mistaken. Truth is, it took me about 4 hours to transcribe a 10 minute audio file the first time. Ha ha... so much for going into transcription work full time. But I was never a quitter and although I felt like I had to accept the fact that I'm no good at it, I still persevered and improved slowly.

What I find irritating is when the person in the recording is talking like he's got a stuffed nose and with his head inside a pail. You'd think people will talk clearly when they're doing an interview. Some people have a habit of mumbling and not completing sentences. I will not talk about their grammar anymore as it will just make my head ache.

Another thing that slows me down in my work as a transcriber, is the need to research proper names and some terms mentioned in the audio, not to mention that I'm not really a pretty fast typist. But I do enjoy transcribing when the voices are clear and the topics are not too technical. I also learn about some stuff, while working, and that's a good thing.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

SEO Writing

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is about improving the amount as well as the quality of traffic driven by search engines to your website. The better the page ranking, the better the probability of searchers visiting your site.

What then is SEO writing? One strategy for improving the relevance of your site is by placing interesting content which the search engines' crawlers can easily index. Certain keywords within a page are often repeated to increase the keyword count and density.

The SEO writer's responsibility is to write an interesting article while incorporating the minimum number of certain keywords. If you are asked to use a keyword at least 15 times in an article, then you have to make sure your article is still cohesive, interesting and not redundant. Although not totally immune, search engines are better now in combatting spamdexing or keyword spamming so writing an article specifically for SEO really entails a lot of creativity.

Most of the articles I've written, although meant as website content, did not pressure me to use certain keywords often. I was allowed to write whatever is related to the topic as long as I make sure the article is within a specific word count. After all, a site could be banned by search engines if they are caught keyword spamming.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Data Entry Work 2

Out of curiosity, I responded to an online ad for data entry workers. I asked for more information about the advertised work and within an hour, I got an email.

The email I received talked about what the work is all about (processing emails) and all the financial benefits I could gain. Near the end of the email, a fee was mentioned. It was meant as payment for the training materials. I chuckled while reading this part. Why do you need to pay a supposedly established company to train you? I don't want to find out more so I just deleted the mail.

Monday, July 2, 2007

Writing Essays

Writing essays could be more lucrative than simply writing articles for web site content. However, I am not comfortable doing this kind of work. Personally, I feel like I'm encouraging students to be lazy.

I think there are those who have valid reasons for paying somebody to write essays or other school paperwork for them. Maybe they are swamped with too much school work, got sick or whatever. But the things is, you have no way of knowing who is worthy of getting your assistance and who is merely capable of paying the fees for your services. Having been a student myself, I do believe there's a reason why teachers require students to do such paperwork.

Being a parent, I am not going to encourage my children to let somebody do their essays for them. I would prefer them to do their assigned work responsibly and expect them to give their best in everything they have to do.