Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

I just completed a great podcast interview with Collis Ta’eed from the NorthxEast blog, although the focus was not on that blog, it was on his newer blog, Freelance Switch. Freelance Switch is all about freelancing and skyrocketed in popularity in a matter of weeks, nearing 4000 RSS readers at one point - not bad for a three week old blog!

We talked about how he managed to grow the traffic to his blog so quickly and it turned out to be a very good interview with lots of cutting edge blog traffic tips. I’m only releasing the podcast to my Blog Mastermind members (sorry readers - I do have to have something premium for my members), so if you want to hear the full interview you better be on the early notification list to get into the mentoring program.

After talking with Collis and his success with a blog about freelancing I started thinking more about the whole freelance industry. I suspect there are quite a few freelancers who read Entrepreneurs-Journey.com given that working as a freelancer is often considered running a business. Personally I have never wanted to be a freelancer, although I have certainly worked from time to time on freelance projects, especially during the days when I ran a web hosting company.

What Is A Freelancer?

Freelancers, as far as I understand it, are individuals - talented creative types usually - who chose not to seek permanent employment with a single company but instead take on contract projects working for many different businesses.

The idea is that by not committing to a full time job you gain some semblance of freedom and more control over your working lifestyle and income. You take on only as many projects as you need/want to, you can work from home and you don’t have any boss telling you what to do.

That all sounds good, but is freelancing really the best option if you are looking to improve your working lifestyle?

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I just completed updating the Articles Page of this blog, adding the content I had written over the last few months.

If you haven’t seen it before, I maintain a “Best of” page linking to the meaty articles I have written under various topic headings. During this update I also created new headings to drill down some of the topics.

I’ve been writing this blog now for two and a half years and in that time I think I must have written a book or two worth of content. If you haven’t had a chance, please visit my articles page and have a read of my previous best work.

My Favorites

As I went through my articles I was reminded of articles I really enjoyed writing, which I believe offer some great insights. Here’s a short list of some of my favorites:

• What Is The 80/20 Rule And Why It Will Change Your Life
• Why You Must Go Deep In The Changing Internet Business Landscape
• Pricing Points, Perceived Value And How To Make More Money Per Sale
• Why A Preeminent Business Is Superior To Money Making Opportunities
• 8 Pitfalls To Avoid When Starting An Internet Business
• The Music Industry Evolution - How Localisation, Social Networks, Niche Markets and the Long Tail Will Change Music Forever
• Personal Congruency At 21? How To Be Confident At Any Age
• Are We Chasing the Wrong Dreams?
• How To Buy A Website And Flip It For Profit

If you haven’t been an Entrepreneurs-Journey reader since the beginning, have a read of one or two of the articles above and see what came before.

Yaro Starak
Writer

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It must be the day for it! I have another job, this time for a graphics person who would like to form a mutually beneficial relationship with me.

As you might know I’m about to launch my blog mentoring program, BlogMastermind.com, and take on the first group of students who want to earn a full time income from blogging part time. The early notification list is now available if you are interested in the program

To help with the launch I’m looking for a graphic designer who would like to help out by lending their skills to create a logo and some standard sized banners for the program.

I’d like to do a contra deal and form a good on-going relationship with a designer. I can offer personal phone consultation about Internet business or blogging, exposure and links from my blog and access to the mentoring program, in exchange for the graphic design services.

If you think you can help and are interested in working with me, please send some examples of your work to jobs@entrepreneurs-journey.com.

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My mother, who runs a counselling and life coaching business in Brisbane Australia, is looking for a person to take over management and optimization of her pay per click advertising campaigns.

She is willing to pay by the hour or by the project. She doesn’t have a huge budget for PPC, however if someone can get her results her budget will definitely increase.

Additionally, if she is pleased with the work I will mention and provide links to the person who does the job, so this could lead to some nice referrals and at the very least a handy link from my blog.

I will also soon be looking for a PPC manager for my blog information business, so if you impress I’ll likely have some ongoing work for you too.

If you are interested in applying please email contact@zahava.com.au (her name is “Zahava”) and address the subject of your email as “Pay Per Click Advertising Job”.

If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will respond.

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You may have seen the top 100 Australian blog lists floating around lately. You can check out Meg’s version (I like this one the best, it has E-J as no.2 and SmallBusinessBranding as no.7) and Craig Harper’s list (look down the right sidebar to find it).

Down in Melbourne The Age newspaper published an article about the list, which some bloggers, like Duncan Riley, were not impressed with.

Darren Rowse, Australia’s number one blogger, posted his thoughts too.

Personally I’m chuffed to see that I have two blogs in the list and can’t wait to get a copy of the newspaper to see what it looked like in print.

In terms of the accuracy of such lists, it’s really more about fun and exposure than any verifiable accounting. If you define a set of criteria and can in some way assess the criteria then you can build a top list based on such criteria. In this case the lists are based on Alexa and Technorati data, which are popular traffic metric tools but should not be relied upon as the absolute final word on such things - they are far from it.

The key for bloggers, if your aim is to get yourself into such top lists, is to focus on the common tools people use to assess such metrics. Even if you don’t consider Alexa and Technorati as accurate representations of reality, people tend to gravitate to them because they are popular and mainstream.

Another “trick” if you are looking to get on a top list is to create one of your own. You might have trouble convincing people of it’s worth if you don’t use popular metrics, but at least you can say you were featured on top list.

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