Know Your Goal

Before you can reach a goal, you need to have a goal.  It is similar to getting in your car and driving, and not having any idea what your destination is.  Being a writer and a published author have been dreams of mine for a long time.  However, the dream was not well-defined until very recently.  I now realize that I want to be a successful, oft-read writer, and an author whose books sell enough for a small amount of renown (and a decent living to boot). 

Have A Plan

A goal without a plan is just a dream.  I believe I wrote an article on the subject not too long ago.  Just like when you are driving in your car, once you have a destination in mind, you have to map out the route to get there.  At first, it doesn’t have to be the best route, as long as it gets you to your destination.  Over time, you will hone your plan so that it works better, costs less of your time, makes you more money, and allows you more freedom to enjoy life. 

Write It All Down

I am writing this as I say to myself…”Self, why are you writing this paragraph, all the while knowing that you have not followed the advice contained herein?”.  Yes, I sometimes refer to myself as “Self” (not really, but I digress).  I am going to write it down after I finish this article.  It could happen.  Seriously, that is the next task I will complete, before starting on another article.  Write down your goal and your plan.  Be as specific as you like, and be honest.  My goal may sound self-serving, but guess what…it is.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to be successful and well-known.  This may or may not be something that is part of your personal goal, but if it is, be honest about it.  If that’s what you require to be happy, then that’s what you must have to be happy.  The point is that if it is written down where you can see it, every day, you will be reminded of what it is your working for.

We all have goals and dreams.  Why should we be deprived of them?  You only get one shot at this life, so you may as well make the most of it.  Know your goal, and have a plan to get there.  Otherwise, you are just treading water and wasting time.  Write it all down so you will be reminded daily of your goal.  Your dreams are out there.  You just have to make the right turns to get to them. 

Never, never, never give up.

They Aren’t Just Going Away

The funny thing about doing things that need to be done is that they don’t cease needing to be done just because you don’t feel like doing them.  They are still staring you in your face at the end of the day, not done, and just waiting to be a distraction for you until tomorrow.  I am a writer by trade, and even the “greenest” writers know that you have to work on your craft every day.  So, in order to take my writing career to the next level, I have to work at it daily, and not let other things distract me from it.  That was kinda the entire motivation behind moving, wasn’t it?  Yes, I believe it was.

Set Up a Schedule

In order to get myself back on track, I self-imposed deadlines on myself to force myself to create so much new content by certain dates.  More experienced writers will likely read that and wonder to themselves why I didn’t figure this out long ago, but nevertheless, I am just now seeing the importance of this.  My deadlines are Mondays and Thursdays.  I have until Monday to get X number of articles written, and I have until Thursday to get X number more written.  Once I get back on schedule, I may reduce my deadlines to once a week, but that remains to be seen.  I certainly did not want to give myself a daily deadline, so that I can play catch up before a deadline if the need arises.  It’s also a bit less distracting having fewer deadlines during the week.

Set Reasonable Goals

Don’t set yourself up for failure.  It’s not doing anyone any good, least of all yourself, if you set deadlines that you are unlikely to be able to meet.  Start out slow.  Assign yourself slightly less work that you think you should be doing, and slowly build up over time.  Increase your workload in small increments, but do it frequently, and before you know it, you will be comfortably producing more work than you think you should. 

Not Just For Writers

This isn’t just something that works for writing, or other creative type of work.  Regardless of your discipline, and especially if you are working from home or freelancing, you have to hone your craft and discpline yourself to keep working at it.  I’m not saying at all that you should work 18 hours a day to hone your skills (see previous section), but it can be a valuable tool in helping you develop a rhythm to your work day.

It’s so easy to find distractions from doing the things you should be doing.  However, they are not going away.  They still need to be done, whether you want to or not.  Set up a schedule, with reasonable goals to be met by clearly defined deadlines, and you will develop a rhythm of working that will allow you to get the best, most work done each day and still have plenty of time to enjoy your life.

1. Work for Free – When applying for a writing job, offer to write one or more (but make it a finite number, not open-ended) pieces for them at no charge to them.  Make sure, in writing, that you will get full credit for the work that you do.  It is a great way to get your name out there, and even if the potential client doesn’t hire you for that particular job, they may see fit to hire you for future work, or refer you to colleagues that need your talents.
2. Post on Article Directories – While many “serious writers” don’t recommend this tactic, I have written many articles for large article directories, such as ezinearticles.com and articlesbase.com.  It costs nothing to post on these sites, and you can add at least one link back to your own blog or website (see #3 for more on this).  It also provides additional relevant results when potential clients go searching for your name in Google or any other search engine.
3. Create your own blog or website – Having your own blog or website is a great way to showcase your writing talents, and provide examples of your work to potential clients.  There are many ways you can do this for free, the two biggest ones being blogger.com and wordpress.com.  However, I recommend biting the bullet and paying $10 for a domain name from godaddy.com and $8-10/month for decent web hosting and creating your own blog or website.  Most web hosts worth doing business with offer automatic setups for Wordpress (Publishing Platform, or blog), Joomla (Content Management System), or any other of a number of popular easy-to-use web platforms.  I also recommend using a domain that is easy to associate with you and your work, such as www.yourname.com or something similar.
4. Take jobs that aren’t ideal for you – There are many jobs out there that either don’t challenge you creatively, or don’t pay very much, or will take up too much of your time.  So what?  Everybody has to start somewhere.  It is extremely unlikely that you are going to get the best gigs when you haven’t established a reputation for yourself.  So, get over it, take some less-than-desirable gigs, and get your name out there, all while making a little bit of money.
5. Get lucky – Granted, this one is the longest shot of them all.  I just mentioned above that it is unlikely that you are going to land your dream gig when you first start out, but that shouldn’t stop you from applying for them.  There’s always the chance that your particular style and life experience will be exactly what the client is looking for.  You never know until you try, right?

It is difficult to get your foot in the door sometimes.  It takes trying, and trying, and trying some more.  But there’s a reason why they call it “getting your foot in the door.”  Once your “foot” is firmly wedged in the “door”, you are in.  All you have to do from that point forward is continue to produce high quality work on time every time, and you’ll have a successful freelance writing career.

Residual Income

Residual Income is basically just what I said it was above.  It is money that you make for which you aren’t actually performing any activity at the point of the sale.  Probably the most common form of this is buying merchandise at wholesale prices and selling it for a profit, using either a website that automatically processes your orders, or having a third party warehouse and fulfill the orders for you.  The beauty of this model is that you can quite literally make money while you sleep.

Can I Make a Living From Residual Income?

While there are some people who claim to make very handsome livings through these means, I am skeptical.  I am pursuing this as an additional income stream, to supplement my current income as a freelance writer.  Theoretically, it should be possible to “scale up”, or add other streams of income to create a very nice living in this manner, but I have not yet seen good evidence of this happening.

How Does This Work?

Two of the most well-known websites that offer the means for you to sell your goods online are Ebay and Amazon.  I’m not going to get into the details of the differences between how these two sites operate, but they have a combined 100 million visitors each month, so you don’t have to worry about maximum exposure.  There is certainly no shortage of information, both good and bad, about each site and how you can use them to make money.  I haven’t found any one’s advice that I would recommend as being better than doing your own research into each site (and other sites that you can find, as well), so I am not going to name any names at this time.  When (or if) I run across any good info that is truly informative, I will certainly pass this info along to you, my loyal readers.

Since this is something that I am looking into, I thought I would share with you the basic concepts of this idea.  It is a field that more and more people are using to make a decent extra income to supplement their main means of earning money.  As I become more educated in this area, I will gladly share that expertise with you.  Until then, keep plugging along, and happy hunting.

What About “Going Mobile”?

“Going Mobile” is still part of the plan, but at this stage, I have not generated sufficient capital to achieve this dream of mine. So, I will have to start by working in some “mini-retirements” until I can sell all my possessions (well, most of them, anyway) and see the world. The dream is still very much alive, but the scope and specifics of it have just been altered somewhat, that’s all.

What Does This Mean for the WorkToLiveNetwork Blog?

As you may have noticed, I have not been writing much lately, at least not on the blog. The aforementioned distraction problem is responsible for most of that. I’m certainly not making excuses, but I have allowed myself to not devote as much time as I should have to my writing lately. As there is still no firm date as to when I will be able to have the DSL hooked up at my new house, I don’t what type of commitment I can make as to my schedule of new posts on this blog, but I will make a concerted effort to bring you advice and job postings as soon as often as I am able to do so.

The Moral

Yes, there is a moral to this story. Just because your plans, dreams, etc. don’t work out exactly the way you want them to, don’t give up. Sometimes you just have to step back from it all, and decide what is the most important to you. Although it had long been a dream of mine to live in a fixer-upper, and have a mostly clean slate to create a home that I loved, it was distracting me from yet another dream of mine, which to have a successful career as a writer. I decided that my career as a writer would have to come first, and I will pursue my other dreams, all in good time.

Free Job Leads

1. Freelance Writing Gigs – I’ve long been a big fan of Deb Ng’s blog.  She posts current job leads (usually current within 24 hours of posting), and the blog also contains a lot of good information relevant to freelance writers.  It’s the first place I look every day for job leads.
2. About Freelance Writing – The second place I always look each day is Anne Wayman’s blog.  Anne, like Deb, is an experience writer who also offers some good insights into the world of freelance writing.  She also has written several ebooks on the subject of writing, which you can also sell as an affiliate.  (Find out more about the affiliate program here).
3. All Freelance Writing – I like Jenn Mattern’s blog more for her writing style and content than her job listings, although she does tend to post some of the better leads each day during the week.  It’s also one of the places I stop daily in my search for freelance writing jobs.
4. Indeed Jobs – Indeed can be a huge time saver by allowing you to search multiple job sites at once.  And, they don’t just have writing and blogging jobs, they also have job leads in all areas.
5. CraigsList – The problems with CraigsList are well-known and well-documented.  However, if you can separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, there are some very good writing and blogging gigs to be found on Craigslist.
6. Journalism Jobs – This site focuses a bit more on full-time jobs than freelance gigs, but you can still find some freelance gigs here.  And, who knows? Maybe a full-time job is what you’re really looking for.
7. MediaBistro – Another site that requires a bit of searching to find the good ones, MediaBistro is a site for which you have to register in order to see full job details, but it’s worth the 2 minute registration process to find some good gigs from time to time.
8. ProBlogger – Darren Rowse’s blog is also a good place to find a good selection of job leads, and he has some good insights on how to make a living as a freelance blogger.
9. Freelance Job Openings – I personally am not a huge fan of this site overall.  There are some good jobs to be found there, but in my personal opinion, the selection isn’t the greatest.  This is only my personal opinion, and your experience may be different.  It’s still worth checking out.
10. CareerBuilder.com – Major Job Search Board.  CB may not come to mind as your first place to look for freelance jobs, but they have a surprisingly good listing at times.  Definitely should be on your daily search list.
11. Monster.com – Just like CareerBuilder above, Monster.com should be on your daily search list.
12. Dice.com – Although primarily tech-related jobs are found here, the occasional technical writing job can be found on Dice.

Subscription-based services

These are really the only two subscription-based job listing services that I have found that are worth mentioning.

1. Freelance Switch – This site used to be free. Now it costs $7 a month to have access, but there are some really good opportunities listed here.
2. Flex Jobs - At $15 per month or $50 per year, it isn’t cheap, but I hear it’s worth the money.  You may as well sign up for a whole year…it’s like getting over 9 months free.

Bid Sites

I am really not a fan of bid sites for finding jobs.  While there are certainly some good jobs listed on this sites, two things became very clear to me very quickly: 1.  The same people or groups get all the good jobs, and 2.  That means that the cost of being a premium member isn’t worth it.  However, your luck may be different than mine, so check them out.

1. Elance – The first bid site I ever heard about, and the source of the bad taste in my mouth concerning bid sites.
2. Get a Freelancer – Another bid site…enough said.

Editor’s Note:  Thist list does share a lot of listings in common with Deb Ng’s list, 43 Places to Find Freelance Writing Jobs and Jenn Mattern’s list, 51 Places to find Freelance Writing Jobs and Blogging Jobs. Be sure and check both of them out.

All that having been said, I’ve had a lot of time to think about the direction of this blog, and Jimmy and I have decided to change the focus of the site a bit, at least from the standpoint of job postings.  Starting this Friday, we will be posting some of the best job postings we have found during the week, and the remainder of the days of the week will be devoted to bringing you information pertinent to working to live.  I will continue to write about the different ways you can transform your mindset from a “live to work” mindset to a “work to live” mindset, while Jimmy will focus more on financial advice, to help you manage your money and still maintain the lifestyle you have chosen.

Tomorrow, I will bring you an updated list of places to look for job postings, both in the freelance writing area, and in the area of IT-type jobs.  Until then, happy hunting!

Will

1. Coroflot
2. 37 Signals
3. Yahoo Hot Jobs
4. CrunchBoard
5. Web Designer Wall
6. Mashable Jobs
7. Smashing Jobs
8. Authentic Jobs
9. Read/WriteWeb Jobs
10. CenterNetworks Job Board

As noted before, some of the boards are more narrowly focused on web designer jobs than others. As you work your way through these resources, you should be able to filter the choices down to applying for gigs that are exactly what you want to contribute to this dynamic field. Also check out the Related Posts section for articles like 5 Ways to Squeeze More Money Out of Clients and Job Hunt With Your Graphic Designer Resume While Sleeping

Finally, this will be my last IT Job Leads article for a while. If I run across a series of good leads, particularly in my specialty area (QA), I will post an article on them. I’m going to move over to a new section of the blog: Simple Finances. I’ll be posting articles once or twice a week on how to hang on to some of the money you are earning. In the meantime, good luck with your job search.

1. Freelance Web Content Writer – NYC – $20/profile
2. Finance Blogger - Yovia – $25/post
3. NY Bloggers for Nethead -$150 – $300/month
4. Blogger Wanted – $15 – $20/post
5. Writers for Design Blog – $10/post
6. Resume Writer for Federal Military - Virtual/Ongoing Contract – $35,000 – $65,000/year
7. Professional Resume Writers – $75
8. Seeking Writers - $100
9. Food Reviewers/Writers - $10 – $25
10. Proposal Research & Writing - Virtual/Offsite – $25,000 +

Here are some other great places to find freelance writing jobs and advice:

Freelance Writing Jobs – Deb Ng

All Freelance Writing – Jenn Mattern

About Freelance Writing – Anne Wayman

1. QA/Automated Software Test Engineer Robert Half Technologies has a position in Tucson, AZ that pays $50000 to $70000 per year; experience with various automated testing tools packages, including Silk, is a plus.
2. QA Analyst/Automated Tester Premier Farnell has this full time position in Chicago, IL for someone with scripting experience in C, Java, & Visual Basic, as well as with various automated test tools packages.
3. Software QA Automation Developer This full time position in Stamford, CT may be as much a development position as it is an automated QA position.
4. QA Test Automation Engineer Ajilon Consulting has a listing for a full time job in Cincinnati, OH that requires 2+ years experience with Quality Center and QTP.
5. Quality Assurance Analyst- Automated Also requiring 2+ years experience with the HP/Mercury toolset, this full time position is listed through OpenLink and is in Uniondale, NY.
6. QA Analyst Automated testing may not be the primary focus of this position, but it is with Rosetta Stone; it is a full time position in Harrisonburg, VA that only requires 1 to 2 years experience.
7. Automated Software Tester Also with Ajilon Consulting, this full time position in Rochester, NY is also not automation toolset specific, but is more toward developing automation using VB scripting and Visual Studio.
8. Senior Test Engineer CyberCoders has a consulting gig whose pay range is $50,000 – $110,000/year for this Senior Test Engineer with Active TS/SCI and with Full Scope Polygraph clearances.
9. Senior QA/Automation Engineer Technisource lists this full time job in Attleboro, MA for someone with 3+ years experience with Mercury’s QTP.
10. QA Engineer MEDPLUS/Quest Diagnostics has a full time position in Mason, OH for the QA Engineer with 2+ years experience with WinRunner.

Demand for Test Engineers with experience using any of the HP/Mercury automated test toolsets remains strong. If you have been in QA for a while and are trying to transistion to doing automated testing, there are a couple of things to consider. First, you will need to have some taste for acquiring programming skills. Second, certification for both the functional automated test tools (WinRunner and QTP) and the performance and load test toolset (LoadRunner and related products) is available. You can pursue certification directly from HP/Mercury or from their local partners, like Orasi in Atlanta. Until tomorrow, good luck and happy hunting.