Caffeinate Your Web Content -- My Fr*e Ebook For You!

Here is a short ebook with tips on improving your web content. Caffeinate Your Web Content. These tips will help you -- whether you are writing your content yourself or working with a writer.

Web content is tricky and a bit slippery. You want your content to keep people captivated and actively engaged at your website. Fortunately -- with a little practice and enthusiasm you can discover ways to keep your visitors at your website.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions. I hope this ebook is useful to you as you create and organize your web content!

Photo credit with thanks to malina @ sxc.hu

What the Recession Can Teach Us About Freelancing

A recession is never easy. If you've been through one before: you know just how stressful and financially challenging it can be. But if you are a freelancer of any type, your income in many ways is never dependable. Some freelancers have said to me that if you can't "make it" during a recession, then you simply aren't a successful freelancer. Well, that's a personal opinion that I won't comment on -- I think everyone needs to decide how they feel about that.

Marketing is important -- for every freelancer. In a recession, marketing is just as important as it is during other times. Reaching out to potential and current clients can only help you. Some freelancers actually like to make cold calls. Others prefer to send emails. Whatever method you choose -- choose something you are confident at and feel will work.

New opportunities exist in any economy. Some freelancers have said that their income has actually picked up during the economy. A reason for this is that some companies have gotten rid of their full time or part time employees and are turning to freelancers. There may be other factors, but opportunities do exist.

You still offer solutions to many companies. While some clients may cut back on projects saying that now isn't the right time, a freelancer may discover that they still offer the best solution to many companies. That they are in demand and that their skills are needed. This is also an ideal time to try new things and to take classes to improve their skills.

photo credit: Yoshi Aka sxc.hu

Bling Your Home Office!

With the holidays coming up, your loved ones will be asking you what you'd like to receive for the holidays. There are also a ton of sales in every store -- so it is also quite easy to purchase some of your own *ahem* gifts. :)

So why not "bling" your home office a bit? When you work from home you may not have everything that a corporate environment has. You don't have a three thousand dollar color copier down the hall. Or a water cooler. But you can add some touches to make your work day much easier and you'll find that you are enjoying your work just a bit more. Isn't that what it's all about?

Air purifyer/air filter. Now this is one of my favorites. Many of us just don't realize the impurities that are in the air that we breathe. A good air purifyer/air filter to clean one room will often cost you less than fifty dollars and is worth its weight in gold. You'll have more energy and you'll find that you are getting sick less. If you have plants in that room, you'll probably also find that your plants seem perkier and happier too! Try a large office supply store or building supply place for a good deal.

Healthy treats. There is nothing wrong with working hard. There is something wrong with working so hard that you wind up eating all the wrong foods. Create your own stash of healthy treats for you to nosh on when you know the projects are going to be coming hot and heavy. You'll be glad to have healthy things like dried fruit, nuts, granola bars or other favorites to eat instead of gorging on that bag of chocolate chip cookies you picked up at the gas station. Best of all, you'll feel full of energy instead of lethargic and cranky. Invest in some healthy treats, and a nice box to hide them in!

CD player. Many work at home jobs have you feeling a bit isolated with no coworkers or other noise. It is nice to listen to the radio or some music while you work. Get a compact CD player that has a radio and add this to your work station. This is ideal as many types of music actually help you think. Research has shown that classical music actually makes you focus and think more intelligently.

Why I Love Setting Personal and Professional Goals

Okay, I'll admit it: I'm a goal-a-holic. I love setting goals. I have all sorts of goals that I have set. From personal to professional, I've got one year, five year and even ten year goals planned out. Not like I'm anal retentive enough to plan my life out in stone. Simply that I believe firmly in the secret to success of goal setting.

So what's so cool about goal setting?

Studies have shown that very few people actually bother to set goals. Even fewer of these people go to the trouble of writing them down. But the people that do set goals and write them down quite often go on to succeed them. There is something about setting goals that seems to help send you in the very direction of your goals.

I look at my goals every week and see how close I am getting to each of them. I've even created action steps to do every week to help me reach larger goals, to help chip away at them.

One expert in goal setting to investigate further is Brian Tracy. His audios on goal setting are simply excellent and can get you very motivated about the idea of setting goals.

I encourage anyone in any stage of life and any profession to consider setting some goals. Try setting both personal and professional goals and you'll be amazed at how you begin to achieve your goals. I wish you great success towards reaching all of your goals!

photo credit: Aleksandra P. at sxc.hu

3 Challenges of Working from Home

When you work from home, you often face challenges that don't occur to someone in the typical office setting. How you manage these challenges is critical to your success.

1. Office privacy. When your office is in your home, often family will come in and out of your office. Why shouldn't they? It is after all, in the home. But you'll want to keep your office well organized and sometimes files can contain confidential information. Keeping your office private is an important part of being successful at work -- and at home.

2. No noise. Let's face it, families can get noisy. When you work from home you can have typical family noise in the background when you are trying to make business calls. There are many headsets you can purchase that have mute buttons which can be helpful in keeping the atmosphere of a private office.

3. Not working around the clock. This is a temptation of the perfectionist: working seven days a week. When you work from home, it is far too easy to get a little more work done on that project after dinner or after church or just about any time. Before you realize it, you are working seven days a week! No one can keep up that type of schedule very well for a long period of time. Structured hours are more successful for more work at home professionals.

3 Ways to Make a Great Impression on Your Clients

It is even more important today to make a good impression on your clients. You want your clients to feel confident doing business with you --- and especially to want to continue doing business with you and your company. Do you know what type of impression you make? Here are some tips to make a great impression on your clients.

1. Return communication quickly. No one is perfect and we all leave the office eventually! But return calls and emails as soon as you can. Even if you don't have more information, the client will appreciate you following up with them quickly.

2. Listen to your clients. There is a wonderful quaint saying that we have two ears so we can listen twice as often as we speak. This is valuable both in your professional and personal life. Learn to truly listen to your clients, as you'll discover they tell you what they want in direct and sometimes subtle ways.

3. Say "thank you" in a meaningful way to your clients on a regular basis. This can be different for every freelancer or business person. You can easily attach "thank you for your business" to your invoices as you send them out. Telling your clients that you enjoy working for them is another great way to say thank you. Providing excellent service is another ideal way to say thank you.

photo credited to: FOTOCROMO of sxc.hu