Online Jobs and Telecommuting Watch Dog: How My Role Changes As I Learn More

My Initial Intentions

I started this blog with a million things in mind: how to help people like me, with superb skills, that wanted to work from home or wanted advice for their existing business on the wide ocean tides of the Internet, websites that offer opportunities, and strategies to market oneself in ways that are free.

I've come head-on into a collision with my best intentions.  Many of the programs I research and use myself don't end up in money in the bank for my readers, but countless hours refilling out resumes, for nothing.

Maybe I'm just a little down on my bathrobe business casual mentality; that if you have brains and skill you can make rent, or whatever, with your wile and guile and a little know how from a blog dedicated to not only your success, but the success of the person writing it.  No paychecks coming from lying and selling you shit that doesn't work, now is there?

The bottom line is that I'm making this post as self therapy in a way, and also as a warning that working a non-traditional 9 to 5 can be demoralizing, unscrupulous, and downright a waste of time.  So let us carry on and look at the details.

oDesk and it's protection of contractors: to sign an application through this company you must abide by the following code:

1. oDesk does not offer mediation or arbitration services. 
   
   If you do the work and the employer refuses to pay, oDesk will not be able to help.

Please choose Fixed Price jobs carefully. You may want to start off with smaller jobs to reduce the risk.

Good luck!

This isn't what the brochure said, and it sure doesn't make me feel comfortable with the time I've spent doing work for others, who could just as likely not pay me for it with no consequence.

It's disheartening, I know, but the hardiest of my readers will keep pursuing it and hope that they are treated fairly, even though there is apparently no guarantee that they will be.

That's the thing about writers, they have a tendency to write no matter what.

I wanted to bring this little clip to all my readers attention, and let them know that the waters are indeed filled with piranhas.  The best way you can help other readers and help me endorse or not endorse different platforms and freelance job opportunities is to Comment, and share your experiences on what works and what doesn't.

We're all working together in a sense.  Please leave your experiences on this page so we can rule out companies that do not provide the type of work we require, and focus on how to present yourself online in ways that facilitate legitimate work, and finding jobs and gigs that put real money in your pocket.

Humor in the midst of the End of Days, and a few words of advice on multiple email management

http://kamikazeearth.blogspot.com/ is absolutely one of the best sites to follow.  I know, it's not about freelancing or business or anything. . . really, that I am usually focused on and talk about, but give it a follow.  And maybe send them an email, because they are hiring writers for their blog.  Surprise!  It really was about freelancing and making dough!  

This site is filled strictly with sick, satirical stuff; mostly about the developing trouble we have gotten ourselves into over the last 10 years as a race and the End Days.  Even if you aren't a religious whack-job or an armchair theorist on the Mayan calendar, you can't deny things are pretty much completely out of effing control, showing no signs of improving, and showing every sign of becoming even worse.

Trust me, don't subscribe to the Week. I can't stop reading it, and thinking about it, and I am to the point I can almost guess what the next  week's cover story is going to be based upon the previous weeks display of hubris, stupidity, and brutality.

Either way, give http://kamikazeearth.blogspot.com/ a thumbs up, and if you got a good pair of 'em to bring humor to the apocalypse, I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.

The 5:30 in the morning Email streamlining lesson
Freelancers and small business professionals often have to present themselves in a variety of ways to a variety of people.  The best way to do this online is to have different emails, and potentially even different profiles to accompany them.  Wouldn't it be nice if you could get ALL of them in one place and have your email client organize and respond automatically to each?  Here is how to do it.

The example I'm using is Gmail, because Outlook, Thunderbird, and their ilk are garbage, pure and simple.  Useless, outdated, prone to error, difficult to maneuver trash.

• First, pick an email to be your master account.  Use it to send out requests to send emails as your other accounts along with names or businesses where appropriate.  When prompted, put the same secondary address in the "reply-to email" option so your clients think they are talking only to one account.  This will make your master account invisible when communicating from other addresses.
• Second, verify this with your other accounts and allow the master account to conduct business under these other names.  While you are here, go into the email forwarding and forward all email to the master address.  You can also send a request to the master account to be allowed to send mail as the secondary accounts.  This may be doing the same thing twice as in step one, but it'll ensure no screw ups occur.
• Third, return to the master account, verify that you'd like all the other email messages forwarded to you, and if you sent the additional requests for the master account to act as the secondary ones, verify those as well.
• Finally, in your master account email options set up profiles for the secondary accounts (i.e. what the name is and what the email address is.  Then select a little further down to automatically respond to emails as the account it was sent to instead of the default (which should be the first profile you had for the master account when it was created).

And PRESTO, you can control as many small businesses, freelancing personas and accompanying tailored resumes, and even a scam or two all from the comfort of one giant inbox.  

While kidding about the scams, the time you will save logging in and out or logging in multiple accounts is real.  

P. S. You just might see me guest blogging on http://kamikazeearth.blogspot.com/, so keep your eyes to the sky for the mushroom cloud of my sarcasm.

Writers and Publishers Can Keep Content Safe With Copyscape Services

Protect Yourself From Plagiarism, Re-authoring, and Use of Your Work Without Citation 

The threat of plagiarism has never been higher than it is today.  The threat of research, fiction, nonfiction, or any type of written information being copied, pasted, and assigned a false author has never been easier.  The copy/paste routine is a much simpler option for a lot of unscrupulous folks out there who don’t have the know how or are just plain lazy to create the same content.  Though I am not certain I'd label Copyscape a watchdog group quite yet, they do offer the ability to find out where writing has been stolen.  The recourse against the theft of your content may be up to you.

Note: I like to pass on great Internet resources to my readers.  Every single one of them, up to this point has been free, if I am remembering correctly.  This is a sort of hybrid: the service is a paid one, but it also offers a free download that is darn near as useful as the service itself. 

I’m not an affiliate of this or any of the websites, communities, or services I scour the internet for, to bring the best to my readers.  I just like finding cool stuff and sharing it!  Social Tsunami is my business so I’ll be talking more about that as the days go on, but that is, I hope, obviously different.  So be assured I am not a sell out.  Yet, anyway. . . .

Now on to the good stuff: protecting your writing and content online, and searching for instances where it has already been reproduced in a non-cited, unauthorized, or just plain plagiarized, re-authored manner.

Copyscape is a Web service dedicated to protecting your content.  Simply copy and paste the URL of your article, homepage, squeeze page, whatever you are concerned about, into the search engine.  It will scour the web for instances where your words have been duplicated.  If your name is not cited, and you did not sign a contract allowing someone to reproduce your material in the manner it has been, there is a problem.  There is also a free search  available if you would like to take the service for a test spin.

This is a great way to make sure all of your hard work isn’t making someone else Adsense revenue or helping them present themselves as an expert on subjects that they clearly aren’t.  Likewise, your stories belong to you, and shouldn't be out winning other people contest money or book deals.  It should be clear enough, but I seriously discourage anyone from tossing a completed manuscript for a book all over the web for a variety of reasons, even if it is copyrighted.  This can get messy with critiquing groups, editors, and people you think you can trust.  However, this is a complex topic better covered in another post. 

The paid service (starting at $4.99/mo.) not only increases the search capabilities, but also has the option of periodic scans of content you put into Copyscape’s database of your work.  They will notify you and tell you who the culprit is automatically, even if you don't think to make a search.  This can save a tremendous amount of time.  If you find someone duplicating or using your work unscrupulously, you are protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).  

This is a great service people in a variety of professions: content developers, webmasters, freelance writers, novelists, and even teachers who grade essays should check up on it.  One more tool in the tech-toolbox, but that’s not the best part for us bargain shoppers.

Free Tool Alert: Copyscape offers a variety of banners you can put pin on your work to deter others from plagiarizing it.  The few seconds it will take to input an image at the bottom of your blog posts, paste in the footer of webpages, or append to a full length article you submit to an editor for publishing (usually before you are actually paid), can save you a lot of heartache and potentially a lot of money and time pursuing plagiarism later on.  

So take some precautions, especially when they are free.  Start using the Copyscape Banners whether you have the service or not.  It will make you look savvy, and the rest of the world think twice about ripping you off.

And as always at Freelancing To Freedom, we believe free is a pretty good price.

Making Money Online: Finding Work From Home Writing and Editing

So Many Websites, Which Ones Actually Pay?
If you are looking to make some money writing online or are looking for a career where business casual is your bathrobe, I'll have some articles coming out in the near future that'll help you get started.  You can be assured that you absolutely will make money writing for the websites I review because I will have made money writing for them myself.

oDesk:  Here are my experiences making money on oDesk to date.  Check out the tips section for how I got the job and strategies to getting that first gig.