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by  Celine Roque Written by  Celine Roque . Web work doesn't necessarily involve earning an income. Through the Internet, we can give back to the global community and do a different kind of online work — volunteering. Here are some ways to use a little of your time to help others. Look for organizations that you can work with online.  Many non-profit organizations have some volunteers working only through the Internet. The  United Nations has a database of online opportunities  for which you can apply.  NABUUR is another online volunteering platform that connects local communities with online volunteers. For both sites, you can choose from a variety of tasks, including research, translation, writing, design and much more. Just remember that if you're going to work with an organization on a specific project, such as redesigning its web site or setting up an online marketing campaign, treat them as you would your regular clients. Have a contract ready, make a list of ...

by  Dawn Foster Written by  Dawn Foster . Photo by: borman818 As a freelance online community consultant, I spend a lot of time thinking about ways to stabilize my income to reduce the ups and downs that come with having my own business. The most obvious solution is to manage your pipeline to make sure that you have new projects to replace the ones that are completing, but it's also a good idea to have alternative income streams to complement your main client work and fill in any gaps. In an ideal world, you finish one project on Friday with your next project ready to start on Monday; however, we don't live in an ideal world, and even our best planning efforts occasionally go awry. While my client base has been fairly steady, I'm always concerned that I might have gaps. I would rather have plans to fill those gaps rather than being caught off guard and unprepared, so recently, I have been experimenting with alternative income streams that will generate regular...

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from  WebWorkerDaily  by  Meryl Evans Written by  Meryl Evans . Sitting here scanning my email, I shake my head at the worthless information I see in many "From" and "Subject" lines. Not only do the poor choices I see make it harder to figure out what's in the emails without opening them, but also the senders are risking recipients skipping their messages altogether. The following are examples of what not to do. Email fail #1: Bad "From" addresses . These come straight from my mailbox: Programs No-reply Customer_service Salesusa Admin Register Contact These "From" addresses give no clue as to where the email has come from or what to do with it.  If these emails had used the company's name or the sender's name, they'd be much more useful. When the time comes that you need a writer, you might scan your mailbox to jog your memory for a writer you know. So which email will you open? An email from  "Contact", ...

by  Darrell Etherington Written by  Darrell Etherington . We've all probably used either  Monster.com  or  Workopolis.com  at some point. Whether or not we did so successfully or enjoyed the process is another story. Looking for work online can feel clumsy, impersonal and of questionable effectiveness. Even professional networking apps like  LinkedIn  haven't really made significant advances to the way we go about searching for jobs on the web. A new service, called  Raveal , hopes to bring some fresh perspective to the online employment search game. Raveal is aimed at the job hunter, promising to represent those who list themselves with the service as people, not assets. It's an attractive prospect when you're coming from a situation where you feel significantly less than human in the meat market that is Monster. And it has a distinctly simple, clean Web 2.0 look that at least shows the site's designers take their job seriously. Once I got into the proc...

May 11th, 2009 (7:00am)  Dawn Foster  via WebWorkerDaily Last week, I admitted that  I am an information junkie , and I wanted to follow up this week with a few tips for feeding your information habit by mining Twitter for information. Twitter tools are popping up like weeds lately, so rather than try to be comprehensive, I'm just going to highlight a few of my favorite tools for getting information out of Twitter. Twitter Search Twitter's built-in search engine  is probably my favorite way to find information in Twitter. It is great for quick searches to find specific pieces of information, watching trending topics, and persistent vanity searches for your name or company. While I do use the search engine to type in queries, the real power is in using RSS feeds for searches and running them through  Yahoo Pipes  for additional filtering. In many cases, I use Yahoo Pipes to loop through a series of keywords from a CSV file to search Twitter for each of those keyw...

from FreelanceSwitch - The Freelance Blog Word of mouth works! A potential client hears rave reviews about your products and services from someone they trust. The advertising is believable and motivating. And it doesn't cost you anything - other than consistently delivering a service that keeps your clients happy and coming back for more. It's surprisingly effective. One of my freelancing spheres is computer support to small businesses and home users. Over two years ago I reached the limits of my availability, and stopped advertising. Since then I have continued to receive hours of work most weeks purely from word of mouth. Two friends will be chatting over coffee. One will mention computer problems, the other will mention me, and another job is in the bag. But word-of-mouth advertising reaches a very limited set of people. It only reaches as far as the friends of your clients, and only when there is a knowledge of their need for your services. That's where testimonials...

From Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, July 2009 What a difference a year makes. last summer, the energy and finance sectors of the economy seemed to be thriving, and manufacturing was going strong. Today, many cities are relying on government programs, universities and stalwart industries, such as health care, to bolster employment in a weak economy. Those factors appeared frequently when we assembled candidates for our 2009 best cities list, which focuses on places that have stable employment plus the talent to create new, well-paying positions. A robust job market makes these cities safe havens during the recession and will give them a head start toward growth when the recovery takes off. When our numbers guru, Kevin Stolarick, evaluated U.S. cities for their growth potential, he looked not just at the overall number of jobs, but also at the quality of those positions and the ability of cities to hold on to them when the economy softens. (see our methodology) says Stolarick...

from  The Art of Manliness  by  Tony Three months ago a good friend of mine lost his job during the 2 nd  round of layoffs at a struggling dotcom.  He was the sole breadwinner in his household, had just bought a new home, and had three young boys under the age of 7 (one having serious medical issues).  Like many of us, he faced stiff competition and a market where employers are cutting benefits.  So how did he find fulfilling full-time work in 90 days? He dove headfirst into a job search and utilized all of his networking talents.  Within a day, all of his 400 friends on Facebook knew his predicament, with a half dozen sending leads his way within hours. He put out his feelers on LinkedIn and reached back to past employers now working in various positions across a wide range of fields.  He jumped on an opportunity when it presented itself and took a job that wasn't as glamorous but paid the bills.  To his surprise, it was this "consolation" job that led to a dre...

from  WebWorkerDaily  by  Celine Roque Written by  Celine Roque . I've noticed that many new freelancers tend to be nonchalant when responding to online job ads. Maybe online applications appear more instant and casual when compared with the traditional alternative of showing up for a series of interviews. Even though applying for a freelance job online is fast, it doesn't mean it's easy. You need to consider several issues before rushing your application for a prospective project. Learn how to read between the lines.  Job ads often  give away more information  than most people see. Be diligent when it comes to finding any clues about the type of freelancer that best suits the job, as well as the best way to apply. Know exactly what they are looking for.  Spend some time researching the company (or the individual) that posted the ad. Doing this helps you choose the appropriate tone and approach for your application. When I applied as a blogger for WebWorkerDai...

picture by yeleyko | article via  lawandmore.typepad.com The world always needs suits, that is, those paid to be in charge.  And usually they are paid much better than the non-suits, including brilliant litigators, genius writers/bloggers [like myself], popular performing artists.  In addition, we humans seem hardwired to want to remain in our comfort zone and suits provide that zone of comfort.  That's exactly the reason successful maverick boutiques have as front-people a suit or more.  Myriad times I have been counseled by BigFoots in the field of communications, "Jane, get a suit to go with you and your ragtag team on sales calls." In the June 2009 edition of THE ATLANTIC "Do CEOs Matter?" the  article  confirms that it takes a suit to keep organizations and projects on-track.  No, it probably doesn't even require a leader, never mind a charismatic one.  The current conventional wisdom is that probably, given the macro picture then and the intern...

Improve your social networking etiquette IQ with our expert advice on some sticky situations. How can you politely decline friend requests? Effectively introduce yourself to someone who doesn't know you well? Thoughtfully connect two contacts? We've got answers.   By  C.G. Lynch  via CIO.com May 20, 2009  — via CIO  — One of the most fundamental rules of social networking etiquette: You must carefully consider who you "friend" or "connect" with on services like Facebook and LinkedIn. According to career experts, the people with whom you associate, in many ways, reflect upon you. picture from kikolani.com Deciding who to connect with, however, can be a tricky endeavor, since social networks have grown to include people from your personal and professional lives. Some people choose to connect with colleagues on Facebook, while others decide that they want to keep that network for just friends and family. When it comes to social networking etique...