Critical changes were made to Facebook – freelancers need to understand them!

Weekly Newsletter for Freelancers: Here is the latest newsletter of this week starting on 29th of January 2018.

In the run-up to the Christmas busy period, Facebook introduced significant changes that will impact the reach of your posts to Facebook whether you make them for personal or business reasons.

Many freelancers and other businesses use Facebook to promote their goods or services that are offered directly or by a link to a website or blog.

At the end of 2017, it was expected that the number of Facebook users had well and truly passed 2 billion. Freelancers cannot ignore this market.

This is The Top 20 Valuable Facebook Statistics – Updated December 2017 which you can read here. Facebook has explained An Update to News Feed: What it Means for Businesses here.

Mari Smith is an expert on Facebook marketing and has about 200,000 followers and her video explains what the changes mean and what you should avoid doing if your reach to your audience is not to be penalized.

You can watch Mari’s video here. If you are a frequent user of Facebook I recommend that you follow Mari to keep abreast of the changes that Facebook keep rolling out.

Motivate Yourself!

“Ransomware is unique among cybercrime because in order for the
attack to be successful, it requires the victim to become a willing
accomplice after the fact.” – James Scott

Vitally Important To Your Success In 2018 Is Your Being Motivated To Review Your Browser And General Cyber Security.

Currently, I am reviewing for IT Governance Publishing Graham Day’s Security in the Digital World – for the home user, parent, consumer and home office.

This is an important book because it focuses on the cybersecurity sector of the economy in which most freelancers operate.

What is clear is that we are all vulnerable to being cybercrime victims more than the average worker because of the way we work and communicate.

If you are like me you will have a number of browsers that you use every day. I currently use Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer daily and we all need to understand their vulnerabilities and management requirements.

It is very easy to take your cybersecurity for granted and not be motivated to take security precautions. That is a mistake because the cost to you when something goes wrong can be very high. There is no shortage of statistics and reports to say that we are all very vulnerable.

One of these reports is by CIO.com which you can read here. If we suffered a ransomware attack it would be a disaster not only in rectification and potential loss of data but also in lost productivity and income.

Graham Day has included in his book a Personal Digital Security Top Ten of actions that we should take. With flaws in CPUs now being discovered and the constant attacks of crackers (as Graham Day calls them) it is important to always be on your guard for your cyber security, see the latest news on the CPU issue here.

This alone is worth the cost of the book and I recommend that you buy it. Here is the Amazon link:

Productivity and Budget Tip of the Week

Have You Read: Why Clients Aren’t Lined Up Outside Your Door (And What To Do About It)?

Christmas for 2017 has gone and I hope that you had an enjoyable one with family and friends. If you are like me the thought of where the next gig is coming from did pop into my mind every now and then and I had to tell it to go away.

This is perfectly natural occurrence for people working in the gig economy.

Sara Horowitz who was the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Freelancers Union has decided to accept another challenge which has yet to be revealed. However, Sara’s good work with the Freelancers Union of supporting independent workers will continue.

I wish Sara well, but it will not be last we hear of Sara as she is a particularly clever person as she is the chairperson of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Sara has a great interest in the New Economy Forum and the Future Of Work and you can hear her view’s when talking with Christine Lagarde, The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund here.

To prove the point that the support from the Freelancer’s Union will continue on Justine Clay has written this article to start off the

New Year: Why clients aren’t lined up outside your door (and what to do about it) which you can read here. Caitlin Pearce will take over the role of Sara Horowitz as the CEO of The Freelancer’s Union.

For freelancers starting out or looking to diversify in 2018, Kate McKnight has written 20 Most Marketable Freelancer Positions in 2018 (and Beyond) and you can read her article here.

Work-Life Balance Tip of the Week

Is ‘More Exercise’ On Your Work-Life Balance New Year’s Resolutions List?

Essential for every freelancer is work-life balance management! If you are involved in a lot of computer work that involves long periods of sitting you will know that you are vulnerable to back and next pain.

I was talking to a chiropractor over the Christmas break and he told me that workers that sit too long at their computers make him a lot of money.

Yes, I confess that I was a patient! He reminded that exercise is a part of work-life balance.

Meghan Rabbitt has written 7 Exercises That Instantly Un-Hunch Your Shoulders when you stay too long at your computer. Meghan’s article appears very appropriately in prevention.com website and you can read it here.

Dr. Xiaoqui Chen who is a physiotherapist and a post-doctoral researcher has done extensive researcher aimed at helping computer and office workers and this is what she has said:

“Some risk factors are modifiable, such as a lack of physical activity, a lack of physical capacity of the neck and shoulder muscles or a poor ergonomic setup.”

That’s good news because these are factors we can modify to improve neck pain.

I like the prevention exercises that Dr. Chen recommends and you can read an article on her work and exercise recommendations here.

Freelancer.com community has a lot of understanding of the freelancer lifestyle. They frequently have articles about the traps of not watching your work-life balance and has an article that reminds us entitled

7 Ways to keep a happy and healthy freelancing lifestyle. The article is written by Renata Miranda and can read it here.

Financial Tip of the Week

Have You Read Top Online Scams Used By Cyber Criminals To Trick You?

Online Scammers!

When I was starting out as a freelancer I did not know that there were so many scams and fraudsters on the internet. There is a lot! They are not easy to pick when you are starting out because they are so clever.

Even though I had worked as a banker, accountant and certified financial planner I was caught by one and lost money. It was an important financial lesson and it is the basis of the financial tip of this week.

This quote says it all:

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” – Aldous Huxley

You can’t change the fact that scams and fraudsters exist, but what you can change is your knowledge of what to look out for so that you don’t get caught.

Here are Top Online Scams Used by Cyber Criminals to Trick You? which appears on Heimdal.com and was written by Ioana Rijnetu and can be read here.

Amazon Associates Website Case Study

The history of the Case Study can be read at links to the previous newsletter issues.

The work on the Amazon Associates website has progressed with new articles being added which can be seen here:

The articles have been searched engine optimized, but have not yet been promoted on Facebook or Twitter.

The research works are continuing and the current results can be seen here:

Freelancers And Cyber Security

We have gained approval from Robert Siciliano to bring you extracts from his books related to cyber security for freelancers. Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert and consultant.

He also gives self defense and personal safety seminars. Robert provides safety and identity theft fraud prevention tips and advice on multimedia channels in the United States. We have his approval to bring you weekly extracts from his books: