Weekly Newsletter for The Freelancers: Here is the latest newsletter of the week starting on 20th of August 2018.
Identity theft is a serious crime that can take a victim many years to recover from, both financially and reputation wise. Freelancers’ online reputation, in many respects, is about their ability to earn a living, because if it is damaged they are less likely to get contracts.
It is as though they had an avatar that was separate from their physical body that lives in a digital world and if their identity is stolen or damaged, it will take them years to recover in the physical world.
Tripp Donnelly has written Why your digital reputation matters and how to influence it. Tripp’s article appears in Forbes.com and you can read it here.
If you don’t have a Google Alert for your personal and business name to monitor your digital reputation, then you are not looking after your digital avatar and it can have repercussions on your ability to earn an income.
Saikat Basu has written 10 Uses of Google Alerts for freelancers for makeuseof.com which you can read here. (Number 9 is about reputation management).
Andy Wolber has written How to track topics with Google Alerts and inbox by Gmail which you can read here. If you want to read more about online reputation look inside this eBook by clicking on icon below:
Motivate Yourself!
“The Internet will disappear. There will be so many IP
addresses, so many devices, sensors, things that you are
wearing, things that you are interacting with, that you won’t
even sense it. It will be part of your presence all the time.
Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And
with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with
the things going on in the room.”
– Eric Schmidt, Google chairman
Why Should You Be Motivated To Start To Use Amazon’s Alexa For Your Home And Business?
Amazon Alexa is coming to your bank and it is going to impact on the banking and finance sector greatly over the coming years. One of the banks in Australia is the National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB) and they have already started operations which you can see from this NAB news article here.
However, Alexa can also help you with your freelancing business because it can save you time and thereby increase your productivity which allows you to increase your income. Scott Matteson has written 10 ways Alexa can help you get work done for the
techrepublic.com which you can read here.
The impact of Amazon Alexa on our daily lives has barely started in Australia, but what is clear is that it can be used for good like many great innovations. Vivian Manning-Schaffel has written How to use Amazon Alexa to make your life way easier. Vivian’s article was written for nbcnews.com which you can read here.
I anticipate that the services that will be initially offered by Amazon Prime in Australia will increase, so I have closed my Amazon Prime United States account.
For those who like video and voice commands rather than only voice interaction with Alexa here is a review of Amazon Echo Show from Nick Pino for techradar.com which you can read here. The icon link below is to the bestselling eBook on the same device:
Productivity Tip of the Week
Freelancers Need To Know That It Is Ok Not To Be Ok!
When I was researching this section of the newsletter, I came across this article by Arianna Huffington Millennials Come of Age as America’s Most Stressed Generation from 2013 which appeared in a blog post in HuffingtonPost.com. You can read Arianna’s post here.
Yes, Arianna did establish the Huffington Post and has a very impressive bio on the Wikipedia which you can read here. In Arianna’s article, you will recognize many of the reasons why millennial families are feeling stressed and anxious.
It was obvious in 2013 and is more so today, that rapid change is occurring for the millennial generation.
Psychology Today has shown that there is a clear link between stress, anxiety, and depression. Alice Boyes has written why Stress turns into depression for PsycholgyToday.com which appears here.
If you have ever had an experience of what Alice has written about, you will know that it will have a dramatic impact on your ability to get even routine things done. For you, as a freelancer, this can have an enormous impact on your productivity.
For the millennial generation of freelancers and those moonlighting from their day job to help the family budget, Tyra Seldon has written You good? The importance of checking up on a fellow freelancer. Tyra’s article appeared on the Freelancer’s Union blog. You can read Tyra’s article here.
Tyra’ article makes it clear that being a member of a support group is very important for freelancers who are millennials battling the stress of uncertainties on many fronts. That is why this support network exists on the Facebook and this is why this eBook was written to help people:
Work-Life Balance Tip of the Week
A Happiness Ritual Can Make Your Work-Life Balance Better.
A daily happiness ritual can make your work-life balance better because it can change your attitude to your day and make you ready and calm to face the challenges.
When you are calm and happy it makes you more productive. Sarah Berry has written Five scientifically-proven morning rituals to make you happier every day. You can read Sarah’s article in the Sydney Morning Herald here.
A happiness ritual is more than mood management. Neel Burton has written 10 Simple Ways to Improve Your Mood When You’re Feeling Down which every freelancer should know. Neel’s article appears in PsychologyToday.com and you can read it here.
It appears that there is a bridge of calmness that can be built to better work-life balance through mindfulness as a happiness ritual. This article In work-life balance mindfulness is the bridge appears in SIYLI.ORG and you can read it here.
Here is the link to Amazon best sellers for the millennials (and others) new age meditation eBooks here and Apps here.
Financial Tip of the Week
As a Freelancer, What Type of Bank Do You Want?
When I was researching this segment of the newsletter I came across this article from the American Banker, but it is true of banks whichever country you live in. They are looking at the requirements of the gig economy.
The article was written by Nathan DiCamillo and is entitled What kind of bank does the gig economy want? You can read the article here.
It is clear from this article that freelancers need to build flexibility into their financial planning. Vishal Dhawan has written Financial planning: Freelancers need a more flexible investment strategy which appears in business-standards.com which you can read here. This is a top selling eBook on the subject:
Amazon News
When I was reading the latest news on Amazon I came across this statement:
It bears repeating that Mr Bezos started out as a humble
bookseller, selling them over the internet from out of his
garage in a Seattle suburb.
This statement appears in James Moore’s article Amazon’s stunning success down to Jeff Bezos willingness to defy Wall Street and take a long-term view. James’ article appears in the Independent.co.uk which you can read here.
From July 1st, 2018, Australian consumers are locked out of Amazon’s overseas websites according to this article from Emily Piesse Amazon will block Australians from overseas sites from July 1. Here’s how it will affect you which appeared on abc.net.au which can be read here.
I am not aware whether the status of this has changed. However, I am aware that Australian Prime Members purchases over AUD49.00 that are supplied from the United States are international freight free for eligible items, see here.
The weekly AWS news video link to acloud.guru is here. They are the leading trainers globally for AWS freelancers.
Amazon Associates Website Case Study
We are currently looking at the operational link between the social media channel Pinterest, Amazon and whether the links should go to bestsellershourly.com. For those that are technically minded, you can read about this here.
The history of the Amazon Case Study can be read as links to the previous newsletter issues. There is no change for this week as we are adjusting our articles to take into account the new offering of Amazon Home Services (AHS). Details of AHS can be read in the 12/02/2018 edition which is here.
We have stopped showing the links for new articles as we have discovered that it could be having adverse impacts on the search engine optimization of the website Best Sellers Hourly. We will advise you when new articles are added. They are currently being worked on.
By this time you can check our social media:
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:
How Do I Protect Myself From Mailbox Raiding?
