Weekly Newsletter for The Freelancers: Here is the latest newsletter of the week starting on 6th of August 2018.
Can you remember a few newsletters ago when we linked to an article from MillennialMoney.com called Money is not the goal, time is. If you cannot recall the article, it was written by Grant Sabatier and you can read it here.
The reason why I am reminding you is that for the millennial generation families especially, this is true. They are under time pressure more than past generations because both parents are often required to work. At the same time, this is occurring for many middle-income families.
Their income is stagnating and living costs are rising. This has given rise to not only a multitude of apps to help freelancers and their families but also articles written for freelancing platforms to help them.
We are constantly monitoring these articles for you. We have found 11 Genius productivity hacks you need to know written by Larry Kim for the Upwork.com blog which you can read here. The business and personal productivity apps for Amazon are here. The best sellers in Amazon eBooks on home-based businesses are here.
Motivate Yourself!
“The worst thing you can say is ‘I want $X for this job,’
leaving no opening for negotiation by the other side. Better
language is ‘I hope to earn between $X and $X.’ That gives
the other party more flexibility.”
– Bill Coleman
Freelancers Should Be Motivated To Train Themselves In Negotiation Skills
Imagine that you receive a telephone call from a large local ex-employer after you had resigned to start a family and work at home as a freelancer. At the time of the call, you were happily working away at home as a freelancer with a number of contracts.
They wanted you to come in one day a week as a freelancer. When you left, you had access to a range of non-financial benefits that would make life easier. The financial deal offered was very attractive, including daycare for your children. What can you negotiate?
Kayla Matthews believes that you can negotiate for none financial benefits in a situation like this. Kayla has written 6 Things you should negotiate for as a freelancer (that aren’t money). Kayla has written her article for TheNextWeb.com and it appears here.
There are some posts for freelancers that stand the test of time and Tom Ewer’s The Complete Guide to Setting and Negotiating Freelance Rates is one such article. Tom’s article from 2013 appeared in LifeHacker.com.au and you can read it here.
Negotiation is an important skill for freelancers for both financial and non-financial benefits. Freelancers need to motivate themselves to keep abreast of developments. The Amazon Best Sellers in negotiation skills are here.
Productivity Tip Of The Week
Productivity, Work-Life Balance And Exercise Are Linked For Freelancers
It is easy to forget that productivity, work-life balance and exercise are linked when you are a freelancer working for yourself. Exercise and taking care of yourself matter because they not only keep you physically fit but also help you mentally.
They should be viewed as part of your job because they help you cope better with the demands that are placed upon you. Ron Friedman has written Regular exercise is part of your job for the Harvard Business Review which you can read here. It is hard to argue with his list of benefits which are here:
- Improved concentration
- Sharper memory
- Faster learning
- Prolonged mental stamina
- Enhanced creativity
- Lower stress
There is, of course, the old argument that you do not have time to exercise because you are too busy trying to make money. Nora Inveiss has some tips on this in her article How to exercise when you’re working 9-5. Nora’s article appears in DeskTime.com which you can read here.
For those who feel that they are tied to their desk and need to exercise there, Alexis Reale has written 7 Exercises you can do at your desk for FlexJobs.com which you can read here.
If you decide that you really like desk exercises here is some more help:
Work-Life Balance Tip Of The Week
Doing The Right Things First Is An Important Part Of Work-Life Balance
There is a blurred line between productivity and work-life balance. If you do non-important tasks first instead of the important ones, it will inevitably have an impact on your work-life balance.
The reason that this occurs is that your brain is tricked into wasting time. Wasting time, for freelancers, translates into money and you will have to work harder to generate money.
Tim Herrera has written Why Your Brain Tricks You Into Doing Less Important Tasks. Tim’s article appears in the New York Times and can be read here.
Here is a link to my article that I wrote for the Freelancers Union on 7 Self-management strategies to optimize your time here. For those who want to have a look at the best seller in time management from Amazon, it is here.
Financial Tip of the Week
As A Freelancer Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Fiverrpro?
As a freelancer pitching for gigs, it takes a lot of time and effort. Competition is global and ultra-competitive. This competition is both on the basis of the providers you are competing against and the price of your quote.
Fiverr.com has recognized that there is a need to differentiate their offering of services to clients so that they can select from a list of vetted suppliers to their clients. They have created a new type of listing for their Fiverr.com freelancing platform.
You can read about it here. For freelancers who meet the assessment criteria, this is an important financial opportunity. They have created a separate section for this service: Fiverr.com/pro.
Sarah Berger has written about one user of Fiverrrpro.com with her article How this 25-year-old freelancer made $150,000 in 6 months off Fiverr. Her article appeared on CNBC.com which you can read here. The Kindle eBook Fiverr Masterclass can be looked inside here.
Here are three reviews of Fiverr Pro:
- Paul Maplesden: My Fiverr Pro experience, 37 order in – AMA
–Check here - Quora: What are some opinions about the Fiverr Pro Badge?
–Check here
Amazon News
The first Amazon Prime Day has come and gone for Australian families. Anthony Caruana has reviewed how it went with his article Was Amazon Prime Day any good which appeared in LifeHacker.com.au and you can read here.
It is early days for Amazon in Australia and our region. The ASEAN countries which have enormous potential in our part of the world have over 600 million people, see here.
From July 1st, 2018 Australian consumers will be 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 appears 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 have produced a new article for the BestSellersHourly.com website entitled Amazon Prime Benefits Matter to Australian Families – 10 Reasons Why! which you can read here
We are currently looking at the operational link between the social media channel Pinterest and Amazon. We are looking at whether the links can go to BestSellersHourly.com. For those who are technically minded, you can read about this 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:
Image Source: ROBERT SICILIANO
What Can an Identity Thief Gain from Stealing My Mail?
