The Lady Programmer

One of my long overdue plans is now something that I was able to do these past few days: if you are a regular visitor of this blog, you may have noticed that I had added more advertisements and added a featured header on this blog. The featured header is not a WordPress plugin but it a built-in feature of this Flexibility theme v2.0 template which can be turned on and off. I decided to turn on that feature and add more useful content to it through widgets.

Now I’ve decided to work out monetize this technology and freelance blog effectively through several sources not only through actively writing paid reviews. The changes I had made are not really major: I could say these subtle but dramatic. I wanted to have more advertisements posted on the blog by posting at every possible place but I had to choose make my choices so that these would not overpower the blog’s overall appearance and content.

Again, my knowledge in CSS, HTML and programming helped me do those little adjustments. I am not yet finished with this task, but I am very pleased with the initial changes.

I will be working out an “advertise here” page anytime today, so that I can start accepting direct advertisers.

I had mentioned previously that there are freelance SEO skills is always sought in many web design jobs. Many clients are now finding people who can optimize their sites for search engines.

Here are some job offers found in various freelance sites:

• Web designer and SEO optimization
  Need assistance updating current eCommerce website selling childrens products.  Need images optimized for website.  Need current webpages re-designed (using pappashop webhost interface) to new design parameters.  Need site optimized for search engine.
• Landing Page Specialist
  Create themed, siloed websites for specific keywords.
  Knowledge of creating landing pages that comply to Google Adwords Quality quality standards.
• Search Engine Optimization and Backlinking
  I am in need of SEO of my website. I am looking for someone to go through my website and update the PHP code with:
  1.  Keywords.  You can come up with a list and I can also give you the keywords.
  2.  Metatags.
  3.  Description.
  4. Create backlinks
  5.  Submit to search engines.
  6.  Link building

Not every trained programmer and web designer came out of school armed with an idea of what search engine optimization is. I met a lot of IT personnel who had no idea what good SEO can really do to their company websites.

I got out of doing web pages as a freelancer to discover what SEO is. Some of you may know that SEO simply stands for search engine optimization. Why did I do this? There is quite a growing demand for these skills in constructing new websites.

As I tried to scour the web to know more about SEO, I realized that it can actually be a separate skill apart from doing web design. In fact, this is a skill that is always practiced, experimented and even contested in many blogs. It is not some skill that is written in stone and taught in schools, unlike learning and mastering new programming languages.

This led me to discover that blogging can also be a fruitful career – there are a lot of ways to make money from it. I also made some mental notes:

• I’ve done a number of paid posts and got spanked by Google a number of times. Being spanked by Google lessens the chances of doing more paid opportunities. Hence, doing paid reviews alone are not a sustainable means of income.
• Affiliate marketing is also a good passive income.
• Social networks can also be a great way to promote a blog and is much easier to gain traffic and loyal readers. Always have time for it.
• Search engine traffic gives stable traffic in the long term, and are most likely to click on ads like Adsense. It is also possible to keep loyal readers, but I think not as loyal as those in social networks.
• Keeping loyal readers motivate me to blog more, not only doing reviews to get paid.
• Paid reviews on every post make a blog less interesting.
• Unlike learning a programming language, SEO is not a skill that is learned and mastered over a few days.
• I never stop at learning new things because there can be opportunities that are waiting to be discovered.

Am I leaving my blogs? No, not that I’ve discovered the prime benefit of blogging to my freelance career – to promote my work. I still hope to learn SEO too and this blog can be a good start to understanding it.

Have you ever think of quitting your day job?

Getting into a freelance career is often associated with the image of freedom, coffee shops, travel and huge opportunities. In truth, this kind of life is achieved by the successful few who had managed to reach this nirvana. Most freelancers are struggling through both extremes of the “feast and famine” of freelance careers.

Unstable Career Option?

A close friend of mine often argue that freelance is not a stable job. It is NOT a stable job indeed. On some months you’d get projects that seem to come one after another which leaves the freelancer tired but feeling rich. On some days there are no jobs that await the freelancer which leaves this guy rested but pocket-poor.

Road to Riches

A freelancer often starts at the rock-bottom going up. He starts up with hundreds and thousands of freelancers throughout the site.

Only a few manages to get ahead. Those who own impressive profiles and exempt ag

After I resigned from my work as a maintenance engineer, I started to take stock of my IT skills to sell my services as a freelancer. I was not happy being employed in my previous job because I was doing a lot of work but getting paid a bit low. I tried applying to other jobs, but then I discovered that I can also get to be my own boss by being a self-employed freelance programmer with the skills that I had gained.

photo credit: nkzs (SXC)

There are so many opportunities for freelance programming and web design from online jobs. I would highly recommend finding opportunities this way. If I would take my skill offline the chances of getting jobs are a lot less than those offered online. Online job marketplaces are still the best way for me to get fixed income. Many job opportunities come from smaller companies who often need people to outsource their work.

Hottest Freelance Programming and Web Design Jobs

With the growing popularity of blogging, consider learning PHP, AJAX, Joomla, HTML, CSS and XML to design pages and customize widgets that appears on blog sites. The same technologies are also used to create web pages. There is also an increasing demand in SEO skills – many clients often post out web designer jobs with SEO considerations. Putting up E-commerce websites are very common too. Knowledge on Ruby on Rails is getting to be in demand too.

Learning mobile phone software applications is also a good move as more people are getting internet access in their mobile phones. Java knowledge is often the skill that is often used for developing applications for these handy devices.

Database development has always been a staple in many MIS departments and there are even many outsourced jobs on this skill. Microsoft technologies like ASP, Access, VB.NET are often used to develop these databases because developing applications with these platforms are quick.

Macro development and VBA continue to be a staple to automate some tasks in Microsoft Word and Excel. There is also a lot of demand for these kinds of skills too.


Freelance Programming Frequently Adapts to IT Trends

Learning this technology should always be fueled by great interest in understanding programming. The programming language that may be hot today may be outdated in the next years. One should not only seek the gratification of earning a lot of money from freelance ventures. Clients seek and hire talented and experienced professionals who can do work within an agreed timeframe.

Opportunities for freelance jobs are favorable to those in IT. What do you think?