• Business and Finance
• Family
• Computers and Internet
• Auto and Trucks
• Education
• Health
• Hobbies
• Home Improvement
• Legal
• Marketing

• Home
• Arthur's Articles Home
• Browse Categories
• Browse Authors
• Submit an Article
• Search for Articles

Home » Business And Finance Articles » Freelancing As A Career Option

Freelancing as A Career Option

Home bound workers can either consider telecommuting or freelancing. While telecommuting may keep you out of your home for some hours a week, online freelancing is a good way to make money if you are forced to stay at home. For example, homemakers, part-time students, retired folk, or others who wish to supplement their income from jobs or businesses can all consider freelancing.

Freelance Skill Sets

You can start earning as a freelancer as long as you have skills that someone is willing to pay for. For example, writers, web designers, photographers, and programmers can earn a substantial income by creating articles, websites, portfolios and software from home. The Internet is a hot and viable source of income for freelancers from around the world. Your target customers can be webmasters, online business owners, blog owners etc. For example, blogs and wikis are hot sources of income for freelance writers nowadays, and there's no reason why you can't tap into this market if you possess good writing skills.

Freelance Income

On the flip, your income may fluctuate from one month to another. As with all businesses, freelancing does not guarantee a stable paycheck at the end of the month. So keep a small kitty reserve for dry days or have another source of income for which you can work part-time. Be prepared to accept boring, low-level work initially just to keep the cash flow strong. Once you get a good reputation for providing original, high-quality work at reasonable price, then clients will flock to you.

Freelance Advantages

Probably the best thing about freelancing is that you get to work at your pace, in your own hours, from home, and be your own boss. That means, your shop is open 24x7. And as long as you provide good quality work and meet deadlines, your clients will remain happy with you.

In order to be visible, you also need to be seen and heard in the right places, like forums, blogs, online groups, etc. Spend time everyday to visit such sites because they are invaluable repository of freelance gigs and email addresses of prospects. Alternatively you can sign up with freelance sites like Elance.com, GetAFreelancer.com and Scriptlance.com where you can start bidding on projects and snag a few as early as today!

To conclude, a freelance business is one of the best ways to earn money from home and to work for your own self. If you've got a fair amount of time on your hands, maybe you too should consider freelancing as your full-time career alternative or supplementary income source.

(Hint: While you can find plenty of lucrative freelance assignments on Elance, the other sites mentioned above generally tend to feature lesser-paid projects. However, if you're just starting out as a freelancer, the competition on Elance can prove to be really tough. So you might want to first try GAF and Scriptlance to build up your portfolio, and then go for Elance.)

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Bridging Loans

A couple of years ago my wife and I were in the process of selling our house. We were pretty sure we had found a buyer and had agreed on a price acceptable to both them, and us but they wouldn't be able to buy our house for about three months. My wife and I were totally ok with this since we weren't in any particular hurry to move, we just wanted to move into a bigger home outside of town, somewhere a bit more rural.

Well, one weekend while we were driving around the countryside looking at houses, we saw the perfect farmhouse. It was exactly what we were looking for. Not too far out of town, on a quiet road, overlooking a little lake and surrounded by tall oak trees. In short it was perfect.

We contacted the selling agent and found out that the price was within our budget, but only just. We told him it would be three months before we'd be able to buy it and this caused him to pause. Apparently there was a lot of interest in that little house and he couldn't justify delaying the sale for three months. So we let it go.

Why a Bridging Loan?

We did find another beautiful house so the story has a happy ending but is there anything we could have done to get that first house? The answer, had we known it at the time, would have been a bridging loan. Bridging loans are short-term loans offered by commercial lenders to borrowers for a specific purpose. They can range in time from two weeks, for a very short loan, to up to three years for commercial bridging loans. Homebuyers who have not yet sold their property and wish to buy require these bridging loans.

Interest Rates

The interest rates are probably higher than for your typical mortgage but this is because of the added flexibility and convenience you have from the lender. There will also be set up fees involved. However, they may work out at significantly cheaper than some of the alternatives such as renting accommodation. There will also be many situations in which the price will be well worth paying if it means getting your dream home.

You should always shop around before agreeing to a bridging loan as rates and fees can vary significantly. You don't have to get it from your mortgage provider although there may be advantages to doing so.