by Aqeel Syed on April 23, 2009
Ali Shah asked here.
“I write useless php and ajax apps for my uncle and for fun but i just want to do some productive stuff, I tried freelancing lol never worked. No one accepts my bids. I am more like learner, I dont consider my self a pro and i won’t. I was doing Bcs but didn’t finish, i will go abroad to do Btech cert. and then bachlors from abroad. I have alot of time in my hands and i want to utilize it in some really good way. I want to make myself a portfolio. I want to make an app. What should i make.?”
Building up a portfolio (a collection of your work) is essential. Many employers will require it before they consider you for a job. Take the time you need to produce something that will impress them–it’ll really pay off.
Graphics designers and web designers those I come to contact have very nice portfolios. But programmers rarely bring any samples of their work to show. Freelancing & job hunting is more competitive then ever now. You need to 
have a clear focus, a good portfolio and you should be excited about you worked on. Build a free app, promote your cool stuff online, highlight and bring it to the attention of employer.
Things that will help:
- creating your own portfolio site
- publishing code you have written on the site
- keeping the published work focused on the job you want
Don’t put your portfolio in your resume, only include your portfolio website URL in resume. Only include bullet points.
If you are fresh out of school you can build few cool apps to demonstrate your programming skills. But if you’re experienced you should display your best work. You have the luxury of chosing your best work and displaying it.
Make sure the code is focused toward what you want to do. If you want a J2EE job, leave out the Visual Basic, Access, PHP, etc.
You can compare yourself with other successful programmers.
Hope it helps you and our readers 
by Aqeel Syed on April 8, 2009
Data entry jobs from home are hard to start up and it needs a lot of effort, self-motivation and knowledge. Its not easy to find a data entry job specially a data entry job that can earn you 4 figure salary.
Most people searching online for data entry jobs are scammed. Data entry scams can be easily identified when a company demands money to be sent for a training kit etc. Employers pay money to the employee and not vice versa. Therefore warning bells should be heard while coming across such offers. Another warning is regarding advertisements blaring of get-rich-quick schemes.
It is advisable to join popular and respected online forums, which are free of cost.
Mostly scam data entry sites without giving any details on the kind of data they just say “typing data into a couple of fields” and demand a registration fee. Instead of the job, they send an eBook asking to write ads. This is called affiliate marketing. These scams have three ways of misleading; first, data entry scams do not pay to enter names or addresses into database. Secondly a registration fee is charged to gain access to list of merchants, which can be obtained free elsewhere. And thirdly they hide the fact that more money will be extracted later.
So stay away from these scam sites, always use established trustworthy sites like GetAFreelancer or Elance.
by Aqeel Syed on March 29, 2009
People often asks me different questions about online freelance work, Yashwant Senha from New Delhi has asked a few questions through email. They are very commonly asked questions, I’d answered these questions in this post. This post also provides good basic information for freelancing newbies.
Yashwant asked, “Can I really make money as freelance writer?”
Yes off course, it is possible to earn a decent amount of money from freelance writing. Some may even make a full time income as a writer. There are many successful freelance writers, many of those I know are from India and Pakistan. They are making their living by freelance writing.
Yashwant also asked, “How much I get paid for an article?”
There are many variables to it like quality of article, its length, to whom you are selling it, location of your client (region), place of contact etc.
Article Size: Rule of thumb for freelance writing is pay per word, on average people who get work from freelance sites get paid 1 – 5 cents/word. So if you write a 500 word article for a client, you can earn $5 – $25 USD per article depending on its quality.
Quality: Clients can pay you 1 – 5 cents or even more depending on quality of article. If you have good copyrighting skills you can do very well in freelance writing.
Location: For example clients from Western Europe and North America pay higher then clients from China or India.
Place of contact: This is a very important factor but mostly ignored by freelancers. If you got contacted through DigitalPoint Forums chances are you will be paid peanuts like $1 USD per 500 word article versus ProBlogger Job board or SmashingMagazine Job board. Point is that you’re marketing directly to end customers or your clients are resellers. There is a new breed of contractors growing with econom crises. They are resellers, they get work from small & mid size businesses & individuals from USA/Canada/EU and then get it completed through freelancers in Asia. These middleman earn from you, they keep 70 – 80% of fee. They pay you peanuts for working with them. So beware of them. However if they pay peanuts, they get monkeys 
Quality writers always prefer quality job boards & sites.
3rd question from Yashwant, “How I will get paid?”
There are many international payment methods like PayPal, MoneyBookers, Escrow, Bank/wire Transfer or even you can have your own MasterCard through Payoneer.
I hope it help you Yashwant and our readers, wish you best of luck with your freelance writing endeavors 
by Aqeel Syed on March 27, 2009
Its quite a time since I learned about freelancing, about 5 years! But I started working as a freelance blogger/blog designer 3 years ago. I love freelancing and recommend it to others. Before starting freelancing I had a clear concept of what I’m going to do but many people struggle to understand freelancing. This guide is specifically written for freelancing newbies.
So What is a Freelancer?
A freelancer is a person who is self employed. Freelance work is used in many different professions, but most commonly a freelancer works in the fields of writing and editing, photography, web design, graphic arts, or computer programming. In any given profession, freelancers sell or contract their work to a client rather than being employed by a business. You had listened about “Work from Home”, freelancing is working from home.
Who Can Freelance?
I was not able to find a job for myself in IT sector as I was a student, wherever I went I was asked for 3 – 5 years of experience. I’d enough experience of building blogs & web design but no one was interested in my skills in Pakistan.
Ah! I guess I was very lucky to stumble into freelancing and it worked great for me (Hope for you also).
Things You Should Know!
If you have decided to work as a freelancer, you need to know following things.
- You need to have good English Writing & Reading Skills (its a must, as you have to do all sort of things yourself, contacting potential customers, marketing your skills, providing customer service on projects acquired, creating reports, if you can communicate well, you have a good chance to be a successful freelancer.
- As a freelancer you can find many jobs of different categories like Writing, PHP coding, ASP and .NET coding, C++ related jobs, Web Design, Graphics Design or even Research or Data Entry jobs. Bottom line is that you can find a job in your field of interest but you must need to have some sort of specialty.
Where to Freelance?
You can find freelance jobs from a freelance website like GetAFreelance.com, there are dozens of freelance job sites. Some are free to join, some require membership fee but beware of scam sites. GetAFreelance.com is free to join freelance site, so its good for you to start.
Do you find this article helpful? You can express your thoughts through comments section and if you have any question, please feel free to ask.