Freelancers: Don’t Let Work Kill Your Relationship

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Working from home. It’s the dream, right? Never again will you have to wake up and drag yourself to the office. Since you’re around the house all the time, your family obligations will be a cinch to take care of. When you work remotely as a freelancer, it’s much easier to manage your work/life balance, right?

The unfortunate reality is that working from home is hard work, indeed. Sure, you don’t have to wake up and drag yourself to the office—but that convenience comes with a price. In our quest to be successful, sometimes we create the inverse scenario: the office never leaves us. As it turns out, your work/life balance may actually be more difficult to manage when your workplace and home are one and the same. It’s hard to keep up with things when you work all hours of the day and night, only sometimes finding time to eat and sleep. [Read more…]

How to Make It Through Those Lean Months

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Working online is an exciting thing, but there is always a higher degree of uncertainty, especially when it comes to finances. Of course, it depends on the exact nature of what you do online, but if you are a freelance writer working for clients, there are periods when there is no client work at all. If you have your own online publication, and you depend on advertisers and Adsense for revenue, then you are at the mercy of Google updates – among other things.

lean months

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The stark truth is that winter is coming lean periods do come, and all you can do is to prepare yourself so that you can make it through. Some times may be tougher than others, but if you are prepared, then you’ll survive.

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How Do You Handle Blogging While Out of Town?

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How Do You Handle Blogging While Out of Town?

Maintaining a well-oiled blog can be a difficult process that can be hard to do when you are out of town for a conference, vacation, or other engagement. However, with a little bit of planning, it can be easy to make sure your blog stays updated while you aren’t at home.

Have the Right Resources

In order to be a good blogger while you are away, you also need to be a good one while you are at home. Be sure to take advantage of a free writer’s resource area website that offers tips on effective blogging that gets your point across while also being time efficient. These tips are helpful no matter where you are blogging from.

Use a Freelancer

If you’re going to be away for a long period of time, it may be helpful to use a freelancer to fill in the content gaps when you aren’t able to. Hire a capable freelancer from a site like oDesk or FlexJobs that has a background that is related to your blog’s main topics. It’s best to hire someone before you leave so you have time to learn their writing style and they will be able to learn the type of content and formatting you like.

Schedule Ahead of Time

If you can fit it into your schedule, start stockpiling blog posts that can be scheduled out while you are away from your office. These can be evergreen topics which are timeless and contain useful information that anyone can use, even in the future. Some ideas might be best practices, trends in the last year, or tutorials that will still be timely in the time you are gone.

Write About Your Travels

Another option is to write about your travels and what you are doing out of the office, if it’s possible. For instance, if you are going to a conference or event that is related to your blog, it would be great to do a round-up post with what you have learned, photos, and key takeaways that you will be able to put into practice with your blog or work once you get back to your home base.

 

No matter which option you decide to take (which could be a combination of all of the above, depending on what time allows and the amount of content you need for your site), making sure your blog stays active while you are away can help keep your traffic engaged and showcases your dedication.

 

photo credit: szeke via photopin cc