Totally Web-ulous: The Importance of Web Presence

 

The Internet, also known as The Web, is the most powerful tool in the freelancer’s toolbox. Without it, the freelancer is left looking for work by pounding the pavement, is stuck sending in finished projects via bike messenger, and communicating with client’s and potential client’s using the old fashioned and overlooked wall mounted dialing device.

The importance of the internet is more than obvious—it slaps you in the face the moment you wake up in the morning when the urge to check your Facebook newsfeed becomes like an ache that you must scratch while sipping your other addiction, espresso. Neither you nor I can go a day without our addictions—the internet and the caffeine, for good reason.

Our world runs on cyberspace, and if you want to get your piece of the ever growing black hole you need to hop into your cyberspace ship and set a course for internet success.

All mixed metaphors aside, as a freelancer, you can’t really find success without some kind of online presence. No one will want to put their precious project into your hands if they don’t know where your hands have been. Your online presence is a huge part of your freelancer resume, if you don’t have one, you might as well tell your potential clients that your spaceship ran out of plutonium rods and you have to drop out of hyper drive (you don’t have the skills so you might as well not apply).

The online presence is so important that many employers are screening applicants by doing a Google search with the applicant’s name. If a potential client did a search for your name, what would they find? If the answer is nothing or ‘my Facebook page’, you are in deep space sludge!

If you want to add a boost to your chances of landing that dream client or project you need to create an online presence immediately.

First things first, you need to purchase a domain name and create a website. Visiting www.GoDaddy.com will get that step completed in an hour. My website, www.DanicaSorber.com,  was provided by Website Tonight, and is hosted by GoDaddy.com. The service is cheap, the design process is painless, and the results are…well, see for yourself.

Second, you’ll want to register yourself with various online freelancing sites like www.Elance.com, or www.oDesk.com. Both of these sites have TONS of freelance jobs available, and once you build your profiles, you’re given a permalink that you can insert into your website contact information, or add to your sales letters and resumes.

You can see my oDesk.com profile here.

Third, you should start a blog, which, as you can see, can be a great way to create an online presence. Though, I don’t have many followers yet, I do hope to gain a few more with my work, my networking, and my awesomeness.

Fourth, you should start creating online content of your own. If you’re a freelance writer like me, you’ll want to apply to be a contributing writer for other blogs, online magazines, specialty sites, or discussion groups.

I am a proud and excited contributor for www.iGotMomPower.com, a website dedicated to the sharing of experience, advice, stories, heartaches, and triumphs amongst moms (and sometimes dads). You can see my contributor’s profile here.

The fifth but not last thing you should do to create an online presence is to create social networking profiles that are strictly for professional purposes. Sure, social networking sites are meant for personal use, but more and more people are seeing the usefulness of creating professional profiles and connecting with other professionals around the world. One of the most popular professional networking sites is www.LinkedIn.com. Registration is free, and you can connect to professionals in your own industry, or cross industry lines and rub elbows with potential clients in other areas.

You can see my LinkedIn profile here.

If you want to be a successful freelancer you need to make use of the most powerful tool ever invented—the internet.

Get online.

Get connected.

Get noticed.

 

Prioritizing Without Palpitations: Making Daily Life Work

Despite what the name says, being a freelancer doesn’t actually leave you enough free time in the day to get the things done that you need to get done. You can work from 8am until 8pm to make enough to make ends meet, but where do you fit the rest of your life? Where does your family, your home, and your spiritual life fit in with all of that freelance work?

I find that making time for each piece of your life in the day isn’t as difficult as some would think, but it does take some sacrificing on your part in order to make a balanced life for you and your family.
A daily balance is obtained by making sure you put your priorities in order, and making sure that what’s more important is getting more of your time.

In order to give you a taste of what my day is like, I am going to drill a hole into the locker room of my day and let you have a peak at what’s important to me and how I use those priorities to shape my day.

My Spirit



First and foremost, I put my God before anything else in my life, as it should be. Before I even check my email, chat with my clients, or even brush my teeth (that comes after my coffee and breakfast), I sit down at my desk and log in to my Word of Life Online Quiet Time Diary.

You may not be a Christian, but if you have a spiritual routine that you enjoy doing, make sure to find time in your day to do it. You’ll find that even 5 minutes of focusing on what brings you peace and focus will add depth and stability to your day.

My Spouse

Next, I focus my attention on my husband and his needs. He works from home, and he has a lot of administrative tasks to do first thing in the morning. In order to make sure that he gets the time he needs to work without stress, I feed the children breakfast and make sure that they are busy playing.

Not only do I make room for my husband during the day, I also make sure to put him and his needs above my children, my home, and my work. Why? You’re probably shocked that my husband is prioritized above me kids…well, here’s why.

If my relationship with my husband suffers, it affects my children, my home, and my work negatively. If my relationship with my husband is healthy, everything else falls into place.

I balance out my day by giving at least 2 hours of my undivided attention to my husband, and that’s usually in the evening once the kids are in bed. We watch TV together, play World of Warcraft together (come find us on the Sentinels server), or play card games together. Can’t have true balance without my other half.

My Kids


(Ruth, Timothy, and Naomi)

This is a picture of my children, my blessings, my precious gifts…they are beautiful, they are amazing, and they are a handful! Not only am I their mother, I am also their teacher, their coach, their cheerleader, their nurse, their disciplinarian, their friend, their enemy, and their comforter. I am many things to my kids, and I love each and every one of my roles, but finding time to tend to all of my duties can be very difficult.
I am lucky enough to have a great nanny who cares for my kids while I work, but once 3pm arrives, I am mommy full time once again. Despite the fact that I have a nanny, I am still available to my children no matter what they need. Honestly, I love the unannounced visits, the random kisses and hugs, and the smiles—all things that help make a really bad day a whole lot better. Sure, the unannounced visits during chats with clients can cause trouble, but my clients know that I work from home so the occasional toddler chatter in the background is expected from time to time.

If your blessed enough to have kids, you need to make time for them during your day. Even if you can only spend 2 hours with them, make those hours count. Turn off the TV, pull out the craft box and spend time chatting, exploring, learning, creating, and loving with your kids.

If you don’t have kids, you can totally skip this step and jump right into making your home your next priority.

My Home



Recently my husband and I became homeowners for the first time. We’ve gone from 1000 sq ft to almost 3,000 sq ft…that is a lot more space—a lot more space to CLEAN! Three kids can make a mess, but so can my husband, my cat, and my puppy. There are a lot of creatures to tidy up after, but I have to make sure to find time during my day to care for my home. In the morning, after I have my time of spiritual focus, and then see to my family’s needs, I spend the remaining hour before the nanny arrives to clean like a fiend! I wash dishes, start a load of laundry, feed the pets, pick up the living rooms, vacuum, and sometimes I even get a sip of coffee or juice in there somewhere. I make sure that my home is clean so that when the nanny arrives, I’m not embarrassed to let her in the door.

In no way am I saying that the wife should be the housekeeper, but I love providing a clean and safe home for my family, and the perfect time for me to get cleaning into my day is in the morning before I start work.

My Work

Now…finally…we’ve come to what you’ve all been waiting for. I usually start work around 9:30 every morning. I love being a freelance writer because I get to choose who I work with, what projects I take on, and how much I charge per project. My mornings are loaded, my work day is long, but when the end of the day comes around and I prepare for bed, I can rest comfortably knowing that I have balanced my day and that I have accomplished everything that I wanted to do.

You can take a chip from my snack bag and set your daily priorities to match mine, but you may not have the same things going on in your life that I do. The most important thing you can take away from this blog post is that you need to sit down, make a list of what’s important to you, and make room for those things in your day.

If I can make time for my God, my husband, my kids, my pets, my house, my clients, and actual work…you can make time for your priorities.