iFreelanceWork.com Blog

I’m sure you’ve seen many articles regarding the economy, what to do, how to stay afloat. I must say, I too have been thinking hard about staying in business or not, with companies going out of business left and right; companies like Circuit City, National Wholesale Liquidators,  Steve & Barry’s… well, you get the idea. But what is their to do?

The truth of the matter is.. ride it out. With lack of sales & revenue, being conservitive would be the way to go. Things like cutting back on certain expenses is a good start. Even cutting back on spending on advertising. Now of course, I don’t mean to take your name out of the running completely.. after all, you still need to stay in business.. But, perhaps it’s time to try and find ways to advertise for free.

But of course, you think .. well, I already did all that .. what more? My advise.. Hang tight.. wait it out.. and bring in income any way you can; even if that means obtaining a second income until things pick back up.

But, for those of us to stubborn to go that route, I suggest freelancing. I know it sounds like “spending”, but think of what your time is worth. Let’s say you are starting a business.. More than likely, you’ll need a website. But most importantly, once your set up, you need revenue.. Which means, you are out selling. You don’t have time to learn what a web server is. You don’t have time to decide whether you want Linux or Windows, PHP or ASP, Java (is that coffee?) or whatever other computer mumbo-jumbo is there.  And to be honest, on websites like iFreelanceWork.com, getting someone to build a website shouldn’t cost you more than a few hundred dollars. Whereas, had you tried to do it yourself, it might have taken you one month. Putting this in perspective, if you are or were getting paid 60,000 at your previous job, you just cost yourself 5000 bucks .. and remember, any money you spend, is all tax deductible.,

I am not one to publically display my political views. Whether or not any of us wanted a democratic president or a replubican one is in the past. Complaining about it or being excited about it changes nothing. We have what we have. Our fate (both your’s and mine) rests in the hands of our newest president .. I will say however that I believe he is for the people, and will do what is within his power to get us out of this slump. And, that’s all I’ll say about that.

Getting off topic slightly, let’s return to what captured your attention: promotion. Promotion, as we all know, is the key to a successful business. Of course, just because people are coming to your site, doesn’t mean they are going to buy. But, we’ll save that for a different topic. People always say that Google is the place to be. Other’s say Yahoo.. I say, sort of and sort of. Google is good, but getting on the first or second page probably won’t happen in the first 10 years of your existence, unless your site is getting tons of outside hits and links from other sources.  Adwords will get you on the first page for sure, but you better have the big bucks to pay for it. Let’s put it this way: I did a study by putting up a site and setting to just $25 a day. Now, for a small business starting out, your budget is very thin, especially for a company with no backing other than what’s in your wallet. So, let’s do the math: $25 x 30 days (people surf the web on Saturday’s and Sunday’s and all hours of the day and night) = $750 .. a month.

Many people think that $750 is a lot of money, but necessary to promote your site. But wait.. If you are paying (and I’m low balling things here) $0.50 a click that means you get a whopping 50 clicks per day starting at 12 midnight. If you are advertising worldwide, then you probably will have 50 clicks by 6am local time.. and if you are advertising nationally, you’ll be lucky your ad is running by noon.

Answer? Well, their really is none, but perahps I would try Yahoo. They are slightly cheaper, and their are still a ton of surfers around the world using it.  I would also start locally, building a local business.. or regional.. START SMALL..  Trust me from experience, start small.. don’t look at the big fish already swimming in your money.. rather stay focused on what you are donig and what you have.

Good luck! See ya soon..

Uncle D