Manila Freelancer

Outsourcing is the process of hiring other people (skilled workers, professionals, consultants, etc.) to perform a specific task or number of tasks that are related to your business.

It is a time-honored practice that is still being used today. Outsourcing can mean a huge difference in your home-based business, especially if you know when to use it to your advantage.

When to Outsource:
Outsourcing is not for everyone. So before you decide to hire someone for the job, determine if your home-based business will benefit from it. Consider outsourcing if these factors are in play:

• There is a task involved that you don’t have the time, training or skills for. These tasks can include accounting and bookkeeping, secretarial or administrative or production-related.
• The tasks you need to complete are seasonal or temporary.
• The tasks are too time-consuming for you or will require the purchase of bulky and expensive equipment.
• You don’t have the time or the willingness to learn new computer programs or to operate new equipment.
• You don’t want to hire a permanent employee to do the job.

How to Outsource:
Find an outsourcing service that offers experience and reliability. If some aspects of the tasks you need to complete are confidential in nature, the firm or the individual should be able to keep it as such. Look for skills and specialization, preferably in a service which has better or more skills than you have.

Try to compute how much you’re spending on a particular task per hour. Look for an outsourcing service that offers less than that rate. Your goal is to save money by outsourcing, so you better find a service that will do just that.

As to the question whether you should hire a firm or an individual, that depends. Most experts recommend you work with a firm that has the experience and offers quality service. Hiring an individual can sometimes mean being at the mercy of that person. If he/she gets sick or swamped with other work, your tasks could suffer. A firm can offer you more guarantees. However, hiring an individual may be good for temporary or seasonal tasks. Again, that will depend on what you need to accomplish for your home-based business.

The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo is the biggest prize money rodeo in the world it paid out around $5.5 million to contestants last year and the most prestigious, deciding which cowboys will wear the gold buckle as world champion each year.

The first NFR was held in 1959 in Dallas and it later had stints in Los Angeles and Oklahoma City before moving to Las Vegas in 1985, where it has become one of the hottest tickets in town. The Wrangler NFR has sold out its last 220 performances, dating back more than 20 years.

What is the National Finals Rodeo? [More]

Sun Microsystems in its ongoing commitment to the local developer community announces that it will bring Tech Days to Manila from 17 to 19 June 2008. Revolving around the theme of Open Opportunities, Sun’s premier global developer conference will focus on fostering “Innovation, Collaboration, and Integration,” among the vibrant developer population in Philippines.

The three day, Sun-sponsored event, will be held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel,giving attendees the opportunity to explore cutting-edge technologies including JavaFX, OpenSolaris, JRuby, MySQL database and GlassFish projects. In her keynote, Aisling Macrunnels, vice president, Software at Sun, will discuss the increasing role communities play in the software industry, how technologies and the companies and communities that create them are increasingly interconnected, and how the power of community can and should play a role in next generation platforms. In addition, Tech Days will feature Ajax and Web 2.0-style frameworks and toolkits, examples of real-world solutions, demonstrations and hands-on training, all to help boost technical competencies and the skill sets of developers. Sun has added a new technology track dedicated to NetBeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

Tech Days supports the Philippine software industry’s 2010 Flight Plan to advance the local knowledge-based economy and reiterates Sun’s commitment to support and collaborate with the Filipino developer community, said Cynthia Mamom, president and managing director, Philippines, Sun Microsystems. [More]

So what is the Microsoft Red Zune? Is it going to be the so-called iPod killer?

Zune is more than a brand from Microsoft that incorporates a line of portable media players. It is also provides a software that will drive the devices, and an online service for acquiring and sharing media. The flagship Zune product is the portable media player, that is competing directly with Apple’s Ipod. The Zune was released in the US market back in November 14, 2006 with a price tag of $249.99.

The first release of Zune has a 30 GB hard drive which stores up to 7,500 songs, 25,000 pictures or 100 hours of video. It also has built-in FM tuner with Radio Data System, 3.0-inch screen, and 802.11 wireless networking. The player comes in three colors black, brown and white. Supported codecs include H.264, MP3, WMA, WMV, MPEG4, JPG and AAC6.

The wireless networking connects two Zunes together, enabling the sharing of “full-length sample tracks of select songs”, recordings, playlists and pictures with others. Tracks received from another person can be played for up to three days or three plays, whichever comes first, after which it will need to be purchased via the Zune Marketplace store their official name for the store.

The Zune is also capable of connecting to an XBox 360 device, which allows the user to stream music, videos, and pictures via USB. Microsoft Points is used to buy music via the Zune Marketplace. [More]

Being a writer is not all that it’s glamorized to be. You need to meet often insane deadlines, you need to write on topics that you have to do a lot of research on, and in the end, you may not be paid a lot.

If you are a novelist or a poet, then the monetary returns will be high only if you are famous; otherwise, you will need to keep your day job.

However, writers still unite and work together for writers rights, and here are five great websites that you as a writer can visit when you need help and resources.

The Good Websites that Can Make Writing Fun

Want a top 101 list every year of great websites that you can visit as a writer? Then log on to Writer’s Digest at http://www.writersdigest.com/ . Here, you can find more resources on writing, agents, and what kinds of writing get paid the most.

The Writers Market at http://www.writersmarket.com  is a great place to visit if you want to know who the markets are for your kind of writing. The online edition of this popular offline publication shows you contact information for various people involved in the publishing process.

Be aware of scam artists by visiting Preditors and Editors at http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/ . This site lists scam agencies, magazines, contests, and publishers that you should watch out for when scouring the field for potential markets for your work.

Eager to meet up with other writers? Then go to Absolute Write through http://www.absolutewrite.com/ . The site’s forums allows authors and writers to interact with each other, give advice to new or starting writers, and share information on publishing. There are also articles on how to improve your writing.

If you need an agent, then go to Agent Query at http://agentquery.com/agentquery/default.aspx . Through this site, you can look at lists of agents and search them by the topics that they want to represent, their location, submission rules, and how to contact them.

Keep on Doing Research

As a writer, you need to keep on doing your research, and to keep yourself updated on the latest news in your field. As you know more about your market, you can find yourself getting better jobs and honing your writing skills at the same time.

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