Manila Freelancer

Instant messaging is the lingo du jour. With e-mails and chats becoming more prevalent and accepted in business, you’ll have to hone your instant messaging skills in order to compete.

If you want to get a home-based job, here are some of the most important IM skills you’ll need to learn:

Typing skills
Until someone invents a voice-activated instant messaging service, it’s a type-heavy technology. Learn the keys on your keyboard and learn to type fast. When you’re working in a home-based job, quite often you’ll find yourself communicating with multiple clients all at the same time. To keep up, you’ll need to clock in at way over the 20 words per minute or so you’re currently capable of typing.

IM jargon
The instant messaging jargon is a whole new way of communicating using shortened words, alternative spellings and a whole sentence in the form of several consonants and a few vowels. Learn what the acronyms mean and how appropriate they are for the occasion. Some of these words are too colloquial or slangy to be used for business purposes so understand which ones to use during your chats with clients or business associates.

IM Etiquette
Your home business is still a business so it’s important that you hone your skills in instant messaging etiquette. Using lots of capital letters for emphasis, for example, may be misconstrued as you being enraged and shouting. It’s also good manners to find out if the other party is available through instant messaging.

Be brief. If you find yourself going over the limit, send an e-mail instead. And yes, do take careful consideration about what you write. Instant messaging may be instant technology but all your messages can be easily saved with a simple click of the mouse. Don’t write anything you’ll regret later on.

The blogging phenomenon is big and growing by the minute, and you can surely be in it! However, if you are not a writer, do not be daunted. There are people who blog using music, as a way of releasing their emotions and showing off their musical artistry.

People even blog using photographs: photobloggers, as they are called, can better express themselves through images. Photoblogging can be a good way to let your emotions run wild especially if you have no time to sit down and think of what to write – and especially if you are a traveler who likes to take pictures of your tours.

How Can You Earn Money Through Photoblogging?

One way to earn residual income from photoblogging is to be an affiliate program member. Affiliate programs will post ads on your site. Whenever your site visitors click on these ads, you get commissions. All you need to do is to specify what kinds of products will appear on the ads posted on your site.

Another way for you to earn money through photoblogging is to provide visitors with smaller, lower-resolution versions of your images, but sell your images through digital photography marketplaces. You can also have a secure shopping cart software package installed on your site so that people can buy your pictures from you.

How Can You Earn More Money?

The key to getting people to buy your photos is to not only take good ones and high quality ones, but to take pictures that you know they might use. You have to be prepared, however to surrender your picture ownership rights.

Read more on the legalities surrounding selling and owning pictures, and do research on other ways that your photoblogging can be both an exciting and financially rewarding experience.

Knowledge is the best weapon against work-at-home fraud. To that end Work-At-Home Scam Prevention Week (March 17-23, 2008) will provide work-at-home wannabes with important information and resources to find legitimate home-based income opportunities and avoid scams.

Work-At-Home Scam Prevention Week is the brainchild of Leslie Truex a work-at-home mom who has been guiding would-be home-based workers towards legitimate work opportunities since 1998 through her website WorkAtHomeSuccess.com. “The majority of email I receive asks for my opinion on a work-at-home opportunity and more often than not, the opportunity is a scam,” says Truex. “I created WorkAtHomeScamPrevention.com and Work-At-Home Scam Prevention Week to give people who want to work at home a place to get the information they need to evaluate work-at-home opportunities, and also keep them abreast of new scams.”

Truex reports that the most common work-at-home scams found today include envelop stuffing, assembly work, email processing, payment processing jobs (fake check scam), data entry and typing, rebate processing, and some business opportunities. “There are many legitimate ways to make money at home and these opportunities are easy to find. But people need to understand the difference between the legitimate work and the scams. One rule of thumb is that if it advertises fast, easy money without any experience, it’s probably a scam.” [More]

Sure, you could just sit there in front of your computer and while away your time by browsing websites, chatting and sending messages, videos and photos.

But why not turn your love of the Internet and use it to earn cash and some rewards?

Here are 5 ways you can stop wasting your time online and make money instead:

Sell stuff online
Got old books, figurines, comicbooks, usable bicycles, last season’s handbags just gathering dust in your attic or closet? Sell them online through Amazon, eBay Philippines or any of those local auction sites that offer auction, swapping or free listing services.

Make money out of your expertise
These days, simply knowing how to do something can mean cash in your pocket. Be a freelancer offering consulting, design, copywriting or programming services. There are sites that post freelancing jobs for your skills and allow you to offer your expertise.

Teach or offer advice
You can also earn money teaching language and dispensing advice online. Since you are not limited by location or geography, expect to communicate with people from anywhere in the world, which opens up doors of more opportunities for you.

Sell photos
Are you a talented shutterbug? Then stop wasting your time storing your photos in a hard drive and make money from them instead. If you have excellent skills in photography, sell your photos on sites such as Big Stock Photo, Fotolia, Shutterstock and Dreamstime. And yes, don’t forget the extra exposure you get from Flickr.

Make money from your blog
If you have your own, make money from ads or offer subscription memberships for premium content. You can also join a blog network and get paid for producing great content and offering excellent writing skills.

If there’s one topic you like to talk about online and you have an online forum as part of your website or blog, make sure to maximize this opportunity to monetize it and start earning money on your blog. Creating and maintaining an online forum is an effective marketing machine and it is a proven method to gather targeted audience according to most internet marketers.

Do you want to generate quality traffic and make money at the same time?

Build a discussion forum that will attract participants and members and you’re well on your way to making money online. Here’s how:

Use your online forum to promote your business.
To do this, it’s best to use your website and offer your online forum as one of the web pages. That way, visitors can view your website, find your forum and join. You keep them logged on to your website so any promotions or ads that you may be hosting from there will be easy for your members and visitors to access.

If you’re hosting a photography forum, for example and are selling photography books, lenses, camera and accessories related to photography hobby, your visitors can easily find those photography related ads on your site and buy from you.

Use your online forum for opt-in signups.
If you’re running an affiliate program, take advantage of the traffic generated by threads in your online forum. Invite members and other affiliates to post and start discussion threads or start one yourself. You can then offer more advice and tips or provide visitors with the opportunity to join your program.

Link back to your site.
If you’re maintaining an online forum that is independent from your website, always provide participants with a chance to get to know you better. Provide a link back to your website from the forum to make sure that visitors will find their way there. When they join you as members or subscribers or buy merchandise, you’ll start making money online.
AirAsia has confirmed that it is to launch flights to Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) in April, and then Hong Kong and Haikou in China in May 2008, growing its route network to a total of 93. The 3 new routes are part of AirAsia’s aggressive Airbus A320 rollout programme to further strengthen its network in the region.

Beginning 15 April 2008, Ho Chi Minh will receive AirAsia’s brand new Airbus A320 at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport. This is further strengthened by AirAsia’s sister company, Thai AirAsia who will be starting its inaugural flight into the city on 4 April 2008. Fares will start from RM49.99/US$10.

By 15 May 2008, AirAsia will start Kuala Lumpur-Hong Kong services with fares starting from RM49.99/HK$99. Hong Kong has long been on the radar for many business travelers and a shopping haven for many tourists. The bustling city is one of the largest financial centres in China, a major international air hub for some of the biggest airlines in the world and a popular tourist destination.

Situated at the north of Hainan Island, Haikou is China’s biggest island with over 8 million in population. AirAsia will launch a direct flight into Haikou from 22 May 2008 with introductory fares starting from RM29.99/CNY68, AirAsia will be tapping into a market of 400,000 Hainanese who are based in Malaysia.

Haikou enjoys a long coastline that features beautiful beaches. The city has many sightseeing attractions including important historical sites such as The Wugong Temple, the Tomb of Hai Rui and the Xiuying Emplacement, the scenic Nanli Lake, great Hainanese food, and even has the ‘kissing fish therapy’ (fishes that nibble at one’s body as part of an underwater skin-cleansing care). With so many attractions, Haikou is a tropical seaside city in every way.

Kathleen Tan, AirAsia, “At AirAsia, we have created new travel demand and with our low fares, we know we will continue to do the same for the three new destinations. The region is getting closer with enhanced connectivity and we are determined to bridge the cultural gap and foster closer ties between families and friends by working closely with Tourism Malaysia to boost traffic between the countries.”

Advertisements for medical billing jobs are quite common. You’ll find them online or even in newspaper ads. They also promise good pay, claiming to be one of the ‘fastest growing industries’ in America and elsewhere and capable of earning you thousands of dollars every month.

There are companies who are willing to train you to become a Medical Biller from home, as long as you purchase the Medical Billing software from them ( beware! some of them are scammers).

Afterwards, All you have to do is be willing to work at home and process bills.

So what’s wrong with the picture?

What the job entails
Instead of doing medical billing and claims in-house, many physicians are currently outsourcing their billing to third party medical billers for better medical practice management. Medical billing is actually the process covering a wide range of activities but the primary goal of any small or large medical billing company is the processing of medical bills and submitting of claims to insurance companies in order to receive payments, for services rendered, for their clients in a timely manner.

If you sign up for this job, you will start running a medical billing center. In other words, you will be creating your own home business. You will be working with doctors and medical professionals (who will be your clients), offering to provide them with billing, processing of insurance claims and accounts receivable services from your home.

What the ads don’t tell you is that a huge majority of the companies that offer you this ‘opportunity’ do not have the right contacts with medical professionals. They also do not have experienced sales people to help find you clients. As a result, you’re on your own. You will have to find and establish contacts in order to find clients. If you don’t already have the contacts to begin with, you might find it difficult to get a leg in.

You’ll also have to invest money in order to start working in medical billing jobs at home. Signing up can cost you anywhere from about $1,000 to a high of $8,000. For that much money, you’ll receive the company’s brochure, a contract or licensing agreement, sample diskettes, CDs and/or videocassettes, reference lists, testimonial letters and the promise of technical support and training, which you may never get.

What to do
This field is highly competitive. If you truly want to work at home in medical billing jobs, you might want to get in touch with established firms that offer this service. If you want to take a chance on your own, look for a company that offers legitimate jobs. Do your research, find out if the company has a brick-and-mortar business, ask for many references, interview these people and then make your decision.

Have you tried doing a medical billing job? Care to share your experience?

Generally, working at home means you’ll have to commit much more time and effort. Many of the tasks that you took for granted when you were working in an office are now all yours to handle.

You have no receptionist to answer the phone, no clerk to photocopy documents and no secretary to manage your schedule. Should your home life suffer just because you have to handle everything? Not if you can help it. Here are simple ways you can strike a work-life balance when working at home:

Talk to your family before starting your work-at-home business.
Tell your spouse and kids what your home business will entail and what you want to achieve. Set the house rules from day 1. It’s easier to implement restrictions when your family understands what they are for. Come to an agreement about what your family members can and cannot do when you’re working at home.

Ask for your family’s support.
Working at home can get tough and if you don’t have the support of your family, it can be tougher. Ask them for emotional and if necessary, physical support. It’s essential to your home-based business success.

Have your own facilities.
It’s better if you don’t share facilities such as phone and internet lines, computers, printers and photocopiers with other family members. Have your own installed or use equipment exclusively for your home office. You’ll be more efficient that way.

Manage your time well.
It all boils down to having excellent management skills. Maintain a good schedule and be flexible for emergencies or errors. Remember that your family needs you, too. Striking a work-life balance doesn’t mean ignoring your home or family. It’s being able to manage both.

Do you want to be a call center agent and work in the comfort of your own home? Callworkz opens its doors to people who wants to work at home.

Callworkz is a newly established call center company based in Manila which currently employs around 60 agents. This new player in the Philippine BPO industry have partnered with an Atlanta-based consulting firm Strategic Link Consulting.

Callworkz provides services for the outsourcing needs of mostly US based companies through a home-based model that allows call center agents to work in the comfort of their own home. Strategic Link Consulting together with Callworkz is targeting to hire additional 200 more agents before year-end to provide inbound and outbound services for US-based clients.

Brian Silverman, Callworkz chief executive has an optimistic goal of generating 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country within the next three years.

Home Based call center jobs are popular in US and Canada and this work at home opportunity inspired Callworkz to duplicate the same home based model here in the Philippines and this young and dynamic BPO company is very positive that this will become successful here in the Philipppines since applying the home-based model can lower costs for its international clients.

According to Junie Pama - Callworkz COO, the three important requirements that they have for aspiring home based call center agents are : [More]

Yes, you can find resources that will let you access work at home job opportunities and you don’t have to pay a single cent. Although sites still exist that charge you a fee just to find a home-based jobs, most jobseekers tend to shy away from them. Instead, they prefer to use sites that offer access for free. Here’s how you can find them:

Use established sites to find jobs.
Sites such as Monster.com, Yahoo! HotJobs and CareerBuilder are excellent sites for work at home jobs. Monster is a Web 1.0-style job website but it is still one of the best places to look for jobs you can do on your own. Type work at home, freelance jobs or telecommuting to search for jobs that fit your requirements. Don’t be stymied by the length of the listings, though. Be patient with your search and you’ll find what you’re looking for.

Craigslist is another website that offers job listings. It’s also highly searchable. To find free work at home jobs here, simply type freelance  jobs on the searchbox. [More]