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Archive for the ‘Freelance’ Category

Zazzle Link Referral Program

Store links that you build will link to the store of any seller that you choose. When a customer clicks on your link, you will earn a referral fee on anything that visitor buys in that shopping session.

This is an example of a store link. Click the link to see how it works.

ONimages Vintage Designs

When visitors to your website use this new home page link, you will earn a referral fee on anything they purchase in that visit! I have chosen many different Zazzle stores to visit with amazing products that you can purchase. Or if you wish you can join Zazzle and leave a comment with the name of your Zazzle store on my blog and I will create a referral link to your site.

Here are some Zazzle stores to visit:

Christianphotogirl Boutique
Prawny
The Candy Store!
Noteworthy
OddBob
Perfect Postage & Cards for your special occasions
clean_world
Cards | Postage | Gifts | More
Katie Tormala Photography
Brooklyn Born Productions
The Jason Mraz Store

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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Publish your creativity on real U.S. Postage

Make every letter a special delivery with your own customized photo stamps printed by Zazzle! Add your own photos, designs, business logos, and text to design your own postage that can be sent through standard U.S. Mail. Perfect for wedding announcements, birthday invitations, holiday cards, and promotional advertising. Makes a unique and useful gift for friends and family.

POW!! postage

POW!!

Innocent postage

Innocent

Pink Delight postage

Pink Delight

Butterfly Beauty postage

Butterfly Beauty

Choose from 7 denominations:
  • $0.26: postcards
  • $0.41: First-class, 1 oz
  • $0.58: 1 oz mailings, unusual shapes
  • $0.58: 2 oz mailings
  • $0.75: 3 oz mailings
  • $0.92: 3.5 oz mailings
  • $1.31: 4 oz mailings
  • $4.60: Priority Mail (up to 16 oz)
Zazzle Custom Stamp Sizes:
  • Large
  • Horizontal: 2.5″ x 1.5″ (image: 1.7″ x 1.2″)
  • Vertical: 1.5″ x 2.5″ (image: 1.2″ x 1.7″)
  • Image aspect ratio: 5×7
  • Medium
  • Horizontal: 2.1″ x 1.3″ (image: 1.4″ x 1.1″)
  • Vertical: 1.3″ x 2.1″ (image: 1.1″ x 1.4″)
  • Image aspect ratio: 3×4
  • Small
  • Horizontal: 1.8″ x 1.3″ (image: 1.1″ x 1.1″)
  • Vertical: 1.3″ x 1.8″ (image: 1.1″ x 1.1″)
  • Image aspect ratio: 1×1

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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Affiliate Resources

Affiliate Programs Directory
Affiliate Scout is your source for affiliate programs. Our affiliate directory is composed of high quality advertisers that are looking for affiliates.

Affiliate Programs – Your guide to the best web affiliate programs.
Your guide to the best web affiliate programs, associate programs and profit sharing.

Affiliate Programs – Affiliate Marketing Guide
A comprehensive affiliate marketing guide that includes a complete directory of affiliate programs.

The Monster of Affiliate Marketing Network
AffiliateBOT.com is the fastest growing Affiliate Network, attracting super affiliates and high paying advertising programs.

Affiliate Programs Directory – Many Affiliate Marketing Programs
A large directory of affiliate marketing programs. Includes affiliate networks, ad networks, popups, popunders, pay per click, plus more.

Howstuffworks “How Affiliate Programs Work”
Affiliate programs can earn you some extra money. Learn about types of affiliate programs, linking methods and how affiliate programs can work for you.

CafePress.com : Affiliate Program : Affiliate Overview
Enables individuals and companies to sell a wide variety of products online with zero upfront costs.

Affiliate programs directory – Associate Programs.com
A searchable directory of rated affiliate programs.

Affiliate Program Directory
My Top 10 – a list of the top 10 affiliate programs which are earning the most money for AssociatePrograms.com – Best Affiliate Programs.

Affiliate program directory and search engine
Comprehensive affiliate program database and directory. Searchable, categorized directory of handpicked, ranked affiliate programs.

eBay Affiliate Program – Create campaigns with a powerful affiliate.
The affiliate program on eBay helps web designers, internet publishers and affiliates earn increased commissions and revenue and drive greater traffic.

Affiliate Network Affiliate Programs Affiliate Marketing
Two-tiered CPA Affiliate Network with high-paying affiliate programs and top quality affiliates.

Affiliate Programs – IncentaClick
IncentaClick Network is tracked in real-time using state of the art tracking tools with fraud detection.

Affiliate Programs
Affiliate Programs – Home Business Journal explores revenue generation at home with free affiliate programs.

Yahoo! Affiliate Programs
Affiliate Program you will have access to links, product information and marketing materials designed to help you generate activity. Drive traffic to Yahoo!

Amazon.com Associates: The web’s most popular and successful
Launched in 1996, Associates is Amazon.com’s affiliate marketing program.

Palm – About Palm, Inc. – Affiliate Program: Palm Store-USA
Become a Palm affiliate and earn money by placing text links or banner ads on your website or emails that drive traffic to the Palm Stores – USA.

Affiliate Programs & Internet Scams A Guide to Affiliate Programs
Part 1 is the Introduction, Picking Niche and Choosing Affiliate Programs, but there are many blogs (including this one) that give away this information.

5 Star Affiliate Programs – High Commission Best Affiliate
In-depth full page reviews of a targeted selection of per sale, per lead, 2 tier and datafeed affiliate programs.

Affiliate Program Center. Free Programs for Affiliates
Our Affiliate Program is by far the best affiliate program going. Not only can you implement thousands of high-end professional templates into your
own site.

Affiliate Marketing with My Affiliate Program: Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing with My Affiliate Program. Industry leaders in affiliate marketing programs and online affiliate programs.

Affiliate Programs
Affiliates programs are an effective Web marketing tool and a natural fit with the nature of the Web since they make value flow along the links.

Affiliate Program
You must enroll and be an approved LinkShare Program Affiliate; prior to applying to the Radisson Program.

Travelocity Affiliate Programs
The Travelocity Partner Network offers two types of partner marketing programs to help you develop your own travel business.

GameZone.com – Your PC and Video Game Connection!
Now, GameZone wants to offer your high-quality gaming site exposure and traffic through our Affiliate Program.

Casino Affiliate Programs Directory – Partner with the Leading
Reviews and rates casino affiliate programs for webmasters.

LinkShare Affiliate Marketing, Search Marketing, ROI Tracking
LinkShare Affiliate Marketing Network

MoreNiche Affiliate Program – Make Money Online!
Looking for an online affiliate program that works? Join MoreNiche for free and make money online!

Affiliate Programs by Joe Bucks
The Joebucks Affiliate Programs allow you to market and promote the worlds leading herbal health supplements and beauty products on the net.

Search engine optimization SEO Affiliate Program – Partner Program
Submit your website URL to 40 major search engines for FREE ! Website Submission to over 75000 search engines and directories.

Affiliate Marketing & Programs Training
Affiliate marketing step by step training system used by over 12000 students!

Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Program Resource – find the top affiliate programs, news, tips, and blog. Submit your affiliate program to be listed on AffiliateTip.com.

iDevAffiliate – Affiliate Tracking Software – Affiliate Program
iDevAffiliate affiliate software provides you with affordable affiliate program software for you to start your affiliate tracking!

Apartments.com Affiliate Marketing Partner Program
Property advertising online at apartments.com. List your apartment and search properties.

JROX.COM Affiliate Manager – Complete Affiliate Marketing System
Starting and managing an effective affiliate marketing program is essential to any By creating an affiliate program as an overall part of your Internet

Make Money Online ProBlogger Blog Tips Affiliate Programs
This is a nice fresh new look that makes the back end of Amazon’s Affiliate program a little more functional.

Commission Junction – A global leader in the online advertising
Further increase sales by complementing your customized affiliate marketing program.

Affiliate and Reseller Programs
If you have a Web site, an E-mail address, or are the publisher of a Newsletter, you can register in our Affiliate Program.

Affiliate Tip Blog by Shawn Collins
By having your affiliate program in a network, you’ll have a lot of exposure.

SimplytheBest Affiliate programs
SimplytheBest helps you to find the best affiliate programs.

Lawguru.com Affiliate Programs
This is our version of an Affiliate Program. The following questions and answers will give you an idea how it all works. It really is very simple.

Affiliate Programs Affiliate Make Money Program
swords.jpg Web hosting is a very competitive market and affiliate programs are often created by web hosting companies in a bid to obtain more customers.

Affiliate Program Tracking Software – AffiliateShop
Build a profitable affiliate network to drive more revenues online with affiliate program software.

Citizen Corps: Programs and Partners : Affiliate Programs
Citizen Corps Affiliate Programs and Organizations offer communities resources for public education, outreach, and training.

Poker, Sportsbook, and Casino Affiliate Programs – Bodog Affiliate
Join the Bodog Affiliate Program for free and earn cash by driving players to Bodog sportsbook, horse racing, casino games, and online poker!

Affiliate programs – Make money by linking to Babies Online!
Show off your new baby to the world with a free online birth announcement! Plus tons of other great (and free!) stuff for new and expectant parents!!

Network Solutions Affiliate Program
Eager to know when we release great affiliate marketing tools? As one of the web’s best affiliate programs, we issue affiliate news on a monthly basis.

NCBuy: Affiliate Programs for Webmasters
Affiliate program offering webmasters news and gaming content, and cobranded web sites with revenue sharing on video game download sales.

Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter: Footnote Affiliate Program
Use of affiliate advertising may be the answer.

Comfi Affiliate Program – make money on the Internet
ComFi Phone Cards Affiliate Program. Commissions up to 26%, guarantied payments, high conversion, more than 5 years of successful work.

Web Site Designers Directory – Affiliate Programs
Affiliate Programs. Directory of web designers, graphic artists, webmaster resources, promotion consultants, site development tools, domains, etc.

Net Applications Partner programs – co-branded reseller, private
The Net Applications affiliate program pays you to refer visitors. For every sale made, we pay you a commission. In addition, we will pay you $20.00 (U.S.)

Create Online Income With Affiliate Programs
Discover how to create an online income with affiliate programs! Find out why you should join affiliate programs to earn cash.

Internet Marketing Affiliate Program Generate Huge Monthly Commission
Internet Marketing Affilate Program 100% Free. Sign up today and you’ll get instant access to our exclusive ‘Affiliate Resource Center,’ put up to $400

Affiliate Program Reviews at ClickQuick.com
In-depth reviews of top opportunities and affiliate programs with message board.

5 Star Affiliate Marketing Blogs, Google and SEO Blog
5 Star Affiliate Marketing Blogs, SEO Blogs, Internet Marketing Strategy and Google News.

Welcome to DISH Network Satellite TV – DishPronto
Here’s how it works: when you sign up with our affiliate program, you’ll get a unique five-digit number, known as a promo code or affiliate ID.

EssayEdge.com: Personal Statement and Admissions Essay Help
EssayEdge, ResumeEdge, and WritingLabEdge have the perfect affiliate program for Website owners. We will pay you to refer traffic to our site.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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  • Filed under: Freelance
  • Shopping Cart Software

    If you are looking to expand your empire by means of hosting your very own store on your website the unless you are going to pay someone to build the store (not always at the most reasonable price) then you will need Shopping Cart Software. With so many versions of Carts out there it can get a little confusing as to which one to choose. So I have posted a few Shopping Carts that are relatively easy to set up and use and best of all free.

    The Art of E-Commerce

    Zen Cart is a user-friendly, open source shopping cart system. The software is being developed by group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think e-commerce could be and should be done differently.

    ViArt Shop Free

    ViArt Shop is an ecommerce package available to install in PHP and offers you one system capable of performing all of the functions needed to run a business online. (limited amount of products to 50)

    Free Shopping Cart Software

    Commerce.CGI is a Free ecommerce shopping cart program complete with a powerful web based store manager application for managing your online store. Commerce.CGI offers two variations to the CGI Cart; Commerce.SQL and Commerce.HTML all of which are free.

    Quick.Cart is a simple e-commerce solution designed for your own web shop administration.

    VirtueMart Logo

    VirtueMart is an Open Source E-Commerce solution to be used together with a Content Management System (CMS) called Joomla! (but also works with Mambo). Joomla and VirtueMart are written in PHP and made for easy use in a PHP / MySQL environment.

    DropShop

    The WP e-Commerce shopping cart plugin for WordPress is an elegant easy to use fully featured shopping cart application suitable for selling your products, services, and or fees online.

    Please submit any comments if you know of a version that should be on this list as well.

    Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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  • Filed under: Freelance
  • Create Stock Photos

    If you look at the sort of shots that get printed in travel magazines and expensive coffee-table books, they tend to share similar attributes. Look for pictures that you admire and try to analyze why you like them. These are some of the features I like:

    Include People
    Magazines in particular always like people in the shot. It gives the viewer a human connection, a sense of being there, and a sense of scale. Photographs evoke emotion and empathy comes with someone’s face. Avoid crowds and simplify the shot down to one person. The young and old are preferred subjects, with their innocent expressions and weather-worn faces respectively. People make your shots warm, friendly, and personable. Just like you are.

    Simple, Clear Layout
    A good shot focuses your attention on the subject by using a sparse background and a simple but interesting composition. Always remove clutter for the picture – this is a real skill. Like a musician, it’s always difficult to make things look easy. Zoom in, get close, get to eye level, find a simple backdrop, look for balance.

    Bold, Solid Colors
    ‘Stock-quality’ images make great use of color. Look for solid primary colors: bright ‘sports-car’ red, emerald green, lightning yellow, and ocean blue. Use a polarizer to bring out the colors. Avoid patterns – keep it simple. Bright afternoon sunlight will add warmth. Alternatively, look for ‘color harmony’ – scenes restricted to similar tones and colors, or even a single color. This presents a calm, restful image where the eye plays with the differing shades and intensities. Look for pastels, cream, or delicate shades.

    Depth
    Always include some pointer about depth. A photograph is two-dimensional but we want it to appear three-dimensional. If you’re shooting a background (mountains) include a strong foreground (people). If you’re shooting people (foreground), add an out-of-focus blur behind them (by using a wide aperture – small f-number).

    Use a wide-angle lens for exaggerated depth. With a 20mm to 28mm lens, get just a few feet from your subject and, with a small aperture (large f-number), include an in-focus deep background too. This exaggerated hyperfocal perspective is used in a lot of magazine shots. What impact!

    Alternatively you can remove all depth by using a long, telephoto lens. This compresses or compacts the image, making your 3-D subject appear flat.

    Dramatic Lighting
    Photographs that win competitions are often ones that make interesting use of light. Look out for beams of light shining through clouds, trees or windows, long shadows, and the effect of side- and backlighting. Shoot in the warm golden “magic hours” of early morning and late afternoon.

    Preparation
    A great shot takes time. Scout out the area, make mental notes of important features, unusual and interesting angles, and changing crowd levels. Take time to prepare the shot. Get there before the best time of day, clean your lenses, set up a tripod or mini-tripod, add a cable release, try out different filters, wait for a good foreground, and talk with people who may be in the shot so that they’re comfortable and will pose well.

    Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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    Make Money With Zazzle!

    Let your creativity shine and get paid for you work.

    At Zazzle, you can share and celebrate your interests and passions with unique one-of-a-kind products from apparel to greeting cards! Whether those interests are pets, family, collecting, art, cars, or sports, you’ve found the place to express your creativity and share what is uniquely you! It’s easy, fun, and affordable. And thanks to our start-of-the-art reproduction techniques and unparalleled customer support, you’re sure to be delighted by the results. Now…prepare to be Zazzled!

    Here are a few examples of what you can easily create:

    In association with Zazzle.com In association with Zazzle.com

    Design Your Own Stamps

    In association with Zazzle.comIn association with Zazzle.com

    Greeting Cards and Post Cards

    Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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  • Filed under: Freelance
  • Tax Deductions For Freelancers

    Tax time is one of the worst times of the year for freelancers. There is a strange fluctuation of work at this time, depending on the nature of the freelance work that you do; many freelancers experience either a surge in work or a drought at this time. The former makes it difficult to focus on doing your own taxes. The latter makes you have to work double-time to find work and makes it hard to think about paying out more money if it turns out that you owe the IRS. By the time that you sit down to deal with your taxes, it’s probably late in tax season and you want to just get the whole process over with. At the same time, you don’t want to rush through your taxes and miss some of the great deductions that are available to freelancers.

    If it’s that time of year for you and you want to know where to start with your freelance business tax deductions, go through the following checklist to get many of those deductible expenses easily organized:

    • Think of the items that you use daily for your job. Many of these are deductible. Your computer (including software and Internet), pens, postage, packaging and shipping supplies, business phone line, fax costs, business banking fees … anything that you use every single day as part of your business may be a business expense so make yourself a list.
    • Now think of the one-time or irregular expenses that you used in your business in the past year. Books that you bought to learn more about the job that you do, work-related magazine subscriptions, websites that you signed up for to search for jobs, classes that you took for freelancing, networking or association membership fees that relate to your business.
    • Consider your transportation costs. You may work from home but you certainly have to sometimes go somewhere for your job. Maybe you have to do on-site or in-library research, perhaps you attend occasional meetings, maybe you took a trip that you used in your work. All of these may be deductible business expenses.
    • Figure out if you had any work expenses that fall in to the category of business gifts. If you sent out Christmas cards to your clients or if you covered lunch when you met with a new project partner, those might be deductible expenses.
    • Look around at where you work. If you have an office set up in your home, you can actually deduct a portion of your home mortgage and utility costs as part of your freelance business expenses.
    • Finally, look at personal expenses that may be deductible from your business. The biggest one in this area is your health insurance; if you are privately insured, this is deductible from your freelance income.

    Tax time can be a hectic time of year for freelancers but it doesn’t have to be stressful. Stay organized, make lists for each of the above categories and set aside a full day of work just to deal with your taxes. Before you know it, the season will be over and you can go on to earning the money that you’ll need to figure out at this time next year!

    Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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  • Filed under: Freelance
  • Stay Focused

    If you work from home either full-time or part-time, you might find that you have trouble keeping yourself on task. For some people, this is an all-around problem but for most of us, there are just one or two things that really get us off track. Identifying that these things are problems for us and then choosing to do something about the problem can help get us back on task and able to work from home more efficiently. This leaves us more time to actually enjoy doing the things that we do from home that aren’t work. Separating work tasks and other home life in this way can make it much easier to enjoy the benefits of working from home.

    So, the first step is identifying what it is that takes you away from the tasks at hand. Even if you don’t think that you have a huge task management problem, you should spend a day paying close attention to what you do with your time. You’d be surprised at how much productivity is lost each day by getting sidetracked while you’re trying to get work done. Make mental or actual notes about everything you do during one day of working from home and pay attention to how much time is spent on each. Then you can ask yourself if you really need to spend your time in that way.

    For me, there were two big distractions which were constantly taking my mind off of my work focus: email and IM. I had my instant message programs running all day and had them set so that I would receive notifications every time that I received new email. This seemed great because if a client needed me, they could hop online and ask me a quick question and get an immediate response. I thought that it was benefiting my business. But then I realized how many times I ended up embroiled in IM conversations that went on longer than they needed to or caught up answering email that was more personal than work-related. More than this, I realized that even quick disturbances would cause me to lose focus and I’d have to take time to get back on track.

    Even after I’d realized that this was a problem, I kept it up for awhile, because I genuinely believed that there was work I’d miss out on if I wasn’t getting immediate notifications. Finally, I set up a new email account and gave the address only to the few clients whose work was important enough to warrant taking time out of my day to give them attention. I then set my IM to only notify me when that particular account received email. I was able to stay on top of those important tasks without compromising the rest of my work day.

    For some people, IM and email are not the problem, but most people who work from home have the distraction that regularly gets them off task. The phone is it for some people; it rings and they feel like they have to answer it and then they get sidetracked. For others, it is family knocking on the door or friends who show up in the middle of the day to “grab a quick bite”. And of course, the self is sometimes the biggest enemy to staying on task; you get up and wander through the house, look out the window, make something to eat, check the TV really quickly.

    Whatever your distraction is, the first step is to identify it. The next is to commit to changing it. And then you can put the plan into action by eliminating the distraction. This can mean turning off the IM programs or the phone, setting appropriate boundaries with family and friends or absolutely insisting to yourself that you stay on track for a certain amount of time. Being organized with your time, sticking to commitments you make to yourself about when certain things will get done and rewarding yourself by making your “at home free time” completely work-free will all lead to a more positive and more productive work-from-home environment.

    Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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  • Filed under: Freelance
  • Pay Yourself

    The number of freelancers has gone up considerably just in the last decade as a direct result of the new possibilities available in terms of remote communication. With rapid internet, IM group chat capabilities, eFax options, and the popularity of jobs which can be done virtually (such as blog writing or graphic design consulting), the work opportunities for freelance employees have become widespread enough to be keeping plenty of professionals happy in their self-employed careers. Amazingly, despite how common it is today for people to do freelance work either part-time or full-time, the freelancer’s job is one which is often not taken seriously by others. One of the most frustrating experiences as a freelancer can be when the work already done is not taken seriously enough by the client to be paid out regularly and in a timely manner.

    Unfortunately, there are many people out there who continue to believe that freelance work is somehow less professional than in-office work. Because of this, many clients and employers take the attitude that they don’t need to compensate you enough or on a regular basis for the work that you have done. Other times, because of the sometimes laidback approach that the freelance relationship takes, the lack of payment can be just an oversight from the client. As you struggle to get your bills paid, this can be a trying experience. But, the good news is that it’s surprisingly easy to get paid for your freelance work if you make a few changes to your approach.

    First of all, the change needs to start with your own attitude towards your work and your money. Many freelancers have an internal voice (or an external one!) telling them that they don’t do “real work”. If any little part of you believes this, you aren’t going to present yourself in a way that demands to be paid on time and enough for the work that you are doing. Do whatever it takes, whether it’s getting external validation from a mentor in the field or saying meditational affirmations each day, to make sure that you actually internally feel that your work is valuable and that you deserve to be paid for it. This internal feeling will shine out through you and actually alter how others deal with you in terms of making your payments.

    Secondly, present yourself as a professional. It can be tempting to have a casual connection with the people you do freelance work for. This is especially true if you are working primarily online because of the more casual nature of email and chat conversations in comparison with in-person meetings. However, if your clients see you as their friendly email buddy, they aren’t going to feel compelled to rush to pay you. Make sure that your online persona is professional. Do this in little ways as well as big ones. For example, use a screen name and email for your work which isn’t cutesy; sure “hott_writer_lady” is what your friends know you as online but your client is a lot less likely to take your work seriously with a screen name like that one.

    Presenting yourself professionally also means being organized and invoicing your clients regularly. Act as if you are the accountant you would pay if you could afford to hire one. Set aside a particular day of each month, such as the 1st, to invoice all of your clients. Use a professional template which includes the date that the work was done, the assignment, the rate and the total owed. Send this out to each client who owes you money every single month. If you have a client who is often late in paying you, you can add a “Date Due” line on your invoice and mark it “Past Due” when it has not yet been paid. This gets the attention of a surprising number of clients and really limits the amount of people who are not paying you in a timely manner.

    If you really have difficulty getting paid as a freelancer and you aren’t able to put in the organized, professional persistence to make sure that you’re getting your money’s worth, you might want to consider hiring a professional to handle the money end of your work. Since you probably only need someone one or two days out of the month, this is unlikely to cost you an excessive amount of money and can actually increase your profits because you’ll be getting paid by clients and won’t be spending time on hunting down money.

    Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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  • Filed under: Freelance
  • Business or Hobby?

    It’s come time again to do your taxes and you’ve discovered a pleasant surprise which turns out to be something of a mixed blessing. Although the bulk of your income comes from your “regular” job, when you sat down to look at what you earned this past year, you were surprised to see that you actually made some money from the freelance work that you were doing. This is thrilling! As you look at the numbers, you begin to daydream about eventually quitting your “real” job and doing freelance work full time.

    But eventually, you pull yourself out of your daydream, look at the mess of papers on your desk and realize that you have an issue to deal with. That issue is your taxes. More specifically, the issue is whether or not the freelance work that you used to do as “just a hobby” is now considered a freelance business. What you hope is that it is. Either way, if you earned money from freelancing, you have to count it as income on your taxes. But if your freelance work has crossed the line from hobby and can be considered a business, then you can also deduct some expenses on your taxes. That’s when you know you’ve made it as a freelancer!

    So how do you know if the government considers your freelance work a hobby or a business? It’s kind of an iffy situation because it doesn’t come down to how much you earned from the work or whether you worked elsewhere fulltime. It’s a lot vaguer than that. But what it boils down to is that your freelance work is considered a business if you approach it as a business. This means that if you regularly apply for paid writing jobs, keep invoice sheets and organized records of your work and income and have set financial goals for yourself, then you consider your freelance work to be a part-time business and the government will as well.

    So what if you haven’t done those things? Well, if you aren’t applying for paid jobs, then you can’t consider yourself a business. But if you do regularly apply for work, even if you don’t get it too often, then you’re trying to run a business and you can probably prove that. The best thing to do is get organized about your work. Keep records of where you apply and what jobs you do. Even if you only do a little bit of freelance work now and then, if you keep clear records and you make an effort to earn more income this year than next, you’ve got business written all over you. Not only does this mean that you can deduct normal business expenses from your taxes but it also means that the thing which was once your hobby is going to keep earning you more and more money as a business. How exciting is that?

    Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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  • Filed under: Freelance
  • Bad Behavior has blocked 77 access attempts in the last 7 days.