Find clients anywhere in the world

Find clients anywhere in the world

Being global in its reach, every country in the world is probably represented on social media. Yes, there might be a skew in favour of some countries and sectors but the network plays out not only for direct leads, but in being able to direct you to the relevant ones through referrals. Go and mark your footprint in newer territories before others do.

Small businesses can help each other

Small business owners use LinkedIn to forge informal alliances with other entrepreneurs who may complement what they are doing and for providing leads to one another in non-competing situations. They meet here, share prospects, learn from each other and get to know of markets in regions otherwise inaccessible. It is like a business chamber for them.

Small businesses can help each other

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA WORKS FOR SELLING

There are several ways by which you can get social media to help you with the selling process. It can complement what you are already doing, or create altogether new opportunities for you. And you can do it from office if this is a part of your day job, or just in your spare time from home.

A market in itself, and more

Users of LinkedIn and Facebook tend to be those with relatively high purchasing power, representing a huge market opportunity in itself. Many of them are also well-placed to help you get your foot inside the right doors. Most importantly, they are key influencers in the market: the people they live and work with represent consumer segments with high purchasing power and further influence.

Social media can be your salesman and brand manager thrown into one – as long as you stay within the rules and code of conduct of these sites.

Everything starts with the quality, and sometimes size, of your contacts on these sites. In some ways, it can be said that your network determines your net worth.

Finding a job you love

Finding a job you love
“Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.” – Confucius


If you want a job you love, at a remuneration you feel you deserve, you can take one of the many possible routes. The old fashioned ones are floating your resume amongst placement consultants, looking up newspaper career supplements, going to job sites or just asking around. All of these may work up to a point but they come with limitations.


The jobs on offer may not be what you like. Or not have the flexibility to make you happy about the prospects. More importantly, they may never come up on any of these forums. Your ideal position might be floating somewhere and you would be wandering elsewhere, and paths may never cross. Worse, the job may not yet have been formally defined by an organization but would be created if they were to meet someone like you. Again, what if you never meet?




This is where it helps to moonlight on social media. This includes not only professional networking sites like LinkedIn but social ones like Facebook too. Here are some sound reasons why these work:

Casual talk leads to things: When you network on these sites, it is akin to meeting someone offline at events or one-to-one and having casual conversations. You never know how one thing might lead to another, just like in the real world.


Explore one another: When you meet someone with the agenda of recruitment on the table, a certain level of stiffness and formality comes into play. However, social media allows one to know more about the other without alerting each other. Going through each other’s profiles and contacts, and even connecting with the latter to know more, takes care of a lot of groundwork initially and saves any awkward moments later.

Run background checks: Profiles and contacts also allow both sides to run a background check on one another and arrive at some conclusions, if not all, before further discussions.


Even Facebook speaks a lot: Your Facebook profile may be mostly about your personal life, but they are still a reflection on the kind of person you are. Just because you meet someone at a poolside party for the first time does not stop you from having some professional conversations and forming opinions about the other person. So it is for Facebook.


Discover a love for a job you did not know existed: More often than not, we know we are unhappy in what we are doing but do not know what will make us happy. This is where social media can help again. You may discover things people are doing or offering to others to do, and it may just strike a chord somewhere within you. Only when you hear of these could you realize that this is what you would love and have the capability to do so, or be able to learn how to go about it.


Your CV is not condensed: You can create an extensive CV effectively in the form of your profile, and interested users can filter the same for the desired

THE HOW OF E-BRANDING YOURSELF

THE HOW OF E-BRANDING YOURSELF
Branding yourself does not mean you have to put up billboards of yourself around town. The virtual world is your magic lamp; do the following and see how you stand taller among your peers.


Set up a public profile

The starting point. Go to a professional networking site, LinkedIn strongly recommended, and create an account. There are others too out there, but LinkedIn is by far the most effective and a market leader. It is to networking what Google is to search.


Being on LinkedIn is like being at a business conference, and a meeting, and a job interview - all at the same time. 24x7. Someone, somewhere is looking at you through your profile – the part where you post relevant information about yourself after creating an account. It has almost become standard practice to check one’s profile (if they have one) on LinkedIn whenever a professional acquaintance is created. As a professional, someone is looking at you, whether you want them to or not. While they are at it, you might as well put your best face forward. Through your profile. So make sure your profile is well dressed for the occasion.


When you create your profile, keep the following in mind:

Vanity URL: LinkedIn allows you to have a URL with your name as a part of it like http://linkedin.com/in/rohitkachru. Get it and point people to this link.
Your professional ‘headline’: Its like a tagline below a brand. Make yours with no less an impact than Nike’s ‘Just do it.’ In a few words say what you do. Be creative; go beyond ‘Senior Manager – Logistics with a chocolate company.’ Try something like ‘I ensure your date gets her chocolates.’ Every time your name pops up, your professional headline tags along. Make it wink at people; tempt them to come to you.

Summarize your professional experience and goals: This is the part likely to be read most by those looking at your profile. In a few lines write about what you are all about – your professional experience, your goals and a mention of what you are doing at LinkedIn. Don’t hesitate to cover what you are looking for or are interested in. Treat it like it is your 30 seconds in the spotlight.

What specialties do you have in your industries of expertise? If you have some special experiences or skills, this is the place to mention it. Just saying ‘Newspaper Designer’ may not be enough – be specific about the systems you are most adept at and the creative elements you can be trusted to handle.

And the same goes for any profession you are in – engineering, healthcare, software, sales, etc.


Work Experience: Not only does this convey where you have worked in the past and in what capacity, but also provides an opportunity to connect with current and past colleagues who have the same companies mentioned on their profiles. It also makes reference checks easier.


Education: Like your career information, telling the world about your educational background can also be important to those wishing to associate with you professionally. And it also helps you connect with those you went to school with.


Websites: If you have any personal and work websites or blogs, you can provide ready links to those from your profile. These can also be links to your portfolio, RSS feeds, photo galleries, videos on YouTube or any other web resource.

THE WHY OF PERSONAL BRANDING

THE WHY OF PERSONAL BRANDING
There can be several compelling reasons why one needs to work on their personal brand equity including:
A feel of who you are: Similar to a company's brand, it gives people a feel of who you are. This is particularly important in this world of freelancers. Personal branding has always been important, sort of like ‘honour’ and ‘pride’ in the olden days. And then the Internet and media took over, not to mention we can't carry swords or revolvers anymore. The personal brand comes into play more and more as our physical contact with clients and business contacts becomes more brief, and often through some form of media other than in person.

Showcasing experience and abilities: Employees no longer work at the same company for the life of their career, and many don’t even stick to the same professions. The exposure and diversity they experience is very unlike what the earlier generations were exposed to. An online personal brand can thus be a showcase of one’s experience, capabilities and reputation.


Positioning: Most people do have their own vision of how they would like others to perceive them whether or not they are adept at personal branding. When one goes about personally branding oneself, it makes one’s efforts to implement that vision more efficient, and more likely to succeed. Especially when one wants that unique positioning to distinguish them from other people.


Publicity: This is about communicating to others in a believable and convincing manner ‘what it is that one is all about.’ It is not about shouting ‘Hey everybody, I am a Super Hero’ from the top of the roof on a regular basis. It is about creating opportunities for people to see one fly, see them save damsels in distress or watch them leaping tall buildings at a single bound when they do. In other words, getting others to notice what you achieve.
Putting a value to your worth: One always has a perception of one’s own self-worth. And then there is the market reality of supply and demand. Eventually what matters is how ‘scarce’ an item the Personal Brand succeeds in convincing that it is. And thus negotiating the best deal for oneself when it comes to remuneration, bonuses and fee.


Making people like and trust you: All things being equal, people will do business with someone they know, like and trust. Your personal brand, your online identity (as long as it's congruent) is a major way that people can get to know you, like you and trust you.
Putting a spin to self: In a way, personal branding is putting a spin on the self. Essentially, we are all politicians and we are all running for something. How well we spin determines how long we run.


Personal Branding is the most effective way to accelerate awareness of who you are, what you stand for and why others would want to connect or interact with you. Importantly, it flags the specific audience that you are trying to reach and helps them to perceives you in the most consistent, focused and relevant way. With a defined personal brand image and positioning, then everything you do and say can be directed to enhance and grow your identity and credentials among those most critical to you.

Courtesy : Digit Magazine CD

Get work sitting at home

Get work sitting at home

Outsourcing is not reserved for just big firms like GenPact. Professionals around the world are making primary or secondary careers out of bidding for assignments from home from clients globally through websites enabling such a marketplace. And Indians are uniquely positioned to successfully bid for many of these, especially technical ones, for the same reasons that have made the country’s software industry what it is. High skills and lower rates are still in fashion.

E-brand yourself to professional success

It is not about who you know or what you know, but who knows what you know.

Every professional who has a healthy opinion of his or her capabilities will vouch for the statement above. So many of us miss out on growth and income opportunities in our careers only because we did not work on our personal brand equity.


Being successful is all about differentiating yourself from others. To do that you must brand yourself, just as any other entity (whether that be by way of logo or just reputation). There is no way you can present a well-rounded perspective of your personality, drive and positive qualities in a few hours or even a few months. Accumulating due credit for what you accomplish takes branding of some sort

Affiliate Marketing

You want to dabble with e-commerce but are not inclined to tie up with vendors, process payments, fulfill orders and manage complex books of account? Go for affiliate marketing.


This is how it works: You tie up with an online merchant like a computer store and carry ads of the latter on your blog. When any of your visitors clicks on these ads and makes a purchase with the merchant, you get a commission. It is all easily automated with a simple code you embed in your site.

WHERE IS THE MONEY?

Many individuals and organizations around the world have made thriving businesses out of content packaged in formats mentioned above. Much of it comes with a price tag, which can vary from a under a dollar equivalent to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. All depending on the nature of the content and target audience. When you sell books through the PoD model, the service provider quotes a price for printing and delivery and your margin can be any mark-up you decide for yourself.


Alternately, e-magazines and some other forms of content are also suited for advertising. Since the recipient is clearly identifiable, and circulation accounted for, advertisers can pay per view or download and thus maximize return on investment.

Courtesy:
Digit

E-Commerce

Do you have a product or service to sell? If your blog has the audience, why not make a sales pitch while you have their attention? Make it attractive for them to buy from your blog than other outlets by throwing in discounts and freebies.

What if you don’t have something of your own to sell? No problem. Sell stuff on others’ behalf. If you have a blog on mobile phones, contact Nokia or their distributor to offer a special deal on your blog for a given product. Once you receive an order and have processed the payment, you can pick the stock from the distributor and dispatch to the customer. You do not even have to bear the risk or investment required in carrying inventory.

Likewise, what you can sell is limited by your imagination. If you have a travel blog, sell packages at prices better than all others. An auto blogger can sell accessories for cars. A books site can offer books on discount.

You can choose to offer only a limited selection of popular products, or even set up a full fledged online store. All depends on what you can gear yourself to manage. At the same time, you need not always offer stuff to match your content. An auto enthusiast is a very likely buyer of laptops. Why not offer these to customers on an auto blog?

Affiliate Marketing

You want to dabble with e-commerce but are not inclined to tie up with vendors, process payments, fulfill orders and manage complex books of account? Go for affiliate marketing.

This is how it works: You tie up with an online merchant like a computer store and carry ads of the latter on your blog. When any of your visitors clicks on these ads and makes a purchase with the merchant, you get a commission. It is all easily automated with a simple code you embed in your site.

Courtesy: Thinkdigit

Advertising

This is what we have all grown up believing since the dotcom got associated with stories of riches. Get the eyeballs, advertising will follow and you can live it up. This is how all media survives. If you have the audience, advertisers cannot ignore you.

The simplest way to start is to sign for a service like Google’s Adsense. Acting as a middleman, Google approaches advertisers all over the world and automatically places ads on blogs and sites that sign up with them. The advertisement that gets displayed is contextual to the content on the site, and it is all done automatically.

All you need to do is create a free account and get a code from them that you place in your site program. And the ads will start coming up. The more the number of people who view or click on the ad, the more revenue you generate.

It sounds great in theory but you have to have a lot of traffic to earn enough to feel good about. Few people know how Google decides the percentage to share with you, but it is a very small one for sure. The few cents you get per click will add up to something chunky only if you have people queuing up to read your blog. Not the smartest way to monetise your blog.

Marketing for your blog

Setting up a blog is as easy as it gets—getting traffic is another proposition altogether. Yes, blogs by their very nature are supposed to be search engine optimization ready but there is a catch: Your blog needs to break free from the millions of blogs jostling with each other for attention. And till you don’t get traffic, you cannot make money from a blog. At least through some of the direct means.

Promotion
If every good product sold on its own, advertising would not have been a career option. Even when you have hit the sweet spot with your product, you need to promote it. Try these ideas—based on a mix of conventional thought and the science of how bits and bytes behave in cyberspace:

Get other sites to link to you: In an ideal world, everyone you want will link from their site to yours. Poof, and you could be in business overnight. The more blogs and sites that link to you, the better you fare in search engine rankings. If wishes were horses! Keep trying, and you will have sites linking to you over a period of time. It may take a year or longer of blogging for things to start happening for you. Remember, other sites will link to you only if your content is good. Period.


Get yourself some links: Till WSJ.com does not link to you, visit the site and other blogs and leave comments on topics of shared interest—with your link. This is one way to generate some traffic faster - find blogs in your niche area and leave meaningful comments on posts with your blog’s address.


Link to others, selflessly: Provide links to blogs you like without expecting anything in return. These respective blog owners might come visiting to know about yours and someday do something for you too.
Grab all the free ad spots to publicize your blog: These include your visiting cards, email signatures, letterheads, mobile messages, bumper stickers and other such communication. Let your emails end with a prompt to a recent post of yours relevant to the recipient.


Be proactive: Respond to all those who leave comments on your blog or seek further information - make their effort seem valuable. Let them feel a part of your blog community and they will tell other people about you.


Send out mails: Mine every email address you have in your desktop and workplace, and send a message. Pitch specific posts, not necessarily your blog, to entice greater interest.


Make friends in the Blogosphere: And write guest posts and comments on each other’s blogs. Exchange links, too. There is no such thing as being competitors here. You have to realize you cannot be selfish—it is all about give and take to get ahead.


The title of your post matters: A simple yet overlooked factor that makes a big difference. Most people read blogs on RSS (really simple syndication) feeds. The title helps them decide whether they want to click on it or move to the next entry on the feed. Also include keywords in your title that people are expected to be searching for.

Publishing and selling E-content

If you generate content on your blog or at work, there could be a market for these if re-packaged differently.

We all complain of information overload and never know what to read and what not to read. The problem is rendered acute not so much by the amount of information but the formats these are delivered in. Blogs and websites are fine but they are difficult to navigate. They have all kinds of content, and that too keeps getting pushed down as more comes in every day. It is not always possible to track content daily and you may miss out on important stuff. One also needs to be online to read it all. Bookmarking or mailing pages to oneself is cumbersome too.

Get into e-publishing content that is downloadable on demand, can be stored for offline consumption, is portable across various media and can even be printed. This includes:

E-Magazines: A PDF compilation of content on a given topic.

E-Books: Not all books lend themselves to being published on paper, or being distributed through conventional channels. These books can be as small as ten pages or running into hundreds. Topics could include any that come to mind: programming guides, travelogues, cooking, self help, fiction, non-fiction etc. If you have knowledge on a given subject like, say, fighting spam, you could write a book on it.

Print on Demand: If you have gone ahead and produced a book, there may be cases of customers wanting a hard copy of it. If you print these yourself, you will be straddled with inventories in multiples of a thousand, the minimum print run. This obviously makes little sense unless you are sure you will be able to sell these. Print-on-Demand service providers like Pothi.com (http://pothi.com) in India and Lulu.com (http://lulu.com) in the US can print even one copy at a time for your customers. Of course the pricing varies accordingly but is only a small fraction of what you would pay if you went to a regular printer to print one copy.

Podcasts are audio recordings that can be downloaded and played back on a computer or any audio device like the iPod. Content can be interviews you conduct with people, educational or informative programs, or entertainment or anything that lends itself to being listened to for the desired results.

Videos, like Podcasts, can be created for similar purposes. In addition, they are highly suited where you have to show visuals or when it helps to add faces to voices.

Webinars are more like online events where a people participate from all over the world for a real time discussion or to listen to an expert. These are usually announced in advance enabling people to register and add to their schedule.