So...You Want to be a Freelancer: Let's Make Sure You're Ready

If you have been aspiring to be a writer like I have been for quite a number of years, you have dreamed up this amazing life where you write for a living and can enjoy the awesomeness of creativity. What I am writing to tell you (and what so many writers before me have said) is that the vision you see, does not exist till a long way down the road.

So, you want to be a Freelance Writer is the first step in a series of articles I plan to write on my blog that can give an aspiring writer like yourself an introduction in to the world of freelancing. I have had some ups and downs entering it myself and wanted to share those difficulties with you.

Let’s Get This Straight

Just so there is not any misunderstandings, I want to explain to you exactly what type of freelancing I am referring to. With the advent of social media and the desire of many companies to have blogs a long with their products and services, it has opened up an amazing market of writing that they need filled.

The freelance writing that has the money in it is not the creative writing of short stories and novels like you might think, but the dry copy writing or marketing articles, advertisements and ghost writing. It’s dry, long, and sometimes you just stare at the screen thinking, “How am I supposed to put this article together?”

Honestly, I have come to enjoy working on these types of writings. Instead of taxing my creativity side, these types of articles spend more time taxing my analytical side as it seems to be more of a puzzle to put the research I have done together.

How Do I Start?

The first thing you need to do is to repeat this four times. “I’m not going to make a lot of money at the start”. If you have a day job, I highly suggest you keep it until you are making enough money in your writing to justify leaving. At this point, I have been doing freelancing on and off for six years and still require a day job. Freelancing is pretty much what buys me my toys.

After that, you need to make sure you have the grit and determination to stick with it even when the going gets tough. You will reach a point where you just don’t want to write anymore and that’s not an option. Your money is reliant on you putting out a product and making sure that product is the way the client wants it, not the way you want it.

Finally, the last metaphorical preparation you should do is to be ready for failure. Starting out, you may not give an avalanche of work and you might have to go for a job that is a bit lower in pay than you want. This job is not an instant success story and if you think it is, I would recommend against starting it. Like any business you are starting, it takes time, effort, and diligence to build it up in to anything worthwhile. If you still with it and you have an iota of talent, you could be on the way to a great career!

I’ll cover more in the specifics to the freelancing world in the next post, so stay tuned!

So, I've been Freelancing and Noticed Something...

For those of you who do not know, I have recently upped my game when it comes to the freelance writing market with quite a bit of success. I have a good handful of clients that provide work on a regular basis and enough one time jobs to keep me happy. It has been a very interesting experience to delve in to the world of the freelance and wanted to share something that came to mind. 

For anyone reading this who has done freelancing before, you probably can relate to the fact that many of the clients out there on the website like upwork.com and writeraccess.com offer well below the value of what your work is worth. 

At present, the lowest side of the pay is .02 cents per word which amount to $10 dollars per 500 words. In my browsing of the freelance market, I have found clients who want 1,500 to 2,000 words for only $5 or $6 dollars. For every one good job I have found to apply for, there were seven or eight that were just ridiculous in their demand. 

More and more I have found that people who utilize something that is considered art, are routinely never really given credit or value for your work. A good artist friend Kathleen Ruhl has told me about times that clients want expensive work for pennies on the dollar. 

Do not get me wrong, a lot of freelancers are not greedy or want to charge an arm and a leg, but on the flip side clients and people who want to hire a writer or artist need to understand a lot goes in to their work. An artist has to pour their time and creativity in to their pieces while writers put a lot of mental energy in to the pieces they turn out. At the end of the day, I have found myself really exhausted and unable to write the things I want to write due to having to complete an essay or blog someone hired me for. 

What is the point of my little article? If you are a person looking to hire a freelancer, I am not trying to damn you for looking for a deal, but on the other end of the equation, remember that your freelancer goes through a lot to provide you a quality piece and what you pay is truly what you get. 

Do you want to know more about what freelancers go through? I highly recommend taking a look at http://clientsfromhell.net/ for some idea what we have to go through.

[Stolen Work] Secrets to Healthy Skin

As a freelance writer, I write quite a bunch of things. This document you are reading is one of my pieces that was written and then stolen by me by someone claiming to be an Ann Tilen (believed to be a fake name) by not paying for the document as promised. If you received this from a company or person, it is stolen work. Either take it down or reach out to me to purchase the rights. Thanks.

---

Skin. It is the secret of looking young no matter how many years have gone by. There are many markets out there about skin care, how to reduce wrinkles and all sorts of other anti aging techniques. But the secret is not just what product is bought but what you do to take care of it.

There are quite a few easy to use treatments that can help keep your skin looking young and fresh. The key ingredient in many anti aging creams is retinol. No skin care market should be without this important substance. If your cream has it in there, you are already on your way to younger, healthier skin. Retinol is a form of vitamin A that helps your skin remain elastic and thus reduces wrinkles from appearing.

Another great oil that no skin care regimen should be without is organic sesame oil. The rich, oil can reduce wrinkles safely and easily because your skin loves the components found in the oil. Rose oil is another that not only allows the skin to heal, the soft aroma helps add a beautiful fragrance to your skin care routine.

One of the best, sure-fire ways to reduce wrinkles is to get your favorite moisturizer from your local drug store, wash your face and put in on before bed. It allows the oils to rehydrate and to clean away all the dead skin that accumulates through the day. It also allows the skin care to do its job without interfering with your day to day business.

There are just some of the great ways you can reduce wrinkles and have better skin care. If you are already doing these anti aging techniques then you are a long way ahead of all those who have yet to begin. Great job!

[Stolen Work] Yes You Can Sell Your House Fast in Kentucky

As a freelance writer, I write quite a bunch of things. This document you are reading is one of my pieces that was written and then stolen by me by someone claiming to be an Ann Tilen (believed to be a fake name) by not paying for the document as promised. If you received this from a company or person, it is stolen work. Either take it down or reach out to me to purchase the rights. Thanks.

---

Sometimes, no matter how hard a realtor works, there are times where they cannot sell the house. At times it is inexperience on their part and other times it is just the housing market not being very productive. Do not fret, though, there are still hope for those who feel that there is no other way to sell.

Many times the hardest part of selling the house is that there are a lot of hoops and legal work that has to be put through. The bank has to decide if they want to create a loan for the house buyer, the expenses of doing an inspection and that last closing cost that can really be a kick in the pants. Even in the most depressed economy, you can sell your house fast as we buy houses for cash!

Cash home buyers are a group of people that want to help get distressed homeowners out of debt or against lean by purchasing the house through cash which allows the homeowner to skip the mortgage process. Cash buying can be a very quick way to get out from under a heavy burden and sell your house fast.

The state of Kentucky is one of the few states that does not have a lot of rules like others when it comes to selling a house. Though there are still laws like who really owns the house and the proper method of payment and legally required inspection. That is not something anyone has to worry about because there are realtor specialists called distressed property realtors who know the ins and outs of cash home buying.

The process is simple to get started and there are some many benefits for doing it. At the moment, the Internal Revenue Service still has tax credits and cuts that favor home selling while also allowing you to gain the money you need quicker than a regular sale. The way it works is that you make an offer and if the offer is accepted, the company will handle all the paperwork through a title company and in no time hand over the cash from the sale.

Some may say that if it is this easy, it would be better to do it alone but to sell your house fast you will need one major ingredient. You need experience. Even though the bank may not be part of the process, there is a lot of paperwork to pay attention to and having a distress property realtor will help make sure you avoid any costly mistake. The worse possibility is to make a mistake that cuts into the cash you get at the end of the sale. The minor fee (if there is any) is worth more than losing a lot due to a law, rule, or regulation that was missed.

There is still hope if it has been a struggle to sell the house or a foreclosure notice has been issued. We buy houses and you can sell your house for fast and finally have some peace of mind. It is only a phone call away.
 

The Presidency is Not What you Think

Yep, sorry. Just a bit more politics for this year for those who are interested. One of the things that I am amazed with in this election is the lack of understanding when it comes to the political system or the rules of the government. In recent months I have listened to Mister Trump discuss how the delegate system used by the Republic National Convention is rigged (Whitesides, 2016) or how unfair delegate distribution is in the super PACs for Mrs. Clinton (Norton, 2016). Either way, the first thing that comes to mind is both parties are complaining about rules they knew existed before entering the contest. I mean, that's the equivalent of playing checkers and then complaining how unfair it is to allow a king piece to go backwards while all the other pieces who are not king-ed cannot. It's the rules of your party, deal with it or get them changed before you run. Of course, I could go in to a long dissertation on this, but that's not my intent for this blog post.

What I want to cover today is the seeming belief that the presidency is going to be the silver bullet that is going to fix everything that is wrong with our country. Zealots on both sides of the aisle are backing their political white knight with this crazed idea that if they are elected they will either secure our borders and economy or finally make jobs perfect and fair all around (among other things). I am sorry to disappoint you, but that is not how the presidency works.

The job of the president is to act as a negotiator between the congress and the courts by his use of the veto and approval of laws. The president is also to engage the people of the congress to try and get them to work together to pass the laws that he believes is best for the country. The president is not supposed to be using executive orders to do all this and make unilateral decisions from his seat in the White House. Do not get me wrong, I understand how much frustration President Obama has been experiencing with a rather annoying congress, but I have to wonder if he has really tried to work with the congress? I see him give rather pointed speeches and then just walk away then when the congress does not do it, he writes an executive order. Even now, these executive orders are being challenged and being over turned as unconstitutional (Slattery, 2014) with his largest executive order on immigration coming up for review by the Supreme Court (Wofford, 2016). There is a good chance that the Supreme Court in June may say that executive orders have no basis in domestic policy and should only be used with foreign policy. If Senator Sanders, Mister Trump, or Missus Clinton plan to use that ability, they could find it severely curtailed by the time they get in.

Now, this next part is personal opinion, but I feel that citizens of our country are trying to fix it the wrong way, by finding the perfect person to sit as president. The problem is that trying to get the president to change the laws is the equivalent of trying to have an football coach teach baseball. The congress is the governing body that makes all the laws we love and hate and if we want to see changes in the bills put forward, we need to start changing who represents our states. If we replace the politicians who are preferring to fight the president instead of taking care of the country with politicians who want to help, if the next president is willing to work with those who opinions differ, we might finally start seeing some improvement overall. No one person's opinion is paramount over another and that is what everybody needs to start realizing.

If this does not change, I do not see any hope for anyone who takes office as he will simply inherit the mess that President Obama has been fighting and in case of some who are hated by the congress, they'll find themselves facing even harder odds to do anything effective in their term. Our Republic and democratic process is not the place for single minded, unilateral decisions of personality, but what is best for our country. If people do not start getting that, things are only going to get worse.


References

Norton, B. (2016, April 12). This system is so rigged: Outrage as undemocratic superdelegate system gives clinton unfair edge over sanders | salon.com. Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/2016/04/12/this_system_is_so_rigged_outrage_as_superdelegate_system_undermines_democracy_giving_clinton_unfair_edge_over_sanders/

Slattery, E. (2014, June 26). Supreme Court Rules Obama’s Recess Appointments Violated the Constitution. Retrieved from http://dailysignal.com/2014/06/26/supreme-court-rules-obamas-recess-appointments-violated-constitution/

Whitesides, J. (2016, April 12). Trump blasts 'rigged' rules on picking republican delegates| Reuters. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-idUSKCN0X81HE

Wofford, T. (2016, January 19). Obama's immigration executive orders to receive supreme court review. Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/obama-executive-orders-immigration-scotus-417386

What is the Flavor of this Election? Anger and Hatred

Honestly, I was going to make some comment about how I usually do not write about political things on my blog. Going through my old stuff I find that  election years always got quite a few posts. So why fight it, right?

Since my first election where I paid attention to the candidates that I was going to vote for (that would be President George W. Bush's first term. Yeah, I know I'm old). Since then I have seen the elections become steadily worse, going from political discussions of belief to what we have now. I firmly believe that the U.S. government is no longer interested in politics, but only in rhetoric. I am not just saying those who are presently in office and part of the establishment, I am saying everybody.

That being said, people should understand what this election is really about. This election is about changing the status quo. Thanks to the continued deadlock for over twelve years starting in President Bush's second term, the American people have grown tired of the ineffective nature of the leadership (Steinhauser, 2014). This is the reason why Mister Trump, Senator Cruz, and Senator Sanders are doing so well. They both are seen as outside of the government and so have garnered this folk hero like persona. This is also why both Senator Rubio and Mrs. Clinton are having trouble. They are perceived as establishment and a threat to change.

The people of our country have become afraid of the world around them and they feel that the government has not protected them like they should have. Americans are being killed on our own soil now and all the government does is focus on policies that (in their perception) will not fix the problem. It is almost like the house is burning down and the government is arguing over what flavor of water to use to put it out.

The watchwords for this election is anger and hatred and the front runners of both parties reflect the version of their constituents. Those who back Mister Trump are loud and full of explosive anger, the Cruz follows much more controlled in their display of it. The followers of Senator Sanders' have a much more subtle more seething rage that shows in the way he forms his speeches. Presently Americans have only a measly 45% faith in the government when it comes to international issues and even worse 38% when it comes to domestic issues (Gallup, Inc., n.d.). Nobody trusts the government anymore and those who support them are going to fail in this election.

There is a revolution coming. The question is, whose revolution is it going to be?

References

Gallup, Inc. (n.d.). Trust in Government | Gallup Historical Trends. Retrieved March 9, 2016, from http://www.gallup.com/poll/5392/trust-government.aspx

Steinhauser, P. (2014, August 8). CNN Poll: Trust in government at all-time low – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs. Retrieved March 9, 2016, from http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/08/08/cnn-poll-trust-in-government-at-all-time-low-2/

Guns or No Guns: How about We use some Common Sense First?

I was about to start this blog post with a comment that I'm not usually political on my blogs, but looking back at the past few posts, I realize that I am much more political than I thought. I guess that I like to write about what is on my mind and I like discussing it with people.

Today, the subject I want to focus on is gun control. I am not going to be writing a piece about which side is better, I want to write and tell you all about the arguments that BOTH sides use that are flat out incorrect or they are cherry picking the data for their own use. It is a sin that is become so common in the TV, social media, and in normal conversation. People are choosing hyperbole and inflammatory language instead of common sense and reason (hence both Mister Trump and Senator Sanders are doing so well in the polls. They are beacons for their side of the inflammatory culture we have today).

I would ask those who are both pro and anti-gun is “what do you want to stop?” Violence or violence caused by guns? The reason I ask is that there is no causal data to show that lowering violence done by guns even lowers the violence overall (Farley). The United Kingdom has virtually no gun crimes in their nation BUT they are the highest for violent crimes and that statement is vague because the United States and the United Kingdom classify violent crime completely different (Bier).

Every study I found has shown that restricted gun ownership may lower the amount of violence done with guns, but it has little to no impact on violent crimes itself (Robertson). The National Research Council has said, "In summary, the committee concludes that existing research studies and data include a wealth of descriptive information on homicide, suicide, and firearms, but, because of the limitations of existing data and methods, do not credibly demonstrate a causal relationship between the ownership of firearms and the causes or prevention of criminal violence or suicide."(Wellford, Pepper, and Petrie 6).

The issue is not gun violence, or sexual violence, or child violence. It's violence, plain and simple. The pro and anti-gun proponents are like two firefighters arguing over if a hand held fire hose is more useful to fighting fires than one hooked in to the city system. Meanwhile, the house is burning to the ground. We need to focus on what is important. Violence and work on trying to curb it instead of tools that are used in their commission. You take away guns, people will still find ways to kill each other. Congratulations on lowering gun violence, but you still have yet to make a dent in the violence all around you.

Only when the two mindsets start looking at the preverbal fire and go, "We need to find a way to fight this" instead of fighting over which method is better at fighting, we are still going to have people dying. So, to anti-weapons and pro-weapons, please, stop arguing and work together.

Works Cited

Bier, Daniel. "By the Numbers: Is the UK Really 5 times more Violent than the US?" The Skeptical Libertarian. N.p., 12 Jan. 2013. Web. 12 Jan. 2016. <http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/>.

Farley, Robert. "Gun Rhetoric Vs. Gun Facts." FactCheck.org. N.p., 20 Dec. 2012. Web. 12 Jan. 2016. <http://www.factcheck.org/2012/12/gun-rhetoric-vs-gun-facts/>.

Robertson, Lori. "Gun Laws, Deaths and Crimes." FactCheck.org. N.p., 4 Oct. 2015. Web. 12 Jan. 2016. <http://www.factcheck.org/2015/10/gun-laws-deaths-and-crimes/>.

Wellford, Charles F, John Pepper, and Carol Petrie. "Executive Summary." Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. 2nd ed. Washington: National Academies Press, 2005. 1-10. PDF File.