5 Reasons You Should Seriously Consider Working Freelance

Guest Post by Ben Holbrook

1.       You Can Be Picky

Working in a traditional job role, often means you work with the same people day-in day-out.  This often makes people feel stagnant and bored. Working freelance allows you to pick and choose who you work with, meaning you can work with people that inspire you and help you develop. Freelancing allows you to work with a diverse set of people who will also appreciate working with a fresh face.

2.       Diversity

People working in steady jobs often get bored of doing the same things day in day out and often end up working on long, dull projects. Working as a freelancer means you get to be involved in lots of different projects in lots of different places. This keeps freelancers feeling fresh and excited about their work as they rarely work on something long enough to get sick of it.

 

3.       Work More. Earn More.

Anybody with a regular job knows how it feels when, no matter how hard you work, you still earn the same amount of money. This often discourages people and they stop pushing themselves. Working freelance means that the more you work, the more you earn. Surely this makes more sense!

 4.       You Decide When You Need  A Break

When you work for a company, they decide when you can and can’t take a holiday or a day off. It often means you end up paying more for travelling at “peak” travel times and staying in overcrowded locations. Working as a freelancer means you can decide when to take your holidays and days off. If you see a great deal, you can make the most of it. If your friend is getting married, you don’t have to worry about asking for time off.

It also means you can work at the times that suit you best. If you feel most creative at 2 o’clock in the morning why shouldn’t you be able to work then? Freelancing offers the greatest flexibility.

5.       Freelancing Is Easier Than It’s Ever Been

Years ago, freelancing was considered difficult because it was so hard to build networks and find work. It often meant hitting the road and trying drum up business, which was incredibly time consuming. Nowadays things are very different. The internet allows you to connect and work with people all over the world. If you can’t find work in your city, try the next city. If you can’t find work in your country, try the next country – all from the comfort of your home office!

There are so many websites and contracting agencies out there, all you have to do is set up your account and let them do the searching.  Not only has it become easier for freelancers to find work, but also for companies to find freelancers. Freelancing has never looked so attractive!

 Ben Holbrook is a freelance writer

The Public Relations Potential Of Reddit

Guest post by Andrej Hendelja

Social news sites are an excellent way for users to chime in and contribute on a particular story. Many social news sites feature rating and ranking system that allow items that interest the user base to filter up through the rankings. Digg was a forerunner of this model and helped pave the way for social news sites to bring the public information the mainstream media did not. In recent years, Digg has experienced a slow down and backslide in interest from the community. Reddit provides many of the same great benefits with a number of features. At present, Reddit averages approximately 35 million visitors per month.

Ask Me Anything (AMA)

A web user looking to build familiarity and their expertise should take a moment to start a thread in the Ask Me Anything (AMA) section of Reddit. Ask Me Anything provides a platform for a person to take their individual experience and expose it to a greater audience. It provides an excellent opportunity to help a person demonstrate their expertise and knowledge in a very meaningful way that could potentially build new business contacts.

Just how popular is the Ask Me Anything section of Reddit? Celebrity appearances from such people as Stephen Colbert, R.A. Salvatore, Bear Grylls, Louis C.K, Zach Braff, and many others have generated tens of thousands of replies in their respective discussions. A great opportunity exists for anyone with quality information to provide and a thick enough skin to deal with the Internet going public in that arena. The AMA section gives you the ability to reach out directly to build rapport and better relations with those people.

Making The Most Of Reddit’s Ask Me Anything

It is far too easy to incorrectly use a piece of technology if a person does not have a solid understanding of the impact. Woody Harrelson is one such example. A significant following of people posted an AMA request for Harrelson to chime in and interact on Reddit. He failed to show to answer any questions or interact at all. The result was a significant backlash against him for ignoring a vocal portion of his fan base that may have helped him reach different people. The mistake generated plenty of negative publicity around the incident due simply to Harrelson not responding to or understanding the ramifications thereof.

Moderation And The Community

The community at Reddit is self-policed in general. Quality information can be up voted while bad information can be down voted. Several different types of people and users come together to exchange information on Reddit, thus it is easy to find those passionate about some very obscure celebrities or topics. Junk content filters to the bottom of the pile efficiently as Redditors explore what is being offered.

The AMA section and community offer an interesting pairing of public relation building tools. On one hand, there are the positive interactions. On the other, you have trolls. It is not uncommon for disruptive people, known as trolls, to ask pointless questions or attempt to pick fights for the sake of causing chaos. Interacting with the public on Reddit guarantees a person’s path will eventually cross with trolls. All online communities have them.

Learning to ignore the trolls or counter their behavior with humor of your own are the only effective ways to handle them. Responding in anger or posting threats will just have them coming back for more entertainment. Be prepared to contain these negative interactions to keep the experience positive and potential damage to a minimum. “Don’t feed the trolls!”

  Andrej is a longtime Redditor and PR student doing marketing research for a Long Island elevator company.