Archive for the 'Business' Category

New Enhanced Affiliate Program – Earn More Money

Published
by
LimeExchange
on July 2, 2009
in Business, LimeExchange and Product Update
. 0 Comments

Our New Affiliation program is more advanced and profitable than before!

Become an affiliate, invite your network, use your website/blog, and earn more money.

The more active referral you get, better are the chances of earning money. Invite your friends, colleagues, business clients etc. and get rewarded for every activity they perform at LimeExchange.

On each referral you will get 0.1 USD and 50% of LimeExchange’s fee on the 1st project and 10% for each subsequent projects executed successfully. Also, if your referral registers as a buyer and posts a Premium or LimeStand project you get $5. And if he registers as a provider and purchases membership and top-up plans you will get 50% of purchase amount and 10% for subsequent purchases.

That’s not enough! There are more features added to maximize your earning through our affiliate program. If your referral takes an online skill test you will get 25% of the fee for the first skill test; and 10% of the fee for any subsequent skill test. Similarly for every educational verification done by your referral at LimeExchange, you will get rewarded with 10% of the fee.

You can also keep a record of your earnings using two different summary reports - Acquisition Report & Revenue Sharing Report.

Acquisition Report gives you the details of your earnings from the registrations done on LimeExchange from different sources like email invitations, links (like banners, widgets and text links) and RSS Feeds.

Revenue Sharing Report gives you the details of your earnings out of the activities performed by your referrals (like purchase of top-up or membership plan). Learn more

Get started… become an affiliate and earn more money for each activity performed by your referral.

Learn more ways to earn money through affiliation program.

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Posting Similar Projects on LimeExchange

Published
by
LimeExchange
on June 29, 2009
in Business, LimeExchange, Small and Medium Business and outsourcing
. 0 Comments

It’s quite possible that some of your projects are of similar nature but you’d wish to get them executed by different service providers.You do not need to post a new project every time. Our feature ‘Post Similar Projects’ would assist you in drafting a new similar project by simply editing the details of the original project.

How can you post a similar project?

You can get started with posting a similar project by creating a draft of a project for which the bidding has been closed. You can edit the project details as per your wish and project-centric requirements and then post it as a new, similar project. You can create as many number of drafts as you wish (of an existing project for which Bidding has been closed) and post them as different new projects and get them executed by different service providers of your choice. bidding closed

However, it is to be made clear that this feature is available once the bidding on a project has been closed and it gets canceled as you did not award it to any service provider. This link is also available when a project is moved to ‘canceled state’.

Steps to Post a Similar Project:

1.    Log on to your LimeExchange account.
2.    Go to “Exchange–> Dashboard” tab.
3.    Browse through your projects in the ‘Under Bidding’ and ‘Closed/Canceled’ sections.
4.    Click on the project name to open it.
5.    Click the “Post a Similar Project” link on the left hand side.
6.    Create a draft of the existing project.
7.    Edit the project details of the original project as per your requirements.
8.    Submit the project for verification.

We encourage our buyers to post their similar projects in case they want their projects to get executed by different skilled service providers on our platforms as per their choices. However, it is important to post complete details of your similar projects and clearly define the exact deliverables.

Get started today!

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20 Useful Websites for Freelancers

Published
by
LimeExchange
on June 18, 2009
in Business, Freelance, Freelancing and LimeExchange
. 2 Comments

To succeed, freelancers must always look out for useful resources that can help them enhance their productivity and carve a niche for themselves.There is a vast range of business networking websites, blogs, online tools and other available resources that freelancers can make use of and give a remarkable boost to their online presence.

Useful Business Networking Websites For Freelancers

LinkedIn – With over 40 million registered users across 170 countries, LinkedIn is a professional social networking website for exchanging information, innovative ideas, search for jobs and create business contacts. Moreover, freelancers, while working from home, may not be updated about the latest trends of the industry. LinkedIn helps them stay informed about the industry trends and control their professional identity online.

Xing – A platform serving as a small-world network for professionals worldwide, Xing can open new sales channels for you, besides helping you get access to a large number of companies. This website offers you a professional contact manager, who organizes your business contacts and colleagues. In addition, using Business Accelerator application you can find global professionals on the single click of mouse, promote your profile and skill set effectively. It also offers groups, discussion forums, event coordination, and other common social community features.

Ecademy – A great social networking website, founded in 1998, that enables professionals worldwide connect with each other through its message chat boards, blogs, online network and membership programs lending exclusive benefits to its users. One of the top 10,000 sites in the world, Ecademy has a huge user base of 300,000 members across 200 countries on which small business can get access to right kind of talent.

Ziggs – A great social networking website, currently in beta, for freelancers to build their professional image online through effective marketing and simplified communication with professionals worldwide. The website fosters top visibility in search engines to freelancers that can fetch them great business prospects.

Ryze: With over 500, 000 members across 200 countries, Ryze is a free business-networking website that connects business professionals all around the globe, especially the new entrepreneurs. This website, founded in 2001 by Adrian Scott, has more than 1,000 organizations hosting sub-networks on it. The platform enables establish quality business contacts and  go for profitable business deals.

Useful Forums For Freelancers

TalkFreelance – If you have taken a plunge into freelancing, this certainly is a decent forum destination for you to discuss the art and technique of effective web designing, web programming, search engine optimization (SEO), HTML, PHP, CSS, database and all intricacies related to great web designing. A perect platform for webmasters and developers.

FreelanceWriting Forum — This forum was set up in 1997. Since then, the forum has been focusing on the freelance writers’ community. Mostly, the discussion takes place on topics related to the field of writing and many freelance writers participate in the discussions that take place on this forum.

FreelanceSwitch Forum – A part of FreelanceSwitch, this forum is quite popular among web designers and web developers wherein you can ask questions, chat and interact with the community. It’s a good place to share your wealth of knowledge, collaborate and execute the tips to come up with quality-backed work results.

WhyDoWork – This is a very popular forum with 38,000 active members participating in varied discussions taking place on the forum. You can communicate and collaborate with members from all around the globe, let them know about your ambitions, insights and any problem that you come across in your day-today project execution. Rest assured that you’d get good advice from some veteran online professionals!

Designers Talk – It is a great forum that primarily focuses and caters to the need of freelance web designers. It’s a great website to give and look out for innovative ideas on web & graphic design that would infuse creativity and help you in showcasing your creative competence to the world. You can also use this forum to showcase your brand identity.

Useful Blogs For Freelancers

MenWithPens – There are millions of people around the globe yearning to write and become full-time bloggers. Men With Pens is the world’s no. 2 best blog site for writers. If you wish to pursue your freelance writing career and excel, this website can lend you some really useful tips for effective blogging and becoming a successful freelancer thereon.

SmashingMagazine – If you wish to excel in freelance designing career, Smashing Magazine is the right choice for you. Your projects may require you to come up every day with loads of new designs and ideas. In that case, this resource may prove to be a great tool for you to prove your worth as a freelancer. Smashing Magazine has a huge database of creative designs that can really magnify your horizon of thoughts.

FreelanceFolder –Set up in 2007, Freelance Folder, with more than 13, 000 subscribers, is a multi-authored blog, especially to help freelancers and all those, who wish to work independently and establish themselves online. You must add it to your feed reader.

Noupe – A great innovative online resource and website for bloggers, web designers, freelancers and web developers, Noupe is one of the fastest growing blog site. It is a design weblog that gives a deep insight into the technical know-how and caters to all the requirements of web designers and web developers.

43Folders — Since its inception in 2004, this has turned out to be one of the best blogs for budding freelancers. Merlin Mann, an eminent writer and the owner of the website, gives innovative ideas about finding time and tricks to come up with excellent work results.

Payments & Security For Freelancers

Moneybookers – As regulated by Financial Services Authority UK, Moneybookers is a safe and cost-effective means of payment withdrawal for a freelancer. As a freelancer, you’d want your earnings and their withdrawal to be secure. Moneybookers is the right choice and you can easily link your bank account online with Moneybookers’ account and can even withdraw your money directly onto your Credit Card OR Ask for a paper cheque.

Escrow – Freelance business is risky and you can encounter with fraudulent clients. Escrow is a good way you can protect yourself against any fraud. It is equally beneficial for buyers as well as service providers since the interest of both the parties is efficiently taken care of. It ensures smooth project execution.

PayPal – With over 120 million customers around the globe, PayPal is a cheaper and hassle-free means of managing your payments. A freelancer can easily get access to fund transfer, send and withdrawal information online via email. In addition, a normal bank account is required to receive the funds and also a credit card is needed to secure the PayPal account. Both these are traceable.

Cloudmark Desktop – A simple, fast and economical toolbar with best spam-blocking accuracy rate in the industry automatically safeguards your Outlook Inbox from viruses, phishing and spams. Easy to install, Cloudmark Desktop is a lightweight application that keeps your computer system running fast.

Spamato – Written in Java, Spamato is an extendable spam filter system that keeps your business email safe and secure and on detecting a spam messages, it moves the message to a special ‘junk mail’ folder. That keeps the freelancer stay updated about Spamato’s decisions. With its help, you can view the report of undetected spam messages/revoke messages, which are marked as spam.

Hope these suggested useful platforms would make your freelance career flourish and you’re able to establish your online presence effectively. We welcome your feedback and suggestions on our blog post that would help us understand your needs better and serve you effectively.

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10 Common Freelancing Myths

Published
by
LimeExchange
on June 17, 2009
in Business, Freelance, Freelancing, LimeExchange, Small and Medium Business and outsourcing
. 2 Comments

There are innumerable lies, myths and half-truths about freelancing, sometimes created by the community faceand sometimes by freelancers themselves. These myths develop as a story first and then turn out as a fact believed by many of us. This can prompt buyers to take a wrong decision as they might believe these myths before hiring a freelancer. Similarly, an individual can also get skeptical before jump starting as a freelancer. Hence, it is really important to understand the difference between a myth and a fact.

Here are some of the common freelancing myths which you must have heard many a times:

Myth 1- Freelancers remain busy with their personal stuff, I can’t rely on them for my work.

Fact – Freelancers believe in having a flexible lifestyle. They leave their jobs to give quality time to their family and make their own identity as an entrepreneur. Work is equally important for them because without that they just can’t meet their basic necessities. Their basic objective is to pursue their dreams for ultimate happiness within. We should not ignore the hard work they put in to accomplish the assignments successfully they have taken. This will not only give them credibility in the market but also the money to survive.

Myth 2- Freelancers have less resources, I am not sure about the quality of work I would get.

Fact- Freelancers are good workers and opt for this mode of career only to stand out of the league of crowd that works 9-5. Agreed they have less resources but they make sure that they have everything required for seamless execution of your project. Unlike your company’s employees, freelancers provide their specialized services at competitive costs cutting your overhead costs and giving you excellent work results.

Myth 3- Freelancer’s “NO boss” theory is dangerous, what if they don’t deliver my work on time.

Fact- Freelancers are responsible professionals as they own the business. They are accountable for their business growth as well as for their reputation in the market. Timeliness is considered to be the most essential requirement of freelancing. Hence, they believe in working to the best of their abilities to make goodwill in the market. They manage their time, make plans and focus on different goals each day.

Myth 4- Freelancers provide their services at affordable prices and it is easy for me to bargain.

Fact- Freelancers might not have a big corporate office or appropriate resources but quality professionals never compromise on the prices they charge for their services. They may agree to negotiate on their charges but for a good business deal it’s better to pay them what they are worth for.

Myth 5- Freelancers are unstable, they may find a good job one day then how can I assure my future.

Fact- The prevailing economic slowdown and resulting job layoffs have given a boost to freelancing across the globe. In such a scenario, people are looking for more and more sources to make money. Hence, freelancer would never lose these sources to earn some extra money as this will help them when their company for which they had worked for years show them a pink slip.

Myth 6- Freelancers need to put a lot of money to start up their freelance career and I don’t have much.

Fact- Yes, at initial stage freelancing do demand an investment of dedication, discipline, time and hard work. You need to spend a small amount of money on some basic resources like computer or some times for software, office space, furniture etc. At a very early stage of freelancing you can put in small amount of money and as you expand you can plan to spend more money to enhance your services.

Myth 7- Getting into freelancing doesn’t mean I will get projects easily I need marketing skills to get a project.

Fact- As many online service marketplaces are available these days like LimeExchange it is easier to get projects online. You just have to choose one matching your area of expertise, bid on them and get awarded instantly. You don’t need marketing strategies to get one but to build strong business relationships you may need networking skills. However, a basic word of mouth strategy can also help you to get project from your satisfied buyers.

Myth 8- Freelancers earn hundreds of dollars by working on their own terms. I will work less and charge per hour.

Fact- Freelancing is not a money-generating machine. You get paid for your skills, experience as per the industry standards. It also varies from country to country; like if you are working for a U.S. client you will get paid in dollars and then you can convert them into your own currency. You can also charge for a special service but at an initial stage of freelancing you cannot get truckload of money in a single go. It is important to build credibility before thinking of making money.

Myth 9- I have registered on freelance job website now projects will flow in.

Fact – Freelancers generally think that after registering on online services marketplace they don’t need to make any effort to get projects as they will automatically flow in to their way. But to get good projects freelancers should keep their profile completed, take online skill tests, get certified tags to attract buyers. You can also get your educational credentials verified to acquire better work projects.

Myth 10- As a freelancer I will always get buyers as per my choice and they will be supportive.

Fact- You may or may not get nice or supportive buyers always. As nobody is perfect, you need to develop good communication skills, collaborate with them using collaboration tools like PMB and IM and build strong relationships. You never know you may turn a bad client to a really nice business partner.

Hope now before making a business decision as a buyer or as a freelancer you will think more about the facts rather than the myths and work with more realistic approach.

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