Archive for the 'outsourcing' Category

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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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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Crowdsourcing: Wisdom of Crowd Driving the Business

Published
by
LimeExchange
on June 9, 2009
in Business, LimeExchange and outsourcing
. 0 Comments

Crowdsourcing…..enriching our stock of intellectual capital

Crowdsourcing  as it is wisely said by James Surowiecki that the large groups of people are smarter than an elite few…Web 2.0 is abuzz with the term ‘Crowdsourcing’, a word coined by Jeff Howe. This latest business model is a low-cost,  quick and easy way to help people get instant and effective solutions to their problems by discussing them globally.

Crowdsourcing….a great talent-finding mechanism

Crowdsourcing, a popular buzzword with online marketing consultants, is a problem-solving technique in which a client broadcasts his requirements in the form of an open call for solutions. A large community of people collaborates and works towards the completion of a similar goal. crowdsourcingThe crowd submits the solutions and then votes for the best entry submitted. So through Crowdsourcing, you can utilize multiple great minds for finding cost-effective and instant solutions for your project requirements.

Crowdsourcing opens an opportunity channel for novices and poses challenges for veterans besides benefiting the business through community involvement.

Today’s active online community has made it quite easy to reach out to a wider audience. Nowadays, innovative forums have been introduced online to help providers as well as the buyers to exhibit their talent and crowdsource their needs in a much advanced manner. Some proven examples are   Wikipedia, ESP Game, InnoCentive etc.

Crowdsourcing… a way to encourage mass effort to accomplish business objectives

  • It gives providers a chance to showcase their skills to the world.dollar1
  • It enables buyers to get access to numerous new and innovative ideas.
  • It gives global professionals an opportunity to connect with each other.
  • Problems can be solved quickly at extremely low costs.
  • Community participation contributes in brand-building kinship.
  • Collective intelligence yields top-grade results.
  • Appeal to large crowd for innovative ideas, research, other contributions etc.

LimeStand….the Crowdsourcing feature of LimeExchange

We realized the importance of the concept of ‘wisdom of crowds’ and limestandcame up with a value-added feature, beneficial for all our users. LimeExchange has this feature integrated in Graphic Arts & Design category—LimeStand. This feature enables the buyer to crowdsource his creative projects such as Logo Designing, Banner Designing, and Web Designing, and choose the best creative from multiple entries submitted.

How it works?

  • CrowdSource a Project –When you Log on to your LimeExchange account, you see a LimeStand tab on the right hand corner clicking on which you get the option of posting your design project. So crowdsource your creative project and give an opportunity to designers from across the world to send their entries.
  • Receive Entries –After posting the project, you are ready to receive entries from designers all around the globe. To ensure fair play to both buyers as well as designers, payment is required to be escrowed at the time of posting a creative project. If you receive less than 10 entries, full payment would be refunded to you.
  • Community Voting –LimeExchange community helps you in deciding the entry that deserves to win. More votes for an entry indicate more preference and acceptability.
  • Selection of Favorite Design–Select an entry as per your choice, irrespective of the votes received on an entry

The concept of crowdsourcing has, thus, transformed the global face of human resources and given the power in the hands of the community.  Hope ‘the power of people’ will assist you in getting your creative and design needs addressed to your ultimate satisfaction. We welcome your feedback and insights on our post and shall try to update you with latest outsourcing trends in the future.

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Blog Tools…powerful web publishing!

Published
by
LimeExchange
on May 22, 2009
in Business, Freelance, Knowledge Networking, LimeExchange and outsourcing
. 0 Comments

Blogging…Sharing your thoughts & connecting with target audience

Blogging is a powerful brand-building & promotional tool and serves as a connecting link between you and your customers. It helps you in keeping your finger on the pulse of the target audiences and getting feedback from them. Blogging helps you to speak about the latest events, product launches in your business sphere etc. and build trust in the user community.

If you wish to set up a blog, you’d need a blogging platform to do the same. Based on the analysis of features and usability of the platform, we have listed here some useful technology platforms for bloggers:

WordPress

WordPress , licensed under GNU General Public License, was started in 2003. It was started with one bit of code to ease out the typography of daily writing assignments. The latest version of WordPress, version 2.7.1, has been released on February 10, 2009. wordpress

Features: WordPress, the most popular self-hosted blogging tool, entails multiple features to ease out the functionality and customization of your blog. It’s easy to install and maintain. A large number of plug-ins and features such as templates, themes, visual content editor, spam protection, user registration, trackbacks, pingbacks, password security, multiple authors etc. make WordPress a complete blog service.

The well-developed plug-in architecture of the platform has greatly benefited users and developers. WordPress is available in two forms: (a) open-source blog software package (b) complete web service package

The .org platform needs very less maintenance. However, the best feature about this platform is that it removes the intricacies of coding and the blog can be stand alone or even easily integrated into your current site.

Out of top 100 blogs on Technocrati, 27 are set up on WordPress.

Cost: Setup Free; options for paid upgrades for enhanced functionality

Some Important WordPress blogs: Perez Hilton, Zen Habits, VentureBeat

“WordPress is a great option for people looking to host a blog on their own domain for free.” –Ryan Singel, PC World.

TypePad

As the largest paid blogging service available, TypePad is widely used by web honchos and media agencies such as BBC, CBC, Sky News etc. The platform has been developed by the company Six Apart Ltd. in October 2003 and empowers users to voice their opinions on the social web media. typepad

Features: As a premier blogging service, it enables hosting of blogs and websites of small businesses and is found useful mostly by journalistic bloggers, who prefer simple templates. It has a huge list of features inclusive of customizing your blog design; adding content, pictures, links, and media files; blog from your iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm etc; creating podcasts, adding web pages & widgets; tracking your stats; blocking span etc.

Out of top 100 blogs on Technocrati, 16 are set up on TypePad.

Cost: $4.95 - $14.95 per month (varies as per services chosen)

Some Important TypePad blogs: The Daily Dish, Threat Level - Wired Blogs, Popwatch

“TypePad is the perfect solution for new or experienced bloggers - a simple but robust interface, great customer support. It makes it easy to maintain and improve my blog, letting me focus on my writing.” –Tim Dierkes, MLB Trade Rumors.

Blogger

Pyra Labs launched Blogger on August 23, 1999. Being one of the pioneer blog-publishing platforms, it enabled the popularizing of blogging formats. The latest version of Blogger is Blogger in draft.

Features: Blogger is an easy-to-use blogging platform that allows you to keep a track on visitors, page views, and other important metrics. Blogger has a vast range of features including availability in 41 languages, custom domain option, spell checker, customizing fonts and colors, customization of templates, simple-to-use interface, HTML editor, new post notifications, addition of photos or videos to the post etc. ‘ Blogger is ideal for beginners, who have just started their writing career. blogger

The site is now owned by Google so it’s easier to integrate Google Adsense.

Out of top 100 blogs on Technocrati, 3 blogs are set up on Blogger.

Cost: Free

Some Important Blogger blogs: The Official Google Blog, The Sartorialist, PostSecret

“BLOGGER.COM is part of the Google family, sharing a simple interface and easy-to-use tools like the Google search engine most kids are familiar with. Kids can post thoughts as an online diary, share or log special interests, or start a group blog with friends and family.” —Dana Cotter, Teacher, educational consultant and most recently producer of award winning software titles.

Expression Engine

Engine is a flexible and robust content management system developed by EllisLab, an Oregon-based privately owned company that develops user end software programs written in PHP programming language. The latest version of Expression Engine is 1.6.7.

Features: A feature-rich CMS based blogging platform that enables individuals and SMBs in managing their websites easily. It is an ideal platform for running multiple sites, irrespective of number of domains you wish to run on. It’s an easy-to-use platform where developers can set up the blogs without any hassles and the customer can pick it up from there.

expression engine It has a good range features such as spam deterrents, trackbacks, member management, multi-user system, search engine query tools, comment moderation, expiration and pagination, data caching, security and session management, utility tools, multi-protocol support, web publishing features, template engine, Add-on modules and plug-ins etc.

Out of top 100 blogs on Technocrati, 1 is set up on Expression Engine.

Cost: Free, $99.95—$249.95 (depends on the plan of purchase)

Some Important Expression Engine blogs: Gigazine, CollyLogic, Weblog Design Studios

“ExpressionEngine is an incredible web publishing tool surrounded by growing and passionate community of users and developers. For someone like myself, EE’s robustness and templating system make it a delight to use.” –Eric Barstad, Shadow Box Creative Media.

Now that you have set up your blog on the blogging platform, you’d wish to gain access to all the applications at any given time besides maintaining absolute control over the business management software. Having your blog hosted on your own domain has it’s own benefits.

Where to Host?

Lime Labs LLC has recently launched a one-click web hosting platform, LimeDomains. It provides free one click hosting for applications like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Geeklog, osCommerce, Coppermine, Bugzilla, Noah’s Classified, Vanilla, Zenphoto, OSDate etc.

Click here to Get your free blog hosting account.

Announcing The winner of User Feedback Survey

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our User Feedback Survey. We are pleased to announce the name of winner! The winner is David Iacona from Garland, United States. Congratulations to David Iacona for winning the Brand New iPOD Nano.

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