10 Articles any Freelancer should read

  1. Our newest member, Alon Peer, talks about his motivation and experience in becoming a freelancer.
  2. Can one man take on an army? Just read the Chanuka story, and you’ll see we believe the answer is yes. This author agrees.
  3. Are you a trusting person, or have you been burnt before and learned from your mistakes?
  4. If you work to earn money, then you must collect that money.
  5. Your customer might be a big corporation, but behind the Inc., LLC, or Ltd. are people just like you.
  6. I hope you enjoy your work, or I’d suggest dropping it and doing something else. But sometimes you put all your excitement and creative juices into a project, only to be met with rejection.
  7. Some people are naturals, but the rest of us need to learn the how-tos, or learn the hard way.
  8. The customer may always be right, but sometimes you may not be the right freelancer for the customer.
  9. Over and over again. Are you still not on board?
  10. I wish it wasn’t true, but I’ve been sitting on this link for a few weeks now. Well, here it is.

Enjoy!

Know your Hebrew: Another Easy Mistake

I recently came across another easy Hebrew miscommunication that might have caused myself some prior issues. Hopefully you can avoid the same problems.

Mail does not mean Mail!

If you’re speaking to someone in Hebrew, such as customer service in Israel, and they ask for your Mail address (not K’tovet, Do’ar, etc.), don’t think they’re replacing basic Hebrew with English words.

Mail means e-mail!

This can be very important if, for example, you need your original receipts for filing tax statements. If you’re asked if you want your receipts "by mail", it means they’re offering you a paperless option. To the best of my knowledge, an e-mail print-out is not an acceptable Cheshbonit Mas for tax purposes.

Have you had any other similar experiences?

Your new favorite word: telecommute

I’ll be thrilled when JobShuk.com is the only website you’ll ever need to visit to find work abroad while living in Israel. Until then, learn the word "telecommute".

Even if you’ve never heard it before, you probably already understand what it means. "Tele" as in telephone, telegraph, and tell-a-woman (woka woka). "Tele", meaning from afar, and commute, meaning to get your tush out the door and off to work. Put them together, and you don’t have to smell your boss’s breath any more.

With technologies as they are, there are growing opportunities in most industries to work wherever you choose. Just get yourself to a computer and/or telephone, and you’re ready to work. Companies don’t have to pay for your travel expenses, or the overhead of having you in the office, and can employ someone living in a region of lower cost-of-living (like Israel!).

How do you find these jobs? Go to a job site, such as SimplyHired and include the keyword "telecommute" in your search, or use our test telecommute job engine at jobshuk.jobamatic.com

What are the best practices for a traditional writer to use for Web content?

I’m no expert in the writing field, but I know that they are many English-speakers in Israel who pride themselves on their writing abilities. I also know that in this Internet world of "content is King," website owners are paying good money for fresh articles on their blogs and websites.

Here’s a thorough, educational and entertaining article on the subject:
What are the Best Practices for Web Writing?

Happy writing!

What makes a great freelancer?

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, freelance comes from:

"medieval mercenary warrior," 1820, from free + lance; apparently a coinage of Sir Walter Scott’s. Fig. sense is from 1864; the verb is first attested 1903.

Free:

O.E. freo "free, exempt from, not in bondage," also "noble, joyful," from P.Gmc

Lance:

c.1290, from O.Fr. lance, from L. lancea "light spear"

Obviously, the "free" in freelance doesn’t refer to the price. In fact, comparing a modern freelancer to a mercenary implies that he lacks any sense of loyalty or belief in the mission, and is working solely for the financial reward. While this may cheapen the freelancer’s role from a philosophical point of view, it can be useful when you’re looking for a soldier or tool to follow your direction and trust your vision.

Israelis are notorious for getting overly involved in a project. Foreigners are often shocked by an Israeli partner, employee, or freelancer’s honesty and persistence about a project or the perceived problems therein. If properly managed, this is an incredible asset to the project, but freelancers in particular must recognize their role and know when to accept a decision from above.

The warrior spirit of a freelancer knows how to enter a job, play his role with his complete enthusiasm, and then move on. He has to be the best person for the job, fully trained and self-disciplined, with little dependence on a ruling system to protect him. His self-confidence must be at peak levels to handle any job, and the free time between jobs, when available. He desires the independence and revels in it, able to work with anyone and be subjugated to none.

What makes you a great freelancer?

Is “Hard Work” returning as a virtue?

Given the current economic changes, we’re seeing faster changes to how people are working and doing business.

  1. Outsourcing is continuing to rise
    Despite the verbal concerns on the matter and its effect on the local businessman, people are continuing to seek out the cheapest solution. Outsourcing allows a small business to pay an expert for his time on a specific matter without the overhead.
  2. Decrease in quitting
    Employment agencies are reporting less openings. As fewer new jobs are becoming available, employees are less likely to quit their jobs and find a new employer, or spend their time looking for a new workplace. And since the newest employees to join a company are often the first to go when cut-backs have to be made, nobody is looking to be "the new guy."
  3. More work hours
    A doctor friend of mine commutes to the US during typical vacation periods, picking up the slack of the regular doctors. Even throughout the year, the younger doctors have been more concerned with their life-work balance, taking only enough work to satisfy their needs. But with the current situation, they’re working more hours, and taking less vacation. Throughout the world, contractors are taking more work, where available, to avoid being in a position where they can’t pay their mortgage. Employees are scared of losing their jobs and find themselves putting in longer, quality hours. With traditional investing in the toilet, "work smarter, not harder" is simply not a luxury for most people.

Although the situation is hard for all of us, this may be the beginning of the silver-spoon bubble bursting, and a return to more traditional work values.

Official Statement on recent SPAM activity

Last week, a spammer entered JobShuk and sent out e-mails to many of the users, making vague overtures, followed by standard Scam claims, e.g. millions of dollars in wire transfers, etc.  Most of you quickly realized that this was a scam, and have already done what should be done with such SPAM – deleted it.  If you’ve made contact with this person, identified as Lillian Muhammed Atif, please break contact immediately.

I’d like to publicly apologize for this infiltration. I understand that giving out your contact information online is always a calculation of risk vs. reward, and I appreciate your taking the risk with JobShuk. It is our full intention to deliver those rewards to you, and prevent, as best we can, further irrelevant solicitations or scams.

As further clarification, 

  • The e-mail was not sent by JobShuk itself, but by an unscrupulous site visitor.
  • The culprit did not compromise the security of our mailing list, and our site has not been Hacked. You will not receive subsequent SPAMs, and "Lillian" does not have your contact information unless you replied to the initial contact.
  • JobShuk is not susceptible to bots (programs that spider the Internet looking for e-mail addresses). The attack was a human who registered on the site, and browsed from profile to profile, completing the online contact form.
  • The e-mail format sent out is a valid e-mail as a result from someone filling-out the contact form on a profile page. If you receive an e-mail of the same format in the future, do not disregard it as SPAM – it’s most likely a genuine contact. E-mails from your contact form will contain a subject: "New message from your JobShuk contact form"
  • The SPAM did not contain any viruses, as attachments are not allowed via the contact forms.

To prevent such behavior in the future, we are adding to our current security system some or all of the following precautions:

  • A daily message limit for each user, so that mass quantities of mail cannot be sent out by any individual again.
  • Blacklist checks, forbidding users on flagged computer terminals from using the site.
  • SPAM filters, requiring every message sent out to pass a strict SPAM rating system.  Flagged messages will be manually monitored, and valid messages will be passed on to the intended recipients.

I thank you for using JobShuk, and for understanding that such inconveniences happen. We, at JobShuk, look forward to being with you through your future continued successes.

Sincerely,

Zvi Landsman
Founder & CTO, JobShuk

 

2nd Online Israel Business Expo

Tel Aviv, 28th October 2008 – On Tuesday we host the 2nd International Online Israeli Business Expo connecting hundreds of Israeli freelancers and small businesses with businesses in North America and Europe.  Zionism meets good business sense by outsourcing business projects to Israel.

On Tuesday 28th October at 11am Eastern US time, Israel’s entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to meet online and showcase their products, services and skills to a new market of potential clients.  By providing this informal digital environment JobShuk hopes to provide a platform for businesses that need high quality and low cost work to meet the challenges of the current economic climate.   The Expo is designed to allow you to reach out to the exhibitors in any way possible: video chat, audio chat, or instant text messaging.

At the expo, founder Zvi Landsman will outline how far JobShuk has come since its launch in 2007 and introduce two new members of the management team; Avicam Gitlin, Business Development Director and Clifton Flack, Marketing Director.  This new team is already finalizing the launch of a new and powerful web interface to make posting and searching projects easier and more intuitive.

“Using the power of the Internet, JobShuk.com is bringing together hundreds of businesses to share experiences and discuss business opportunities. By partnering with Skype and BlogTV we’re able to beam Israeli Businesses around the world to showcase their skills and discuss outsourcing projects” said Clifton Flack.

Attendees will also hear from Jackie Goldstein, founder of Renaissance Computer Systems which is a leading Israeli solutions provider specializing in custom software development, strategic technology consulting, and focused training for a wide range of organizations around the world. 
By participating in Israel’s second International Business Expo Online, businesses have the chance to develop relationships with providers in Israel.  Today, in 2008 with the reality of economic downturn, companies need to look to lowering costs while maintaining high levels of output, its this together with the drive to support Israel by more than giving a donation that is fueling the growth of JobShuk” say’s Avicam Gitlin.

 

About JobShuk:
JobShuk.com launched in September 2007 with a simple goal in mind: to improve the financial situation of Israeli residents. To achieve this goal, we utilize Internet technologies to raise awareness and facilitate business connections with Zionists worldwide. JobShuk.com includes business blogs and advice forums, a customizable business card page, and feedback, messaging, and rating interfaces. Buyers or sellers may initiate contact by searching through seller profiles or bidding on buyer opportunity postings.

the end of business as usual

Every once in a while, each of us encounters a message that, whether due to or in spite of its beligerance, makes us open our eyes and see things a little differently.

I still see the same junk e-mails being passed around since the start of the Internet revolution, but I’ve never yet been exposed to the cluetrain manifesto, which has been online since 1999.

It’s hard for me to describe what cluetrain is, and I have not yet given the 95 point thesis or the free downloadable book the time it deserves, but I look forward to it, and would like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

FYI, the manifesto has been translated into a number of languages, including Hebrew.