Entering a new e world, and it’s not about dating

/ September 12, 2014
Pick me.

Here I am.

I’m trying to attract attention with a new online profile.

I showed it to my dear wife Karen, and she gave it the green light.

This first week after my temp agency informed me the 40-hour-per company had decided to end my assignment two months in has included enough soul searching to remind me that several important people in the past 18 months have whispered this little phrase into my ear: elance.

Yes, I decided after poking into the who’s and what’s, it’s time to fasten that worldwide web tool on my belt of earning potential.

Here’s what the site comes down to in the nitty-gritty: People who want to hire workers for single projects of all sorts of scope advertise jobs there. People who want to find freelance projects small and large look for them there. Those who want the work bid on the jobs, to be selected at a listed date by the prospective employers.

The job-seekers can increase their chances of being selected, elance says, by paying a small monthly fee that earns perks that include increased monthly bid opportunities over the free base level. Yes, I did.

The volumes of newbie advice includes hints regarding profile-building. There are many employers with repeat business who comb profiles for favorite candidates, they say. I think I did a representative job including snapshots of my blog, my latest posts for syracusenewtimes.com and waer.org, and the centerspread for my cover story on the Syracuse Chiefs GM for Central New York the Good Life magazine. For good measure, I threw in my home page from Twitter to show how I promote them all on social media.

My language to describe my talents is breezy and conversational, not formal and resume-like. It’s akin to my blog writing, or the way I’d talk to somebody I’d meet at the lunch counter or corner bar.

I’ve bid on two jobs, for somebody who needs a writer to distill her or his work and formulate concise answers for 20 to 30 quick Q-and-A’s, with possible pitches for magazine stories attached, and to somebody who administers two web sites, themed to folks who are looking for jobs and prospective employers. Wouldn’t that one looking for blog stories be delicious in many ways?

There were a lot of offers for not-that-many-dollars for 500-word, original-content articles. I’ve yet to get my journalistic mind around that one.

So I’m in the pool. I’m looking for hook-ups. Writer/editor/communicator for hire. Let’s talk.

Here’s the source for my elance profile.

Have you ever tried to promote yourself online, and how did you find the experience? Everything about this site is built around “we’re trustworthy and you have to be, too.” Would you trust it? What kind of freelance projects would you hope to find online?

Related posts

65 thoughts on “Entering a new e world, and it’s not about dating”

  1. Rooting for you, Mark! I looked at your elance page and it looks fab to me – nice pic. My daughter received her journalism degree from Arizona State, Cronkite School last year so I’ll send it on to her to see if she has any feedback. Good luck!

    Like

    Reply

  2. Hmm… I don’t have experience in this particular e-lance forum, but I do know party of artists that do similar bidding websites for graphic art and they work great. And my son does a few with his voice-overs and music mixing talents and also gets hits regularly. Linked-In might also have some more sites suggested. Good luck! Your profile looks great! 😀

    Like

    Reply

  4. Best of luck with your future job endeavors, Mark! I am sure you are much more tech-savvy than I am1 My forage into the wealth of single guys on match.com was totally different from my sending my resume around. I am on LinkedIn and have probably a ton of connections but rare Ohio job offers! Lots of other states ‘want’ me, haha! Smiles, Robin

    Like

    Reply

    • Remember that old song, Robin? Indiana wants me, Lord I can’t go back there … Your comment made me think of that. I wish some great local Ohio boss saw your resume on LinkedIn and offered you a Monday through Friday 9 to 5 thinking-person’s job at twice your current salary. So there’s my Monday wish for you, my friend.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • I loved your Monday wish for me, I will ‘pick it up’ today, my Tuesday early out of work to see the Dentist and now at the library moment. I was surprised that Boys’ Town offered me a job and Vegas elementary schools, along with there was a battered women’s shelter in Mississippi, wow! If I didn’t have family and little grandies who need their Nana, I would head out of state. I think your wish was very super, duper and am smiling athte Indiana wants me song, too! Hugs for this, Mark!
        YOU CAN DO IT! I am here, cheering you on, into the place you deserve and deserves you. I still think of all the time and effort, how you emceed all kinds of events, how there cannot be someone who knows you to connect you back into the ‘niche’ you worked so diligently and successfully in just ‘blows my mind!’

        Like

      • Thank you, thank you, thank you Robin. When you’re hot you’re hot. When you’re not you’re not. Remember that old song from when we were young? Geesh. I am getting some free-lance offers out there, and will get work wherever I can find it, Robin. That is the way the world spins these days.

        Liked by 1 person

      • I do know that old corny song, (“when you’re hot, ….”) I think you are ‘hot’ still and a good ticket for their (freelance) investment, Mark!
        It is funny that we both sometimes ‘punctuate’ our conversations with songs!I have a brother who makes a good living with his artwork, also a ’57 birthday and you know that he has to go from job to job, it can be exciting since he is in Oregon, doing the logos for the Fathead’s newest microbrewery and restaurant there. He has done this in Pittsburg and Cleveland, so he was excited to make the cross-country trip, stopping in various places, like to see the Grand Tetons, the Grand Canyon, Crazy Horse monument and the other excellent stops along the way. He had them pay him, half ‘up front,’ so he had his travel expenses included and then, sightseeing money for himself. He has quite a lot of stuff in his van, so hope he figured in the proper amount of gas money! hahaha!

        Like

  5. Careful with your use of the words, hook up. I know it’s not a dating site, but still. 🙂 My kids die when we say things like, “how did you make out at the store”? Or, “Dad and I are going to hook up at the movies later. 🙂

    Good for you for putting yourself out there in the pool of very capable and talented potential employees. I wish you the best of luck with this, Mr. B! 🙂

    Like

    Reply

    • Funny thing with these expressions, Mrs. B, we owned them in the innocent term way before the kids put the other spin on them. So there. I know, I know. Anyway, I hope I make out OK with this site. We can hook up later to talk about it. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • Somebody smart starts something new like this and makes a boatload of money off of it every day, Mark. That’s the end of things we need to get in on someday. The front end, not the user end. Just wish-listing out loud here. I hope to make some fruitful connections on this site. Thanks.

      Like

      Reply

  12. Looks good Mark, and the picture is great. I haven’t tried to promote myself. I may at some point. But I’m not ready to do that ki d of work. I recognize how much effort I put in to just my blog. The effort and energy you’re putting in has to be great.

    Like

    Reply

  14. That looks good Mark. In my experience it pays to have a profile up were it can be searched by potential employers. I don’t know if you are searching on line job markets but I found a couple of international aggregators (job sites that report available jobs from many other sites) that are excellent (they are free).. Two that give me a lot of possibilities are “Indeed” and “Simply Hired” . For instance I just check them both this morning and Simply Hired reported 15,000 jobs in Syracuse with 52 for “writers”. You can put in your own search parameters, I have found that the wider your search terms, the broader the possibilities. You can also set up a profile on each and you can set up repeating searches that will bring the search results directly to your e-mail daily. Between the aggregators and professional sites, I get about 200 e-mails a day with jobs. i would have had a job easily by now, except I am on dialysis and have a physical .handicap. I actually had one employer fly me 3,000 miles for a job interview(all expenses paid including hotel and meals) in Vancouver (I’m single and my Mom lives there so I was looking there) but, although they wouldn’t say, it was obvious that the handicap was a problem for them.

    I have profiles set up on about 20 such sites – all for free. Employers will search such data bases, but I have found that for every 20 appilcations I put in, 1 employer will contact me cold. So being pro-active is critical. I use multiple search parameters for each site -that’s why all the e-mails, one for each search parameter. The other great thing about aggregators is that they will lead you to other job sites that in and of themselves can be sources of local job employers and agencies (not all jobs get onto aggregators – I’m not sure how that works). Also, here each government level has either their own search sites or use agencies -some allow you to set up profiles that can be checked by various depts and will do scheduled (or unscheduled) searches

    i also use a professional site called LinkedIn. This has produced a few inquiries from professional agencies and employers, but most important I find that when I apply for a job I will often get a hit from the potential employer on LinkedIn shortly thereafter. The employers seem to use it as a sort of reference or check to see if your are registered and what otehr info is available about you. As with Elance, LinkedIn has a free basic service and then incremental cost structure for value added services. I just us the basic free service. It is also a good place to search for professional jobs in your area. They have a lot of the higher quality positions there and many can be accessed by using your LinkedIn profile to apply. Many employers will allow the attachement of cover petters and additional documents (Ihave about 12 that I pick from, depending on the job – awards, letters of recommendation, certificates of training, classes taken, etc). I have about 5 stock cover letters that I developed as templates depending on the job focus that I am applying for. I modify the appropriate letter for each application – sort of personalize it.

    Anyway, the more you get yourself out there, the greater the chance. Don’t be shy and keep the faith – spreading the word of your availability is a big part of the game. Don’t be shy to apply if you think the job is appropriate – I have been turned down for one job and then called later for another at the same employer because they were aware of my skills and availablity. You are great at networking Mark and that is important both electonically and personally. Don’t underestimate the power of a smile and a kind word – they may well come back to bless you at a future date.

    Anyway, that’s just a bit of what I am currently doing – obviously you can pick and choose if any of those ideas seem to be of value to you in your search.

    Your Elance profile looks good – the only suggestion i could make would be to move the wider of your skills to the top of the list and the more specialized lower. For instance – “communication” should be at or close to the top. A tip – a lot of readers will only scan the profile and read deeper if they are interested. By putting your specialities at the top, you could be discarded before they read enough to see if you would be a good fit. By putting generalities at the top, you force readers to go further or even consider you for an opportunity that you have never explored before. You are expressing your belief in yourself with these profiles as much as you are communicating experiences. For instance, do you see yourself as a communicator or as a newspaper man? My guess is that you’ve given that some thought over the years and would prefer to be classified as a communicator who has specialized in newspapers but can easily communicate in other witten (and spoken) formats. And so describe and express yourself that way. It is obvious to me that you communicate excellently in various formats.

    Good Luck and Great Post Mark.

    Like

    Reply

    • Great comment, great advice. Thank you so much, my friend Paul. I am already subscribed to Indeed and CareerBuilder and LinkedIn and get email alerts daily, just as you say. It works just as you describe. I do not seek jobs out of my area, though, for many personal reasons.

      Your profile advice is priceless.

      Thank you again. And again and again.

      Like

      Reply

      • When I read that people use 3-4 editing software programs for their photos, my eyes cross. I don’t even know all there is to know in Photo Shop. Thanks for the vote of confidence my way, Mark. I bumble along, learning as I do. And then I get curious …. what is this button for? And bush it. LOL I still don’t know how to do a nice [HERE] link, you know when you press on or click the [HERE] it brings you to the link. I’ll keep trying until I get it. I’ll read about it, try making sense of it, then do it. All the VERY best to you and your lovely wife Karen, Mark!! Have a wonderful weekend! My hubby and his brother are going fly fishing way up in the Black Hills (Potter County) in PA. It is BEAR country and wild as it gets. You don’t know what dark is until you camp in a tent without electricity in a park in this territory. Ya can’t see your hand in front of your face! OH I could tell you stories. Yup, I’ve been there! Anywho ….. 2.5 days without hubby. *smiling* Peace. Tee hee …… Love, Amy

        Like

      • (smile) Yes, there are bears there, Mark. One actually walked into our campsite one time hubs and I went. I was terrified. Those animals are huge!! LONG story. For another day. (smile) Love, Amy

        Like

  16. love it, especially that opening line with the “sparkle.” Nice touch. Wishing you all the luck in the world, though your words speak for themselves 🙂

    Egads on the self-marketing, though. That’s my least fave part of what I do. Am also in a position where I can’t get too crazy busy what with the kiddos and all, so tend to wait for projects to appear on my horizon, then snatch them up. Actually looking beyond that horizon? Someday someday. Though it does all seem to be online now which will put me way behind. Though I’m still a big fan of meeting folks face-to-face. That said, can’t get clients from afar (Weight Watchers (NY!) is one of my clients) if you have to meet face-to-face.

    Go, Mark, go!

    Like

    Reply

      • So first of all, I will say thanks for that. Very kind and I hope you are right!

        Will go on to tie up other comment threads–so be prepared to skip around. LOVE the Bobcat G story. Awesome. Can see you hitting it off with any number of celebrities 🙂 Bet you’ve met your fair share. Another check in the Mark is Cool column. (we have a running joke about my husband being Cool in the eyes of my 12-year-old)

        And your post yesterday–thanks again for that. Clare (the 12-year-old) came home from school talking about it from her history class. Hadn’t really hit me that it is History. To me, History is the wars our grandfather’s fought in. Something that happened in my lifetime isn’t necessarily History. But there you have it–it’s all relative. So I read her your post and we also read through some of the comments and also this post (do you know Suzanne from WP? Also in NY, usually writes about food): http://apuginthekitchen.com/2014/09/11/a-tribute-in-lights-9112012-2/
        It all opened up great, relevant discussion for us. We cried some and I had no answers. But it felt meaningful to be connecting over it and at least be able to offer her a part of what happened, even if just through other bloggers. Great connections.

        Like

      • That is a relative lesson about history, Liz. When we were learning about World War II and such in class, hell, our parents had seen that with their two eyes, you know? The Great Depression, our grandparents lived through that. Mine, anyhow. Maybe not yours with our age gap thingie, but you get my drift. Substitute Korean War and The New Deal …

        I love the way you used blogs to share learning with Clare. That is a relevant and now way to relate to a 12-year-old, my friend. I feel honored to be part of that. I hope Clare dug it enough to get a jones for blog-reading of her own.

        Now I have to click on my fellow New Yorker Suzie’s link, thank you for that. FYI, you ought to click on the link I attached in the comment from Margaret on my elance post today if you haven’t. She writes a Syracuse-based Eat First food blog that I think is smoking. She is a close friend that worked with me at the big daily for 25 years.

        Finally, thanks for the Bobcat comment. I’ve met my share of neat people from Syracuse, famous and regular folk, that’s for sure. I simply enjoy getting to know people from all walks.

        Like

  17. How 2014! I like the way you laid it out.
    I wish you all the success in the world Mark! I should look at doing something like this in my field. It’s sad, even annoying when people undervalue your craft. In my case many just expect me to volunteer!

    Like

    Reply

  18. Good luck Mark! One thought as I looked through your profile: didn’t you co-author a sports book? Maybe including that could expand the pool of people looking for writing?

    Like

    Reply

  20. i say it’s a good opportunity to try all sorts of things. throw your hat in the ring and see what happens. be open to all possibilities within reason. you do have a wonderful writing style and it will lead you somewhere you probably aren’t even aware of yet. your match will come!

    Like

    Reply

    • Thank you, thank you, thank you, Beth. I have grown and gotten a lot better at sharing my voice in the year-plus since I started this blog, I think, and I feel that is continuing. We shall keep seeking. ))

      Like

      Reply

  21. There is a lot of freelance work out there for people who think and look outside the box. The problem is so many are unwilling to pay a living wage for our skills. I recently said “no, thanks” to a “compensation” of $150 for a 1,500-2,000 word story. You gotta laugh it off, move on and stand up for our profession, too. Hang in there, keep on looking and keep on writing!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • The initial challenge is wading through the listings from people who don’t value the work in the universe as we do, Margaret, I agree. There is a listing there for .00006 cent per word. I may be a zero digit or two off because I’m off the top of my head, but the premise of it caught my eye. The words “no, thanks,” are a powerful tool, you are correct. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are well. Congratulations on your advancement through the New Times best-of poll. Way to go.

      Friends, Margaret writes a dynamic Food-oriented blog here in Syracuse.

      http://eatfirst.typepad.com/eat-first/

      I strongly suggest you check out her work.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  22. Since this is a hobby and not a career for me, I never thought about how I would market myself. I am just crossing my fingers and wishing you luck that something spectacular comes from this new phase of job hunting!

    Like

    Reply

    • Thank you, Jeanette. My blog here is the fun part. The writing in all the other sites and venues is where I have to make my living. Yes, I have to always write for the audience elsewhere, but the interesting thing is, I try to write in my voice the best I can everywhere. And, may I add, you write as well as many doing it for pay, my friend.

      Like

      Reply

      • ” Yes, I have to always write for the audience elsewhere, but the interesting thing is, I try to write in my voice the best I can everywhere. ”

        That is what makes you a great writer. It’s a universal voice that everyone can relate to, but it is still able to express the relevance of the subject at hand: technical, personal, etc.. And, thank you kindly for that last statement. 🙂

        Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.