Sunday, May 19, 2013

5 Sure-Fire Routes to Freelancing Success

Art-of-freelancingBy Lynn Dixon2013-05-04 14:05:31 UTC

In today’s shaky economy, freelancing is on the rise. In the U.S. alone, one in three workers are now doing freelance work. That's 42 million Americans going without employer health insurance, 401(k) plans and flexible spending accounts.

But it’s not all doom and gloom — freelancing is often fulfilling work. Plenty of people freelance by choice. Some do it to supplement their existing income, and others do it because full-time work is simply hard to find. Creative types often choose this professional option because freelancing offers flexibility and the opportunity to showcase work in a variety of arenas. Freelancers can be anyone — artists, writers, graphic designers, lawyers, financial consultants, accountants, journalists — you name it, someone's probably done it via freelance.

If you’re looking to start a gig as a freelancer, follow these five tips to perfect the art.

It can be helpful to be a jack-of-all-trades in the freelance industry, but you may have an easier time marketing yourself if you choose a niche within your industry. Personal branding efforts are a must for anyone looking for freelance work. Show your worth: Start a personal website, ramp up your social media presence and start a blog to discuss pressing industry issues and offer new perspectives.

Sure, there are plenty of established freelancers who are approached regularly for work. But freelancing is also a business, and that means there may be times when the well runs dry. Constant networking is a must for freelancers who desire regular work. Make networking a regular task — use the Web, attend industry events, send out e-newsletters or make cold calls to get new clients.

This may be the number one rule of successful freelancing: Always write and sign a contract with your clients before completing any work. Check your state laws to determine the appropriate contracts you’ll need to write, and spell out pricing and timelines if necessary. Too often, freelancers get taken advantage of and end up working for free. A contract ensures your client is legally bound to pay you, so don't skip this step!

Freelancers often juggle multiple projects at once. Determine how long a project will take to complete, to properly block out your time, or set up appointments with clients in your home office or even a local café. Use spreadsheets to track your progress and keep tabs on payments. Freelancers work without the oversight of a boss to keep them on schedule — that means it's up to you to ensure you're staying on track.

Being a freelancer means you may not have creative control of your projects. You're working at the mercy of clients — you know, the people who are paying you — and you have to be flexible to clients' needs if you want to succeed. Many freelancers struggle to give up creative control of a project; they often feel they know their market or niche well, but hit a brick wall when clients ask for changes. Freelancers need to refine the art of flexibility, offering their expertise and guidance to clients while also taking into account client needs.

Freelancing can be a great way to supplement your existing income or create a new career. Use the skills you already have, and you'll l be well on your way to creating a thriving personal business.

The Mashable Job Board connects job seekers across the U.S. with unique career opportunities in the digital space. While we publish a wide range of job listings, we have selected a few job opportunities from the past two weeks to help get you started. Happy hunting!

Image via iStockphoto, megamix.

Lynn%2520dixon-1575 Lynn Dixon

Lynn Dixon is the co-founder and COO of Hourly.com, an employment network that quickly matches people who are interested in flexible positions with the right opportunities. Connect with Lynn and Hourly on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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The After Math: Google I/O 2013, BlackBerry Live and Nokia's Lumia 925

The After Math: Google I/O 2013, BlackBerry Live and Nokia's Lumia 925 data = {blogUrl: "www.engadget.com",v: 315};when = {jquery: lab.scriptBs("jquery"),plugins: lab.scriptBs("plugins"),eng: lab.scriptBs("eng")}; var s265prop9 = ('20572210' !== '') ? 'bsd:20572210' : ''; var postID = '20572210'; var modalMNo = '93379667', modalVideoMNo = '93320648', modalGalleryMNo = '93304207'; when.eng("eng.omni.init", {pfxID:"weg",pageName:document.title,server:"acp-ld39.websys.aol.com",channel:"us.engadget", s_account: "aolwbengadget,aolsvc", short_url: "",pageType:"",linkInternalFilters:"javascript:,",prop1:"article",prop2:"nokia",prop9:s265prop9,prop12:document.location,prop17:"",prop18:"",prop19:"",prop20:"", prop22:"mat-smith", prop54:"blogsmith",mmxgo: true }); adSendTerms('1')adSetMOAT('1');adSetAdURL('/_uac/adpagem.html');lab._script("http://o.aolcdn.com/os/ads/adhesion/js/adhads-min.js").wait(function(){var floatingAd = new AdhesiveAd("10000057",{hideOnSwipe:true});}); onBreak({980: function () { adSetType("F");htmlAdWH("93379667", "LB", "LB"); adSetType("");}}); EngadgetMenu NewsReviews Features Galleries VideosEventsPodcasts Engadget ShowTopics Buyers Guides Sagas Store HD Mobile Alt Announcements Cameras Cellphones Desktops Displays Gaming GPS Handhelds Home Entertainment Household Internet Laptops Meta Misc Networking Peripherals Podcasts Robots Portable Audio/Video Science Software Storage Tablets Transportation Wearables Wireless Acer Amazon AMD Apple ASUS AT&T Blackberry Canon Dell Facebook Google HP HTC Intel Lenovo LG Microsoft Nikon Nintendo Nokia NVIDIA Samsung Sony Sprint T-Mobile Verizon About UsSubscribeLike Engadget@engadgettip uswhen.eng("eng.nav.init")when.eng("eng.tips.init") onBreak({980: function () {htmlAdWH("93379670", "215", "35",'AJAX','ajaxsponsor');}});The After Math: Google I/O 2013, BlackBerry Live and Nokia's Lumia 925BypostedMay 19th, 2013 at 12:01 PM 0

The After Math Google IO 2013, BlackBerry World and Oh No Not Another Windows Phone

A new Lumia phone from Nokia, this year's Google I/O and BlackBerry Live -- yep, it was a pretty hectic week for us, but also a good seven days for tech news. Even if Google didn't have any truly new hardware for us, it's started up its own on-demand music service, gave us more details on Google Glass, redesigned its Maps and, well, it was a very long keynote. Join us after the break for a numerical breakdown of that and the rest of the week's big news.

Per-month pricing for Google Music All Access: $9.99Per-month pricing for Spotify Premium: $9.99Time spent liveblogging the Google I/O 2013 keynote: 3 hours 43 minutesLength of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: 2 hours 49 minutesBattery remaining on our Google Glass unit by the end of the keynote: 17 percentNumber of times Google CEO Larry Page said the word "sad" during his keynote appearance: 9Price of a 16GB "stock Android" Samsung Galaxy S 4: $649Price of last year's LG Nexus 4 (16GB): $349YouTube's monthly subscription fee for new pilot channels: $0.99Current Sesame Street channel subscribers on YouTube: 600,464One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11: 12

Amount Google earned from ads on PSY's "Gangnam Style" video: $8 millionNumber of Android device activations to date: 900 millionApps installed from Google Play: 48 billionApps downloaded from Apple's App Store: 50 billionEstimated number of Nokia phones (feature and smart) sold last year: 336 millionPrice of the Nokia Lumia 925: 469 euros / $605Price of the Nokia Asha 501: $99Screen size (in inches) of the Asha 501: 3Screen size (in inches) of the new QWERTY BlackBerry Q5: 3.1BlackBerry's smartphone market share, according to IDC: 2.9 percentTablets sold by ASUS in Q1 2013: 3 millionTablets sold by BlackBerry in Q1 2013: 370,000Years left for the tablet market, according to BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins: 5 when.eng("eng.perm.init")

Israel's Attack on Syria Caught on Video

Lorenzo-f-bicchireai By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai2013-05-06 19:16:18 UTC

Israel bombed Syria over the weekend, with attacks on Friday and Sunday. One of those two attacks was caught on camera from two different angles, and the videos have been uploaded to YouTube.

The Washington Post confirmed the veracity of the videos, which show a huge explosion on Mount Qassioun, a hill overlooking Damascus.

The specific targets of the attacks are not entirely clear. The first attack by Israeli warplanes was reportedly on missiles that were bound to be delivered to Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group, according to the Post. The second attack, according to the BBC, targeted an area that houses several military facilities. Journalist Alaa Ebrahim said it felt like a "mild earthquake" and for him it was "the biggest explosion" in Damascus since the conflict started two years ago.

You can see footage of the attack in the video above and another one below.

Image via Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

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Ask Engadget: can you use an Android tablet as a graphics tablet?

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Ask Engadget can you use an Android tablet as a graphics tablet

We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from Xan, who wants Cintiq functionality without paying Cintiq prices. If you're looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

"I'm a student and I'm considering staying on to do graphic design, and I really like the look of Wacom's Cintiq devices. Unfortunately I couldn't afford one even if I sold a kidney, so I was wondering if I could turn an Android tablet into a cheaper version? I figure a device like the Galaxy Note 10.1 with its Wacom digitizer would be a good fit, so is there a way to do it? Thanks!"

We're sucking in air through our teeth, as we're sorry to say, we can't think of a way this could be done successfully. There's a few problems like no software, a lack of bandwidth and doubts over the accuracy of a tablet to replicate such a sophisticated piece of hardware. That said, perhaps the forthcoming Surface Pro software update might solve this problem altogether, but an Android tablet? We're not so sure. But if there's anyone out there who has made it happen and wants to share their revelation, why not leave a note below?

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Worst Possible Cybersecurity Breaches Could Be Far Worse Than You Imagined

Hoover-damJosh Meyer for Quartz 2013-05-05 21:02:09 UTC

The cyber-ruffians who briefly tanked the stock market last week by faking a news tweet about an attack at the White House showed how much damage can be done with a few well-placed keystrokes. Those who hacked into a Department of Labor website earlier this week could have wreaked even more havoc, say, if they successfully tweaked the monthly jobs report.

Neither seemed particularly sophisticated, or malicious. But they do pose the obvious question: How much damage could a group of well-trained hackers do, economic and otherwise, if they really wanted to?

That's a question Paul Rosenzweig has been thinking about for a while. He's a former top U.S. Department of Homeland Security official and author of the recently published book, Cyber Warfare: How Conflicts in Cyberspace Are Challenging America and Changing the World. The book's cheerful premise is that technological advances, combined with the ubiquity of the Internet, have spawned a near-infinite range of potentially grave security threats to governments, commercial entities and individuals.

It doesn't take Rosenzweig long to come up with some unsettling scenarios. Most involve either disruption or disinformation, like the Associated Press Twitter account hack.

Here are just a few of them:

Spreading disinformation through trusted sources about a dangerous escalation of a geopolitical flashpoint, prompting a plunge in global markets that lasts for days before it's corrected. North Korea's Kim Jong-Un launches ICBMs at the United States, for instance, or Israel attacks Iran's nuclear program, squeezing the global oil supply.

Hacking into the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) that run so many government and private sector systems, disrupting dams, oil refineries, the power grid, utility companies — or the global banking system known as SWIFT. (A Chinese hacker is suspected in a recent intrusion into a U.S. government database cataloging dam vulnerabilities, according to the Washington Free Beacon.)

Disrupting trading on the New York, London or Tokyo stock exchanges, or finding a way to wipe out, or corrupt, the vast database of prior trades.

Messing with the space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information for just about everything these days. "Think of this,'" Rosenzweig says. "What if someone started degrading the information that GPS runs on? It's just data, ones and zeros that come down from satellites. You could make our missiles less accurate, our planes less able to fly or less safe. You could intercept, degrade it, or spoof it — send false signals, and make the planes think they are somewhere else."

How serious are these threats? "All of these are very, very real vulnerabilities," says Rosenzweig. "There are people who would love to do these to us but don't have the capability yet, like Al Qaeda. There are others, like Russia, China and Iran, who could do much of it, and they might do it at some point. But when, and why, we don't know." One question is whether state actors like Russia, China and Iran would authorize something that could be construed as an act of war, or certainly a serious provocation that could prompt a U.S. military cyber-response.

Rosenzweig, who now runs the Red Branch Law Consulting firm, wouldn't talk about the work he did on highly-classified "Red Teams" tasked by the government to think up such scenarios as a way of thwarting them. But he says such efforts are becoming increasingly urgent as cybersecurity experts try to anticipate what kind of hacks could really do serious damage.

Photo via Flickr, Milpool79

This article originally published at Quartz here

Topics: Tech, U.S., World Quartz is a Mashable publishing partner that is a new kind of global business news outlet.

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Stunning Mars Panoramas Show Curiosity Rover at Work

Curiosity-rover-mosaic-sol177Mike Wall for Space.com 2013-05-06 15:47:44 UTC

Three spectacular new panoramas give an eye-popping look at NASA's Mars rover Curiosity hard at work on the Red Planet.

Each photo is a mosaic stitched together using more than 20 raw images taken by the Curiosity rover itself, said New Jersey-based scientist and journalist Ken Kremer, who created the panoramas along with his imaging partner Marco Di Lorenzo.

The mosaics "show the context for each spot where the rover is toiling away — compared to individual frames that just give a rather narrow view and incomplete experience," Kremer told SPACE.com in an email. "The wide view lets you experience Mars as if you were standing on the Red Planet's surface — and from the human perspective."

One of the mosaics shows Curiosity with its huge robotic arm deployed, studying a rocky outcrop called "John Klein" on Jan. 25-26, 2013. About two weeks later, the rover drilled 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) into a section of John Klein, collecting the first-ever samples from the interior of a Martian rock.

Another mosaic is a self-portrait Curiosity took at John Klein on Feb. 3. The third shows Curiosity on March 23, still at the drill site, with its arm elevated and its drill pointed at the viewer — seemingly flexing its muscles after recovering from a computer glitch that knocked out its main computer system in late February.

The mosaics help paint a picture of Curiosity and its mission, which aims to assess Mars' potential to host past or present microbial life, Kremer said.

"I chose these scenes because they vividly tell the story of what NASA seeks to accomplish with Curiosity in the search for signs of life on Mars as well as tell the science story of the entire mission at a glance — one panorama is worth a thousand words, so to speak," he said.

Curiosity has already accomplished its main mission goal. The rover's analysis of the John Klein drill samples enabled mission scientists to determine that the Red Planet was indeed habitable billions of years ago.

The rover team made this announcement in March, just seven months after Curiosity touched down inside Mars' huge Gale Crater.

Two of the three new photo mosaics prominently feature Mount Sharp, the mysterious 3.4-mile-high (5.5 km kilometers) mountain that rises from Gale's center. That's no accident, Kremer said.

"Whenever possible with horizon scenery we include Mount Sharp — it's a dramatic backdrop as well as being the rover's ultimate destination," he said.

Images courtesy of NASA/JPL/MSSS/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer

This article originally published at Space.com here

Topics: Curiosity, curiosity rover, Mars, Mars rover, NASA, Pics, space, U.S., US & World, World Space.com is a Mashable publishing partner that is the world's No. 1 source for news of astronomy, skywatching, space exploration, commercial spaceflight and related technologies. This article is reprinted with the publisher's permission.

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Your Phone Is Dirtier Than These 5 Objects

Bianca By Bianca Consunji2013-05-06 19:56:32 UTC

It's a well-known fact that cellphones are dirty objects, but just how unclean are they? Fun fact: each square inch of your cellphone contains roughly 25,000 germs, making it one of the filthiest things you come in contact with on a daily basis. That's something to think about the next time you press your face to your phone.

SEE ALSO: 8 Ways to Give Your Gadgets a Spring Cleaning

Ever wonder what objects are actually cleaner than your phone? Surprisingly, toilet seats make the list because they're usually sanitized often. Watch the video to see how an average cellphone's bacterial count stacks up compared to other household items.

Image by Mashable

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'The Onion' Twitter Account Appears to Have Been Hacked

The-onionTodd-wasserman By Todd Wasserman2013-05-06 18:09:10 UTC

The Onion's Twitter account on Monday appeared to have been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army, though there's always the possibility that it could be a joke.

The account began tweeting strange messages around 1 p.m. EDT, starting with this:

Others followed:

A fake hack would not be out of the realm of possibility for an organization that often pushes its humor to the breaking point. In February, it apologized for a crude tweet aimed at 9-year-old Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis . Before that, The Onion reported a fake shooting on Capitol Hill that many took for real.

The publication's website was unaffected by the hack as was its Facebook Page. Reps from The Onion could not be reached for comment.

Update: The Onion now claims it has changed its Twitter password.

Image via Getty, Justin Sullivan

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Rob Delaney to Take Over MLB Twitter Account

RobdelaneygettySam-laird By Sam Laird2013-05-06 21:02:09 UTC

Comedian Rob Delaney — who is among Twitter's most popular, funny and ribald comedic tweeters — will take over the official Major League Baseball account for several hours Tuesday afternoon.

Delaney's incisive wit and bon mots have gained him more than 838,00 Twitter followers as well as press coverage across the web. But the Massachusetts native is also a lifelong baseball fan who grew up rooting for the Boston Red Sox, so the MLB takeover makes sense. It'll happen from 12 to 7 p.m. EDT.

So what will Delaney tweet from the MLB account? We'll have to wait and see.

"He’s the kind of guy who will take over the account and run with it," says Arturo Pardavila III, MLB's director of social media content. "Plenty of fastballs — with some curveballs mixed in. Also, the man can sing. He nailed the national anthem at Dodger Stadium a few weeks ago. Maybe he’ll even do a singing Vine. Who knows? The floor is his."

Back in August 2011, comedian Stephen Colbert tweeted from the MLB account in what was then the first Twitter takeover of an official sports profile. Many other leagues, teams and brands have done it since, but none for @MLB since Colbert started the trend. But Delaney, according to MLB reps, is a natural follow-up.

"We just want to have some fun here. Delaney is hilarious and hopefully won't get me fired," says Dave Feldman, MLB's social media director. "We thought our followers would enjoy whatever comes out of this. We really want to use the @MLB account as a way for celebs and other public figures to interact and have fun with baseball fans. Baseball is America’s Pastime for so many people and we thought it’d be fun for some notables to have the keys to the account when it makes sense."

Are Twitter takeovers cool promotions or do they fall flat? Give us your take in the comments.

Photo by Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

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Listen to Mariah Carey's 'Beautiful' Single Featuring Miguel

Mariah-careyBahjournalist-5e1f0b4ff8 By Brian Anthony Hernandez2013-05-06 15:28:24 UTC

Hashtag. Hashtag. Hashtag. It's like the Marcia Brady of symbols for musicians. Mariah Carey is the latest to infuse a song title with a hashtag, plopping one in her new single, "#Beautiful," featuring fellow Grammy winner Miguel.

Carey's crew released the track Monday morning and said a video for it will premiere Wednesday during American Idol. As a judge on the singing competition, Carey sometimes uses "hashtag" in her positive critiques as in "hashtag pow."

Carey and Miguel wrote and produced "#Beautiful," which is the lead single from her forthcoming album that will debut this summer. Listen to the song below:

This 26-second teaser for the single's music video appeared on YouTube on April 25 and has since garnered more than 2 million views. The full video will drop on Vevo and YouTube on May 8 after the American Idol premiere.

Carey's still-untitled new album wil be her first full-length studio album since 2009's Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel. It will feature "more raw ballads than people might expect," she told Billboard. Producers lending a hand are Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox, Big Jim Wright, Hit-Boy, Mike Will, The-Dream and Rodney Jerkins.

Image via Kevin Winter/Getty Images

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