It’s a Freelancer’s Life

If you’ve been a freelancer for any length of time, you know how hard it can be. It’s not a decision to be taken lightly, and you need to have thick skin to weather the ups and downs that having a variable income can bring.

So why did I decide to freelance? Well, it all began when I found out I was having twins back in October of 2011, and they would be arriving sometime in May of 2012. Looking at daycare costs for newborn twins was a sobering experience, to say the least. I had two choices to make:

1. Leave the corporate world behind and make a go at freelancing so that I could stay at home with my kids
2. Stay in the corporate world and basically cut my salary in half paying for something I could do for free

Obviously, since I am here talking about being a freelancer, I chose number 1. I’d be lying if I said that there are some days when I wish I had chosen number 2. But by and large, I think it’s the best decision I could have made, especially because my little girl was diagnosed with ASD, or autism spectrum disorder shortly after her second birthday. As such, she requires therapy and visits from early intervention specialists. I don’t see how I could do this unless I had the flexible schedule that freelancing allows.

So what do I do exactly? Well, I do a bit of everything. I’ve tried transcription, content mill writing, Google ad rating, and Bing search engine ratinig. Those have all been hit and miss. However, I think I’ve found my calling. I’m a virtual assistant for a company called Time Etc., and I do mostly social media management stuff. Right now, I’m just managing Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, writing posts, sourcing images, and moderating comments, but I hope to expand that knowledge and perhaps become a full-blown social media manager…someday.

It has been this experience as a VA that led me to want to create a new blog that concentrates on freelance VA work, blogging advice, and social media management than working from home in general. That’s what my old blog, The Work from Home Reporter, was about. Unfortunately, I made some SEO mistakes (unintentional…no black hat stuff!) that landed it in Google purgatory with the last algorithim release. I’ve tried a number of tactics to fix it, but nothing seems to have worked over the last 6 months. My traffic went from almost 1000 visitors a day to an average of 50 (yes, 50!) a day. That lead to my small income from that going down the tubes. Hence, The Freelance Way of Life was born. I hope to be able to put what I’ve learned about SEO to good use this time, and not fall down Google’s rabbit hole.

In addition to information about blogging, social media marketing, and working as a VA, I’ll also include tidbits here and there about earning extra cash and rewards like gift cards. I mean, who doesn’t like gift cards? Also, you may find posts about my hobby, which is crochet. It’s a source of relaxation for me, and I’ve also managed to make a little money off of selling some of my work. Maybe you can too! And last but not least, I’ll be posting freelance job leads, which will all be remote work you can do from anywhere. You’ll find mostly writing jobs, but I’ll also post any other VA type of work such as transcription, accounting, and general admin work.

Here’s to the start of what I hope will be a blog to remember and share!

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