Welcome to Spark an Idea Thursday. Each week we’ll share some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition to your blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!

This week’s challenge is to “spark an idea about following your gut.” Here’s my brilliant idea: follow your gut. Even if it leads you astray (and it usually doesn’t), at least you won’t feel like you betrayed yourself.

In my experience, when you follow your gut, things work out. Here’s one example.

At the beginning of my senior year in college, I began waitressing at an “upscale casual” Italian restaurant. It was a decent job, and I was making good money (for a college student). I worked there for a few months – never late, never calling in sick, never upsetting a customer. Basically, I was a model employee. And then one day, just before I was about to leave for work, my boyfriend (of 2 years) and I had a fight and broke up. This was the guy I thought I was going to marry. I was devastated, but I still got in the car and drove to work.

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Welcome to the second post in our “Build Your Own Freelancing Website” series. In the first post, we talked about choosing and reserving a domain name. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready for the second step – choosing a company to host your website and purchasing a hosting package.

Step 2 – Choose a web host and purchase a hosting package.

Two basic options: Hosted blog service or self-hosted.

There are two basic ways to publish a blog-based website: (1) use a hosted blog service, such as www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com; or (2) use a self-hosted blog. What’s the difference? The main thing you need to know is that with a hosted blog service, you have a lot less control over your website. Different services have different rules about what you can and cannot do, and you should review those rules carefully if you’re considering using a hosted service.

If you really want your site to look professional and business-like, I recommend against using a service such as Blogger or Wordpress.com. They may be easier to set up (and free), but you’re sacrificing the ability to completely customize your site.

Note: Wordpress.com is a hosted blog service; Wordpress.org offers Wordpress blog software for free download, which you can then install on your self-hosted blog.

Setting up a self-hosted website.

If you’ve decided to take the plunge and set up a self-hosted website, congratulations! You’re on your way. I think you’ve made a good decision. Now it’s time to choose a hosting company.

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The week before last I asked you what you needed to know about building a website for your freelance business. If those who responded (by e-mail and on the blog) are representative of Freelance Parent readers as a whole, you’re looking for easy-to-follow instructions for creating a simple website and blog.

In light of that goal, I’ve put together a “Build Your Own Freelancing Website” series that I hope you will find helpful.

Each post in the series will cover one step in the process of building your own website, and I’ll be available to answer your questions about that step in the comments.

Please keep in mind that “building a website” is a huge topic and there’s no way I can cover everything. Maybe it’s better that way, since I got the impression that many of you are suffering from information overload on the subject of websites.

So we’re going to keep it simple. My plan is to just take you through the steps I followed to create my site. If that sounds good to you, read on!

Step 1: Choose and Reserve Your Domain Name.

The first thing you have to do is choose a domain name for your website. You can search for available domain names at Instant Domain Search, Go Daddy, 1 and 1, or elsewhere (there are a lot of services that sell domain names). In most cases your first choice for a domain name will be the name of your business, but you may find that someone else has already taken that name. What to do then?

You can use your own name (this is what I did), a name that describes what you do, or an abbreviated version of your business name. Whatever you do, just make sure that potential clients won’t accidentally end up on a competitor’s site when they’re looking for you.

If you’re having trouble finding a good domain name, try www.bustaname.com. You can enter a bunch of words that you would like to include, and it will give you a list of different options based on what’s available.

Once you find a domain name that you like AND that’s available, purchase it. It should cost you less than $10/year.

What else do you need to know about domain names? Please share your question(s) in the comments! To make sure you don’t miss a post in the series, subscribe to the Freelance Parent blog.

photo credit: KristianD

COMING WEDNESDAY: Step 2: Choose and Purchase a Web Hosting Service.

Traci Feit Love is a freelance writer, editor & communications consultant for businesses that need smart, impressive content. To learn more or to sign up for her free e-course, “How to Get More High-Paying Clients,” visit her website at http://tracifeitlove.com.

Welcome to Spark an Idea Thursday. Each week we’ll share some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition to your blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!

This week’s “Spark an Idea Thursday” theme is about “homepreneur health.” I have to admit, this is not my area of expertise. But there are a few things I’ve learned about staying (mostly) healthy as a homepreneur, so here they are – my top 3 tips (ok, my only tips):

1. Don’t let the cat sit in your lap for too long. I love the fact that my cat wants to sit on my lap, and I love the fact that she can (since I work from home). But if she stays there for too long, my back pays the price. So after a few minutes, I send her off to her second most favorite place: my bed. It’s a tough life being my cat.

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Welcome to Spark an Idea Thursday. Each week we’ll share some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition to your blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!

This week’s “Spark an Idea” theme is about sharing something you’ve learned (either directly or by example) from another blogger that you really respect and enjoy. There are so many great bloggers that it was hard to choose one to write about – which led me to think maybe I should write about other bloggers more often (so I think I will!). For today’s post, I decided to go with someone who has taught me a lot in a very short period of time: Scott Stratten, known on Twitter as @unmarketing.

Yesterday, Scott posted a new video entry on his blog, in which he writes about five people he thinks you should follow on Twitter (check it out if you have time). In that spirit, here are the top five things I think freelancers can learn from him:

1. Be yourself. Watch a couple of Scott’s videos and you’ll feel like you know him. That’s because he doesn’t seem afraid to be exactly who he is. I think a lot of freelancers get so caught up in appearing “professional” that they end up being totally bland and forgettable. Remember, there are a lot of freelancers out there. If you want prospective clients to think of you the next time they have a project, you have to stand out somehow. You have to be memorable. So try to inject a little bit more of who you really are into your public persona (note: if “who you really are” is someone no one in his right mind would hire, you should probably keep that to yourself).

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If you have a website set up for your freelance business, and you think it’s perfect just the way it is, that’s great! You probably don’t need this post, although I would love for you to share your suggestions for other freelancers in the comments.

On the other hand, if you either (a) don’t have a website or (b) you have a website, but it’s not quite right – I’d like to help.

I’ve learned a LOT about creating and managing websites over the past couple of years, and it would be great to share some of that knowledge with my fellow freelancers. In that spirit, I’m planning to do a series of posts for you about how to build a professional website that will get you more clients – with limited time and limited funds.

The thing is, I don’t want to bore you with stuff you already know, and I don’t want to skip ahead to advanced material if you’re still stuck at the beginning.

So I need to know a few things from you:

1. If you don’t have a website, why not? What’s stopping you?

2. What are your biggest questions about creating and/or managing a website for your business?

3. If you already have a website but you’re not happy with it, why not? What would you like to change or improve? Would you like a free review of your website with suggestions for improvement (this would be a public review so you’d have to be ok with that)?

4. What resources do you think you need in order to create or improve your business website?

5. Anything else you’d like to know?

You can provide your answers in the comments, or, if you want to respond privately, click here for my contact information.

Thanks in advance for your responses – I’m really looking forward to answering your questions and helping you build or improve your website!

Welcome to Spark an Idea Thursday. Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!

This week’s “Spark an Idea” theme is about creating a “wow!” experience. I love this topic because I believe it’s the foundation of a successful freelance business. And it’s fairly simple: to impress your clients and create a “wow!” experience, you have to deliver more than you promised to deliver.

This may seem unfair at first glance. Why should you have to provide more than the services the client paid for? Well…you don’t have to. You could just deliver exactly what you promised to deliver, and that’s totally fine. But don’t expect the client to be overly impressed.

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I read a ton of blogs. There’s just so much good content out there and I’m always interested to see what other people are thinking (especially about freelancing and small business). So I thought I would start sharing my favorite posts with you each week. Here are a few of my favorite blog posts for freelancers this week; enjoy!

• 5 Must-Have Qualities to Become a Top Freelancer
• The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Your Business on Twitter
• Who’s Your Ideal Client?
• Is The Customer Always Right?
• 16 Things You Can Do Yourself to Create Word-of-Mouth for Your Business

What have I missed? Any other posts you think should be on this list? Please share in the comments!

Welcome to Spark an Idea Thursday. Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!

When you’re a work at home parent, you can often miss out on the recognition of a job well done. There aren’t any company newsletters touting your accomplishments and there aren’t any high five hand slaps when you announce landing a new client.

But that doesn’t mean you should keep your accomplishments to yourself. In fact, sharing your good news with family and friends can be motivating. Receiving that positive reinforcement will keep you plugging along so you can reach your next goal. Even those who are hearing about your successes will be motivated to take that first step or to continue their path because they have seen YOU become successful.

Finding people to support you in your business is vitally important, whether it be an offline group of friends or an online mastermind group. Heck, even tooting your own horn on Twitter will likely get you some positive feedback.

There’s nothing I love more than to visit the Mom Mastermind forums and find threads about the successes other members have found. After being a member for over two years I consider these women my friends but I can also learn something new or just marvel at how clever they can be.

Finding a life or a business coach who offers one-on-one coaching can also fulfill that need to be validated and they can give you action steps to keep you motivated. My life coach is my biggest cheerleader who can also “tell it like it is” to get me off the couch and back to working.

At the very least, come here and leave a comment about what you’ve accomplished this week. You don’t have to wait for something monumental to happen before you toot your horn. Take pride in the small things you accomplish because they will put you on the road to accomplishing bigger things

Yesterday I introduced you to Jan B. King, an author consultant who created a training program for VAs to become Virtual Author’s Assistants. This is a very high-demand niche simply because the number of authors increases drastically every year. You can read Part One here if you missed it.

Here is Part Two of my interview with Jan:

6. What are the qualifications a successful Author’s Assistant has?

A successful virtual author’s assistant knows how to provide the 24 services (or can choose to specialize in just some of them), but beyond that, I think there is an attitude and mindset that makes people successful.  Authors don’t know what they don’t know, so the VAA is part teacher and part collaborator, plus providing the assistant services.
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