I’ve had a client for several years now that I feel a certain degree of loyalty to.  This client has seen me through two pregnancies and is always flexible.  The pay is retainer based and significant - so we’ve come to count on it.

One of the scary facts about freelancing though is that sometimes money is simply not flowing.  When my clients aren’t being paid by their clients… well - who pays the price?

In this instance it’s been me! And my husband who’s also recently come on board to do some database work for this client.  So in total I think we’re nearing nine weeks of no pay.  Ugh.

I’m sure some of you think I’m nuts - to just continue working like this with no pay right?  Some of my colleagues for the client just refuse to lift a finger until their payments are up to date.  I’m always a little bit envious — but I still do the work.  Mainly because I know the guy, and know he’s good for the money and that all and all I have a good thing going that I am not mentally prepared to jeopordize.

So my solution?  Take on several other gigs and juggle. them. all! 

So right now I have a few design projects and a couple SEO projects on my plate that I’m weaving into my regular work days.  The good news is - it’s a ton of work in a faltering economy which I’m genuinely grateful for.

On that note, we always keep our eye on the local paper.  Every so often during times like this (non paying clients) my husband goes through moments of ‘weakness’ when he wants to go out and get a ‘real’ job.  But it’s funny - there is really never anything worth applying for in our local paper (small town) and so then we’ll head over to elance, and are always so heartened to see the incredible amount of freelance jobs available!  In this economy I actually thing unemployed people ought to consider freelancing as a serious viable option!

So - that’s why you haven’t heard much from me lately… Feel free to give me your advice on my current predicament!  Or let me know I’m not the only ’softy’ freelancer out there!

Search Engine Marketing & Optimization – the gist of it

KEYWORD RESEARCH

Keywords are the backbone of SEO but should be used with care and always with the website visitor’s experience in mind.  The main purpose of the keyword research» is to determine what people actually type into the search engines and attempt to organically introduce the keyword phrases into your website content to complement these results.

In general, you just want to focus on a few keyword phrases per page – where they make sense in your content.  Don’t be overwhelmed by the list – but just keep it on hand to refer to when you are entering a new product, writing an article, submitting your website to a directory or any other number of content and link building activities you’ll engage in over time.

INTEGRATE KEYWORDS INTO EXISITING CONTENT
Title tags, Description tags, Alt tags on images and actual on page content.
Using the keyword research, you will want to review each page individually and incorporate keyword phrases where it makes sense.
Most importantly, make certain that title and description tags on each page are unique.  You do not want to duplicate this content on each page.

While crafting the title and description tags, keep in mind that often these are what show up in search engine results.  So consider how you can strategically utilize keywords while at the same time entice the click through from the person searching.
Here is an example of how you might optimize your Earring Page:

OTHER SEO SUGGESTIONS

Add a sitemap
Add a sitemap to the website and keep it updated so that as you add or remove products – Google and the other search engines will find them.
As a general rule you want to be sure that every page is within a couple of clicks from the homepage.  A sitemap can make that possible for important product pages that are buried deeper in the site.

Build your links
Search, scour and devour your niche!  Look for directories to submit your website to.  NOTE: Remember to use some keyword phrases in your links when you can.  For example a directory link could read like this: Gemstone Designs Handcrafted Jewelry
Try searching Google for things like ‘add craft link’ or ‘jewelry directory’ etcetera.
Never stop creating links to your website – it will be the deciding factor in how well your website ranks.
Write articles and submit them to article directories – make sure you link to your website at the bottom in an ‘author bio’.
Sign up for accounts with social networking websites like some of the following:

• Flickr
•  Squidoo
• Digg
• StumbleUpon
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Epinions
• Del.icio.us
• Tribe.net

Blog
One of the exciting things about your niche is that there is tremendous ‘social networking’ potential.  Other artisans may not be your most likely customers, but they may very well link to your website.
Get involved with them by starting a blog where you chat about anything relating to your art.  Show photos of your latest designs, link to other blogs and artists and rave about their work.
Provide some ‘how to’s’ for beginners and poise yourself as in industry expert.

Join Forums
Do a search for forums with other crafters, or anything that you are interested in.  Engage in conversations with people and utilize your profile ‘signature’ as a means to promote and link to your website.

Add your site to local listings:
Search on directories for your area’s local businesses and also consider submitting to:

• Yahoo Local
• Google Local
• Live Local
• Yelp

This should get you started :-)  Good luck! 

I suggest beginning to work out a weekly plan. Lay out all of the client work you have in front of you - the amount of hours you anticipate needing per step and the deadline.

Try doing this on Fridays because well meaning plans for Mondays often don’t work out very well when you’re catching up on all of the correspondence that came in over the weekend. So you might try reserving a half hour or so at the end of the work day on Friday creating your schedule and setting client specific milestones for the following week.

The next step is to create a weekly report template that you can use to inform your clients of your plans for the upcoming week. Include of course everything that you have completed in the past 5 days. Make references to the budget and deadlines. Are you still on track? Has the project developed some ‘scope creep‘? If so - this is the perfect time to address it.

Imagine yourself in the shoes of your client… wouldn’t a weekly report like this communicate organization, follow through and concern? It would eliminate the need to ‘check up’ on progress through out the week because you know what is being worked on and that you’ll be updated again on Monday.

This is going to save you a ton of time answering emails and fielding phone calls. More time to actually work and it’s going to build your service brand. Clients are going to be much more apt to refer you to colleagues when they trust your professionalism and organization.

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1. AddThis

Add This - Social Bookmark and Feed Button Burner

If you look at the bottom of my posts you’ll see a little graphic that looks like this:

When the user scrolls over it there is a popup menu with all the social bookmarking sites. It invites them to consider sharing something they like! Suggesting that someone share a post, comment on a post, forward an email, bookmark your site… really goes a long way. Especially if you make it easy! This little plugin is great for that!

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2. AdSense-Deluxe
There may be better plugins then this out there now but at the time it was a god send, and I’ve been using it ever since. AdSense Deluxe allows you to very quickly insert your adsense code into your blog posts by inserting a very simple code snippet which I can’t write here or my adsense will show up :)

The plugin is customizable and user friendly… And let’s you monetize your blog with ease!

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3. Akismet

The whole point of a blog is to interact with your visitors… so it’s a major bummer when you are getting so much comment spam that you have to manually approve comments. For one thing, the visitor doesn’t get that instant gratification of seeing their comment go live, but also — who has time? I don’t want to go manually approve or delete the comments in all of my blogs!

In comes Akismet — the BEST plugin for helping you deal with the inevitable comment spammers — you’ve gotta get this one!

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4. All-In-One-SEO-Pack

A robust SEO plugin that allows you to put individual title tags and description tags in your posts… This is critical for helping your blog achieve search engine rankings and this plugin makes it very easy. When you are writing your new post, you’ll see a spot to enter your title and description tags (keywords too, but I ususally don’t bother with them). Just fill them out and publish the post! It’s easy!

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5. Contextual Related Posts

This is a superb little plugin that will add a list of related posts to the end of your blog posts. It’s great for SEO - and just to keep your visitors interested!

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6. Hackadelic Sliding Notes

This is a plugin I just recently found that is very helpful when you have a lot of content on a page and want to have the main points ‘above the fold’. It works by adding a simple code snippet like this in your post:

and you get a result like this: Click here to see what sliding notes do!»

I hope some of these plugins are helpful for you! Leave a comment and let me know if you use them - or if you want to add to the list!

To my suprise I found myself spellbound, inspired and in tears - what a talented writer to evoke these precious emotions…

And it applies to working from home - sure it does! As I learned today, it’s so worth it sometimes to allow ourselves to focus on life, not work. You come back with a renewed energy and the happiness of having remembered the ‘bigger picture’!

I hope you enjoy it too!