I know that I’m writing to a potentially global audience, but my stats are currently showing that most of you are from the United States and Canada. It is to those living in the United States that I write to today. As many of you know, our country is facing an economic crisis. The banks are failing. The economy is in shambles. The job market is not stable. Many are suffering. One of those people suffering might just be you.

I write this to you, from the bottom of my heart. Now is the time to take the initiative. The Internet and all its capabilities are at your fingertips. As Americans, we might not have a job tomorrow with a company that could possibly take a nose-dive. How many jobs are at risk? How many are currently unemployed? I don’t know the official statistics on this, but I do know the number is high when it comes to unemployment. Something has to be done.

The government bailout bill that was “supposed to make everything right” has failed. Who do we have to rely on? Not the government. Not the state. We’re on our own and that’s why it’s time to act. Only you can determine what happens next in your future. Only you hold the keys to your success during these dark and dismal days. Are you willing to do what you have to do to make yourself successful? It’s up to you to decide.

You know what the good news is? You’re not alone! There are many people out there who want to try and make their living online. The nice thing about this is that you’re the only boss you have. If your company tanks then it is you who made that happen. If you notice something isn’t right, you have the control to fix it and keep yourself afloat. Essentially, you determine your destiny.

Being an online entrepreneur is not without sacrifice. You will be spending a lot of time building up your business, but success is worth it. With not much available in traditional job settings what do you have to lose? But you have to act now. You have to get things rolling while you can. If this keeps up, I’m beginning to wonder how many people are going to be able to afford the Internet. You don’t want to be one of the people who is out of their home, their job and their ability to find self-made success.

So, by now I’ve probably got your interest peaked. You want to know what to do and how to make yourself successful. Truth be told, over 95% of online blogs are unsuccessful. Freelancing has similar statistics. Over 50% of Freelancers will fail within their first year. I’ve been successfully working online since 2003. I haven’t had to take on a traditional job in over five years. I’m one of the lucky ones, so I want to share with you how I’ve made it possible.

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I’m going to be writing a regular series specifically targeting bloggers, freelancers, professionals and entrepreneurs with disabilities. With over 43 million Americans with disabilities/impairments (that’s nearly 1 out of 5 Americans) this series is a necessity. Of course, able-bodied individuals can take something from every article I write, as well, since the themes I cover will be (in some ways) universal to those who aspire to become self-sufficient through use of the Internet.

I make it no secret that I am in a wheelchair. For just a brief snapshot of who I am, let me tell you that I have a progressive muscle disease, Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type III. I walked until I was 16, when I went into a wheelchair, full time. I was in college for Theatre (I was quite the performer and singer back in the day) with a minor in Political Science when tragedy struck. During a routine transfer from wheelchair to shower chair, I fell and fractured my tibia. My life was changed in an instant.

I moved, with my girlfriend and our son, from our apartment at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio to a house she owned with her mother in mid-Michigan. This served two purposes. Her mother had been recently laid off by a company now stationed in Mexico. For the first time in her life, she was unemployed. For us, this gave us time for my leg to heal, which took more than a year. In the meantime, we had to find a way to put food on the table. The only thing we had luxury wise was the Internet and this gave Ashtyn (said girlfriend) the idea to find a job online.

We made a list of our skills. Ashtyn has always been a prolific writer. I wrote excellent, well written papers in college. I also can be anal retentive when it comes to grammar. So, writing and editing were at the top of our list. Add in slightly above basic HTML skills on my part, and a desire to teach myself graphic design. You have our basic plan to finding a job. While it wasn’t an easy road, within a year, we were on our way to becoming successful freelance writers. It was our hard work, perseverance, and ability to work our way up to high paying freelance jobs that made us successful.

Now that you know a little bit more about me and where I am coming from, let me throw another statistic out at you. A year ago, I read a study by the government that said 77% of disabled Americans are unemployed. I’d wager to say that due to the job and financial crisis’, that number has risen to somewhere around 85%. This means all disabilities, ranging from physical to mental or emotional disabilities such as Autism, Downs Syndrome and even Bi-Polar Disorder. For some, they simply can’t work. Others have faced workplace discrimination.

What’s surprising is that over half of those who have disabilities and also college degrees, are still unemployed. This is absolutely staggering! The issue is so big that disability rights organizations have turned to lawmakers/politicians for help. This includes finding out proposed plans for the disability unemployment rate by presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama. While Obama has outlined his plan, as of recently, McCain hasn’t had a thing to say on the issue. This issue isn’t going to be easily solved nor is it going to go away. That is unless we, as disabled individuals, take it upon ourselves to better our lives!

I’m 27 years old. This was not the career path I had in mind when I went to college, but I’ve made it work. I love what I do and I love all of the people I’ve met through blogging, writing and designing online. Along the way, I’ve met many other disabled entrepreneurs. Many of them had similar disabilities to my own.

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Motivation can be a funny thing when you work on the internet. There are a million things waiting to distract you. From casual games to that television show you missed, you have a number of ways to distract yourself from whatever your goals are when you come online.

Blogging can be especially tough because it’s easy to get lost in Stumble Upon or to spend hours networking on other sites. While these things are equally as important, if you don’t spend time writing blog posts your blog will only get so far.

Some days, I stay on task incredibly well. Other days, I convince myself that being a reviewer means I can spend the day playing games. It is true I can do that, but in reality I need to do more than that to make any of the sites I write on successful.

Staying on task sounds easy, but with so many ways to lose your concentration what do you do to keep it?

Keep a Blog Schedule
As much as I hate schedules (and I seriously hate schedules), I find that they do offer a huge benefit. If you run multiple blogs, scheduling time for post writing, networking, and research can be a huge help to you. This will stop you from spending too much time on one blog and not enough on another. It will also make you try harder to stay on track. Having a structured day gives you a reason to get done whatever you need to do.

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When you’ve built a website or a blog you’ve most likely done it because you want it to succeed. That also probably means you have spent a good deal of time on it. Maybe you had a personalized design made or you found a template that was nice and seemed rarely used. You took the time to write out some posts, fill in all the pages with the proper information, made sure your contact form was working and your ads were in place. In other words, you were ready to settle into the groove of being an internet entrepreneur.

So, now what?

All of the pieces to the puzzle are complete and you’re adding posts by the dozen, so why aren’t people visiting your website? Like the title suggests, you might love your website but you find yourself wondering why you’re the only one that does.

The good news is that if you’re site is as good as you think it is, you’re probably just suffering from new site blues. When people start out with their first blog they rarely (and I mean rarely) are lucky enough to see substantial numbers come out of the woodwork. Most people have to plug away at building a site and a community. They have to network, work the social networking sites, and hope for a couple of breaks. It doesn’t come easy and the number one mistake that failing bloggers make, especially new failing bloggers, is thinking that it should come easy.

The truth is, there could be a number of reasons why you aren’t getting a maximum amount of exposure. Finding out what those reasons are and doing something about them is what is going to set the professional bloggers apart from the failed bunch that have to go back to 9 to 5.

So, what do I do to get visitors?

Social Networking
One of the best free methods of advertising you have is known as social networking. Sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, and even Myspace or Facebook can be invaluable to a blogger. Sure, you will have to spend some time working on these sites. You will need to make friends, digg articles, and promote yourself, but if you do these things you won’t have any problems getting visitors out of the deal. In fact, in most cases, you will end up with visitors that comment and come back to your site. Just make sure you aren’t spamming people in the process because that will do just the opposite of what you want. It’s great that you love your site, but don’t be obnoxious about it. There is nothing wrong with mentioning your blog or your new articles, but if you’re begging for people to digg your articles you might want to re-evaluate your methods.

Twitter
If you’ve been living under a rock you might not know what Twitter is. Otherwise, you’re likely well aware that it is a type of up-to-the-minute mini-blog that explains what you are doing, where you’re at, or what’s going on in your life. In addition to posting these things, you can use Twitterfeed to add your RSS and send your updated blog posts to your twitter list. Like other social networking sites people can follow you to see what you’re up to. This allows them current information about your blog, so they can decide whether they should subscribe to it or not. This is great because people will click on links that they are interested in and could have missed out on.

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Why do I need a website? I’m a freelance writer. There’s plenty of places on the web to post my portfolio of writing credits!

If you have ever said this before then you are probably also dealing with less business than a competitor freelancer with a website. It’s true that a website can make all the difference in finding and keeping happy clients when you freelance on the web. Professionals have websites. If you want to be taken seriously as a freelancer then you should have a website, too.

I mentioned in one of my last articles, the one on why freelancers are turning to Wordpress for their website needs, that I would soon be writing an article on this very topic. I’ve worked successfully (for years!) as a freelance writer, editor, and all around web guru, so I know what I’m talking about. Without my website, I wouldn’t have been given half the jobs I was given during my freelancing days. It’s as simple as that!

This is, hands down, one of the biggest mistakes I saw less successful freelancers make over and over during my tenure in the freelancing world. I never understood why freelancers never bothered to purchase their own website. I don’t get it now, especially with new web design options (such as Wordpress) being available for free with minimal effort on the part of the freelancer.

But Why do I Need a Website?

It’s simple marketing. If you have a website, you can get listed on search engines. This means that prospective clients can find you. My freelance website opened up a whole new list of clientele for my business. Instead of having to find all of my clients, some of them found me through my website. When clients use to recommend me to friends or business associates, they just passed on my website URL and it was easy for them to contact me.

Your website is a one-stop destination for clients to find your contact information, view samples of your work, and allow prospective clients to get to know more about you before hiring you. You might not always be able to list a who’s who on your skills and history as a freelancer if you’re bidding on jobs or using a job search site to find clients. Most places like this also don’t allow you to list personal information like your private email or phone number. They can lose business (money!) if you choose to work with a client off their site, so this is done in their best interest, not yours.

You can list accomplishments, any programs you use (i.e. a graphic designer who works with Adobe Illustrator), and a variety of other information you may not be able to list on job boards or freelance work sites. If someone looking for a graphic designer needs a designer who uses Adobe Illustrator, they already know you’re qualified. It says so on your page. By the same token, if they need someone who uses Microsoft Powerpoint and you list that you don’t use that program then they won’t have to waste their time or yours!

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As a business professional of any kind there are certain things that you need to function in business both efficiently and comfortably. Productivity software is usually high on that list. As a blogger, I could never do my job without using software that makes my job faster, easier, and more organized. Many of the necessary programs on my list are Microsoft Office programs. The most common of those include Word, Outlook, and Excel. These are the programs that I absolutely cannot live without. While these programs are expensive, if you can afford them, they offer much bigger benefits than your average word processing software.

Word is one of those programs that are just universal in business and academics. In colleges across the country, the .doc format is the basis for all papers handed in for grading. Likewise, in business this is a format that is used with the assumption that most other business people will be using that program, too. In fact, at least in some form, it tends to be one of the first programs that people learn to use when they are learning the computer.

So, as you can imagine, when we were given the chance to review the 2007 version of Microsoft software, we jumped at the chance. I had heard of all of the great things that would be coming out in the 2007 version of Microsoft Office, but I tried to ignore the excitement value because I was just going on hype at that point. I had checked out a few screenshots and knew the basic specs, but I had not tested it out and that’s what is really important.

Before testing it out I did know that at least eight specific versions of the software would be available for purchase. These bundles include Microsoft Office Basic, Home & Student, Standard, Small Business, Professional, Ultimate, Professional Plus, and Professional Enterprise. This review is on Microsoft Office Professional. Professional includes Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. After using them for a bit to test everything out, I can honestly say that it would be hard to live without these programs, especially for business, and they are worth the few hundred dollars that Microsoft is charging for them.

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In the past few months, perhaps even as far back as the past year, I’ve noticed something about freelancers. More and more of them are turning to Wordpress when it comes to making a website. There are many benefits to using Wordpress in lieu of constructing a regular, html/css based website. I’m assuming that all of these benefits are the cause of the shift to a Wordpress based website.

When I started out as a freelance writer, editor and web designer several years ago, one of the biggest mistakes I saw other freelancers making was not having a website. I plan to touch on the importance of having a website (and the type of website to have) in a future article, so I’m going to avoid getting ahead of myself on this topic and just say, a website is vitally important to becoming a successful freelancer. I digress.

The benefits of Wordpress that make Wordpress so attractive to freelancers far outweigh any negative features. Here is why I believe there are so many freelancers turning towards using Wordpress.

It’s Easy to Setup and Use

Installation of Wordpress includes uploading files and folders and clicking a few buttons. You can use a pre-made template that looks nice. It’s as simple as it can get. Whenever you want to create pages, you just go to the page editor in Wordpress, create the page, and voila! You have exactly what you want in one easy to install package.

When you create a regular website, you have to worry about designing the website, creating links by hand, accommodating cross-browser problems that Wordpress already attempts to cover, and the list goes on. If you don’t know anything about design, you might just have to hire a designer or buy a template in order to have a professional looking website.

It’s Free!

What’s better than free? I started out freelancing because I was bedridden due to an injury. I had no job or money. All I had were the skills to weave words and basic web design/graphic design skills. Over the years, these skills have developed into what they are today, but when I started out, I couldn’t afford to pay to make money. I had to make money first and improve my website design the more I learned about designing websites. Eventually, my clients saw how good I was at designing my own site, so I was offered multiple web and graphic design projects along with SEO, marketing, a freelance writing and editing projects. Unfortunately, most freelancers who aren’t web designers aren’t able to use web design skills they don’t have. I was a rarity.

What’s better is the fact that you can get many free Wordpress templates to customize your site. It sure beats spending hundreds of dollars on high quality website design.

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Ok, so I know that I Don’t Pay hasn’t been updated in a while. With our server woes (our old server suddenly started going down on a daily basis) and our move to a new server, things have been a bit chaotic around here. We’re back though and I Don’t Pay is going to be updated more frequently. I’m still giving some of our other sites a new overhaul, but I Don’t Pay has been one of our first sites to get a new look!

On top of that, the school year has started. We’ve started the 8th Grade in the Evans family homeschool, so we had a lot of last minute planning to do. CT’s school books showed up late. We were scrambling to get everything ready in time for his August 25 start day. I’m happy to report everything is going smoothly on that front. Unfortunately, the “I Don’t Pay” mantra doesn’t apply to homeschool. You get what you pay for when it comes to education. We only pay for the best!

Finally, you might have noticed the new design on I Don’t Pay. I thought this might be a more efficient blog design. I think that it better fits the I Don’t Pay goal. It’s easier to read and navigate. There really isn’t anything to complain about from this design. As of yet, there are no problems to report. If you happen to notice something wrong with the design, please let me know. I haven’t tested everything out just yet, so we’ll see how this new design fares!

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