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Late Bloomer's touchy-feely exploration of feelings and actions

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Roli

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"I have strong talent, knowledge, and experience in communications and in technology."

Use them to identify an unsolved problem within one or both of those industries, then set about solving it, and you'll do fine.
 

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Late Bloomer

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Edited (2018-04-20) to remove something that is currently out of reach... leaving in the immediately relevant part.

Meanwhile, I'm learning how to hustle for some immediate freelancing. I've done a little of this before, but it's a big mindset shift for someone with a corporate background. I'm working on that shift!
 
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Late Bloomer

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Edited (2018-04-20) to remove the clutter here and delete some other posts of mine. If the purpose of this thread is to document what I successfully did to move forward, discussing in detail the times I was derailed and went in circles does not serve that purpose.
 
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Fastlane Liam

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Speed bump day!

I was just about ready to go to the freelance gig sites and create some profiles. Went to the library to be in a studious setting for this task.

Then I got a note from a friend who knows I'm broke. He invited me to lunch (he found a 2 for 1 coupon to his favorite restaurant), and then a Costco run. That's a useful, thoughtful invitation for a broke guy without his own membership to the discount warehouse of peanut butter sold by the 55 gallon drum, so of course I accepted.

I figured he'd let me know in a few minutes to head over to the restaurant. Expecting that, I thought I shouldn't get too deep into a signup process. I read through the legal terms, privacy policy, payment policy, etc. etc. for the freelance gig sites and got feeling more and more overwhelmed.

After a few hours, I realized I was so overwhelmed because I was hungry! Checked back with my friend, and wound up heading to lunch about three hours later than I had originally thought. No wonder I was so vague and spacey. If I'd have had any idea, I'd have got my own meal and known I had time to do my signups.

I didn't get any peanut butter, but I did pick up a heck of great deal on a box of enough pens to let me write out all my big ideas through the end of the year! :hilarious:

Got back home and couldn't get myself back into enthusiasm for the sign-up process.

So I know this goes against all the principles of "just do it right now," but I decided to move my signup tasks to tomorrow, get up early and hopefully crank it out quickly... or, if I get stuck again tomorrow, recognize that within about an hour and ask for help here from the people who've shared about their successes with those sites.
Cmon man I signed up to upwork on my phone before going to work one morning
Its not hard
 
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Henry Jones

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Hi Chris,

I am not sure if your post is tongue in the cheek?

You say you're broke then buy a box of pens? Also, in the action fake thread one of the things listed is buying pens instead of doing actual work.

Then, there was a guy named Lordphenny who used to list his shopping trips also as work he got done. Are you taking a stab at that?

How long did it take you type out that reply, while you could have registered on upwork and fiverr?

I'm pretty sure your post is tongue in the cheek and sarcastic though.
 

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Hi Chris,

I am not sure if your post is tongue in the cheek?

You say you're broke then buy a box of pens? Also, in the action fake thread one of the things listed is buying pens instead of doing actual work.

Then, there was a guy named Lordphenny who used to list his shopping trips also as work he got done. Are you taking a stab at that?

How long did it take you type out that reply, while you could have registered on upwork and fiverr?

I'm pretty sure your post is tongue in the cheek and sarcastic though.
I am actually concerned about how many long and detailed posts Late Bloomer is writing on this forum.
Wondering if we have a action faker here?
 

ZF Lee

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Hi Chris,

I am not sure if your post is tongue in the cheek?

You say you're broke then buy a box of pens? Also, in the action fake thread one of the things listed is buying pens instead of doing actual work.

Then, there was a guy named Lordphenny who used to list his shopping trips also as work he got done. Are you taking a stab at that?

How long did it take you type out that reply, while you could have registered on upwork and fiverr?

I'm pretty sure your post is tongue in the cheek and sarcastic though.
I only have TWO spare pens in my drawer right now lol.

One pen lasts for a F*cking long time, if used well.
A box of 30 pens can last for six months or more.

On Upwork, the approval is not the problem or the hard part. It's the actual structuring of the first emails to potential clients. The first emails take the LONGEST in the beginning because you are studying the client's background and his freelancers who worked with him so that you know what they need, and how to communicate it to them.

Then there's the exchange of correspondence, sample work, feedback and everything...and THAT is what takes time. By then though, you would be up to something!
 
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Late Bloomer

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Edited: deleting clutter
 
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Late Bloomer

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Edited: deleting clutter

I also realized that because of my concerns about the freelance gig platforms, I should split my time immediately between them and Fox's method to directly approach web design clients, who can provide me a check immediately without any third party intermediary platform in the way.
 
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Fastlane Liam

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How to click here to put in a password and agree to the terms, is not the problem.

Exactly what terms am I agreeing to? That's what slowed me down.

I've never bought real estate, but I have worked for a mortgage company. I did troubleshooting on their sales software, so I got very familiar with all the paperwork that goes into the stack for a mortgage. And, that each and every clause is there because the company got burned in the past, or their attorneys are afraid they might get burned. Or, it's a way they can squeeze out more profits by tilting the playing field in their favor.

Sales reps urged buyers to not bother to read all that stuff, just sign here because it doesn't matter and we have to close this deal today. But, the buyer is legally obligated to what's actually on those pages, not to the opinions of the sales rep that it doesn't matter and there's no time to read that stuff.

When the mortgage crisis hit, many people lost their homes because the clauses they assumed don't matter... actually did. What they thought was meaningless boilerplate small print stuff that could never affect them... actually did. This personally happened to people I care about. Some other friends I care about did read what they actually agreed to, which let them take steps that saved their home in the financial crisis.

From that experience and some other experiences, I actually read all the terms of service, privacy policies, user agreements, dispute provisions, etc. of something that affects my livelihood and my reputation.

There is actually MORE of this legal material "incorporated by reference" in agreeing to an Upwork registration, than it takes to get a 30 year mortgage on a million dollar property!

There is MORE to legally agree to, in order to join Upwork, than I had to accept in order to get my cancer surgery!

If all the legal portion were printed, it would come to dozens of pages. In addition, there's a 31 page getting started guide they recommend. In addition, there are about 50 items in their support section explaining the terms and procedures.

I honestly don't see how anyone could actually know what they are agreeing to with Upwork, with less than a few hours of reading.

One could assume that it's all fine and doesn't matter. If it didn't matter, why do they include it? Why don't they just not have it, since it doesn't matter and they'll never apply it?




In other words... no due process, no need for them to prove but merely to feel that they suspect, no explanation needed, no appeal process.

These are my concerns. Perhaps they are irrelevant and frivolous.

But, these people say that clauses like these actually were used against them:
TIL Freelancing site Upwork suddenly "Suspends" many freelancer's accounts with a very shitty reason • r/freelance
Why you should never use Upwork | Hacker News
Work online. Travel the world.
Upwork Review: Why It’s a Battle YOU Won’t Win

The authors of the negative reports: are they all lying?

I believe that some people are making a lot of money using Upwork.
I also believe that some people really are getting screwed big time by Upwork.

I believe I can most likely make money and not get screwed by the platform.
But I do want to know what I'm up against.

Some people become bold adventurers after a brush with death.

Some, such as myself, become more cautious.

I'll tell you about my Upwork and Fiverr registrations tomorrow.

Nothing in this post is tongue in cheek or sarcastic.
Dude, you're not buying a house - you're signing up to Upwork.

You spent an entire day buying pens.

You spent today writing out these long waffley responses,

Is it any suprise you're broke?
 
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Envious

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I haven't read the action faker thread and I don't think I've seen the user Lordphenny here yet. Any connection between what I wrote and what he wrote is total coincidence.

Part of the mindset shift from me, from corporate drone who occasionally freelances a little, to long term sustainable, successful freelancer, is to take action without waiting for all the steps to be laid out in front of me. One reason I joined here is to get pushed and poked to encourage me to take action.

I'm on here about an hour or two hours a day, and I usually type fast. Expressing my thoughts and feelings that I already know, comes easily to me. I have typed up how I feel and think about things in online forums for over 20 years now. It flows.

Reading legal terms for a new service, then registering myself in compliance with the terms and jargon of a whole new type of online advertising platform I've not used before, doesn't come fast and easy for me. It's one of my least favorite, least skillful, and slowest things to do. And this post is also not at all tongue in cheek or exaggerated: that kind of "but what if this fails" proofreading is both slower and more intimidating for me after having had chemo.

When I can afford an administrative assistant I should get one. This is also no joke.

In the case of Upwork it took me several hours to go through all their information, to identify exactly what they want me to agree to, and to see that I have some concerns. Once I identified my concerns, I did a web search to see if others were concerned, or if there were articles from people who might say "these terms are scary but don't worry." I found that those concerns do have a basis in fact from others who report being screwed by Upwork.

I am broke, that's literally true. But that doesn't mean a $0 balance. I have under $100 available, a registered car with a month's worth of gas for little trips around town, 2 or 3 weeks worth of food on hand, and housing through May. The housing includes a noisy roommate with an irregular schedule, lots of cement trucks and bulldozers coming and going for a major construction project in the next block, and a location half a mile from the busiest freight train route in the state with literally 50 freight trains a day. So, getting out to the library really does help me think better.

Broke can include a few dollars on hand that can be used to buy a cheap box of pens. So, all of that was literally true reporting. I never said that buying pens was a valid substitute for sending proposals to prospective clients. It's just a random thing that happened to come up at the discount warehouse. I write faster and my hand hurts less (a long term chemo side effect for me) when I have pens I enjoy. It was nice to find 'em on sale for dirt cheap. None of this is sarcastic.

I am fast and have experience in writing business letters and making proposals. Once I feel safe about using the platform, that I know their rules and policies so I'm unlikely to get kicked off of it or screwed out of money I make, it will be fast and easy for me to create query letters, pitches and proposals, to negotiate and close sales.

I have no concerns about that part. It's the logistics and legalities of a whole new way of doing business, with a massive pile of legal documentation and new terms and procedures for working the platform itself. These are the parts that are brand new and intimidating to me. When something is new and scary to me, I have a tendency to slow down and try to take a closer look at it.

I also spent some time today on a transcription job for an existing client I already got through a mutual friend, and I spent some time talking with another old friend who might be a great team member for projects I can pitch. Meanwhile I will help her with a revision to her own business web site as a free favor for her, and as a portfolio builder for me. So the day wasn't a total waste.

I also realized that because of my concerns about the freelance gig platforms, I should split my time immediately between them and Fox's method to directly approach web design clients, who can provide me a check immediately without any third party intermediary platform in the way.

You're completely over thinking this.
Set ONE goal for the day and EXECUTE that, then move onto the next thing.

GOAL 1: Create your upwork profile.
GOAL 2: Draft a pitch email you're going to send to potential clients.
GOAL 3: Send out that pitch to potential clients and wait for their response.

And so on and so forth.

Just focus on the one thing each day and you'll make progress.

And don't write a really long reply to this ;)

Good luck.
 

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If you're so concerned with the terms of Upwork, which are really there to protect them; not to screw you (remember, they get paid when you get paid), just go post ads on Craigslist for freelance gigs, or send cold e-mails, or cold calls, or... anything. Just do something.
 

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Thanks. I got Fiverr figured out today and I think I'll get Upwork figured out with peace of mind tomorrow.

24 hour commitments:

1. Be at least 50% through the current transcription assignment for my current client.
2. Post seven ready to buy gigs on Fiverr inside my profile there.
3. Register for Upwork and send three pitch letters, if I can find three projects I am absolutely certain I could turn around within a day for at least $50 each.

Logging off the forum for tonight, see y'all tomorrow.
 
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Late Bloomer

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Dude, you're not buying a house - you're signing up to Upwork.

You spent an entire day buying pens.

You spent today writing out these long waffley responses,

Is it any suprise you're broke?

I came back on briefly tonight to respectfully request that you delete this needlessly argumentative, confrontational, disrespectful, and negatively assumptive comment of yours.

I explained that I was able to pay my own way in life through more than two decades of corporate work.

I explained that I withdrew from the full time corporate work force in order to be an unpaid but necessary full time cancer caregiver.

I explained that at first I was able to continue to do some consulting projects, in the few thousand dollar range, but as my beloved's medical situation deteriorated I didn't see how to continue with that work and also to be present to help her. She was the one who had found the clients, and some of the work was done by us together.

I explained that after her sudden death, I was diagnosed with cancer myself, and it took a year and half for treatment that included surgery and chemotherapy.

I explained that all this was financially devastating as well as a personal and medical catastrophe. I explained that my doc told me that it was purely random bad luck that I was also a cancer patient.

Since that time, I had a part-time job. But I needed to leave that job as there was a toxic part of it that was too hazardous to my health.

Also, I have recently done some consulting in the thousand dollar range, but haven't succeeded at sustaining enough marketing and sales of these projects for three reasons.

1. As I explained, I had an emotional issue going back to my not uncommon reaction to childhood abuse. I worked through it. I was then introspective, open, and honest enough to share a psychologically deep essay about this, in hopes it might help others who face a similar emotional block.

2. I didn't have a Fastlane mindset because of not yet having read what MJ has to say.

3. I didn't have specific Fastlane techniques and skills. In particular, the freelance gig sites became available while I was out of the workforce for medical reasons, and I hadn't seen explanations of how to use them well until I discovered this forum.

Those are the actual reasons for my current poverty.

I had one day in which I was invited to have a long lunch to catch up, and then go on a shopping trip, at someone else's agenda. During that day out, I happened to get a good price on office supplies. I did not set out to waste a day with trivia. I was introspective and honestly self-deprecating enough to recognize that in business terms, it nevertheless was a wasted day.

I pointed out that Upwork's terms are longer and more complex than the terms for buying a house.

My writing here is limited to one to two hours in the evening.

I may well be mistaken in some of what I say here. But I consistently say it with dignity and respect, assuming good faith and positive intentions on the part of my fellow forum members.

I deserve nothing less in return.

I don't mind being told I'm mistaken about the specifics of business success.

I have already acknowledged that a shift to a more productive mindset is an ongoing endeavor for me.

But I do object very strongly to snarky attacks on my character, based on disrespectfully invented falsehoods about the very real medical and logistical issues that have led to my current situation.
 

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Signed up for Fiverr and Upwork today.

I went through my photo archive to select what I thought were the most appropriate profile shots for Fiverr and Upwork. Airbrushed out the shaving cut in what was otherwise a good picture.

I thought that between Fiverr and Upwork, Fiverr would be easier to sign up with because of its more structured format. I thought I could have an immediate success with that and feel good about it, then go on to Upwork.

Fiverr signup hangs with the Palemoon browser, which is my favorite for reasons I can discuss another time. Fiverr signup does work with Firefox, but only if a full screen, extremely slow playing video runs in the background behind the sign-up screen. This makes it run very, very slowly throughout the registration process, while adding no value to the user.

I signed up to join Fiverr as a seller. I made custom graphics for my profile pic and the pic for my first gig. I put in my profile information and the information for my first gig. I had already written what I wanted to say, but getting that text into the site turned out to be the time consuming part, as several of the data entry fields have a very limited character count and do not clearly show text as you enter it. I have the information ready for additional gigs but:

To keep work and personal life separate, I had already got a Google Voice number for everything work related. I put in my Google Voice number when prompted for verification in order to publish the first gig. I saw that I entered it perfectly. Got an error message "there is a problem with this number" (that's all it said, with no opportunity to learn anything more) and told I must wait 48 hours to be able to verify my account and publish my first gig. There was absolutely no warning that Google Voice might not work and no explanation of why it didn't. Gvox never rang and there's no email of the forwarded sms either.

So, I now have the additional adminstrative task of searching for whether anyone else has had trouble signing up for Fiverr using Google Voice, and if so, what is the work-around?

It looks therefore that I will be able to complete my Fiverr registration on Monday afternoon, assuming that I can learn by then what I have to do to have Fiverr phone number verification work with Google Voice.

On to Upwork.

I then went on to sign up for Upwork, and got the error message about the site being down for maintenance, with no hint at all of when it might be back up. Clicked on the Status page which showed everything is up. Went back to the home page, refreshed and it came up. From then on, registration process worked fine with Palemoon.

"We noticed you’re using a gmail.com address. Would you like to use your work email instead?" No.

To the person who criticized me because you easy-breezy completed your profile by phone while doing something else: Do you also have over 30 years of paid, volunteer, educational, and life experience that needs to be selected, prioritized, and summarized to make a professional profile? If you really do, and you could consolidate all of that into a powerful, successful profile while standing in line for your turn to buy some Diet Coke and Doritos, then my hat's truly off to you... AND, you have a very lucrative career as a resume writer in front of you. Oh, got another client, I can capture all their info and crank out a professional profile for them before I get up front to buy my stamps! Quite frankly I don't see how it would be possible to write and enter a high quality profile to this site, in a few distracted minutes on a phone.

Request for phone verification hung while facebook.com was loading in the background. Kept saying "phone number must be digits" when I tried one combination after another of digits alone, parentheses around the area code, dashes between area code and number, etc. Why is Upwork loading Facebook code?? Copied the URL, killed the browser, relaunched the browser, pasted in the URL again, this time I could put in my phone number.

Verification with Google Voice went flawlessly, GVox forwarded the sms to my email as I'd asked and I was immediately able to enter the code for confirmation.

I was told I will be contacted in 24 hours as to whether my profile was approved, so I should learn about that on Sunday afternoon.

I'm behind on the transcription but the client had said he wants it by the end of the weekend, not today, so I can use tomorrow to catch up on that.

I need to identify ways to have portfolio content and payment options, for prospective clients that I find on my own.
 

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Haven't heard back yet from either Fiverr (I wasn't expecting that today) or Upwork (logged on, status pending).

Close to done with this weekend's Slowlane money making transcription project. All the text is typed in, I need to proofread, format, and delivery. That won't take long.

Realized exactly what my questions are that I need to answer, for my next steps this year.
 
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Roli

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I came back on briefly tonight to respectfully request that you delete this needlessly argumentative, confrontational, disrespectful, and negatively assumptive comment of yours.

.

You need to develop a thicker skin, this forum isn't about touchy feely pats on the back, and handing out participation medals. It is about getting advice from people who are at various stages of their business development.

It is about finding out the most effective ways to boost your income and create a fastlane business. The comment you point to, is pointing out that you are documenting a lot of time wasting and action faking.

Even if you are an ex-president of the United States, you should be able to fill in a basic Fiverr/Upwork profile in a morning, it should not take days.

If you go through the various posts here, especially by @SinisterLex you will see your Fiverr/Upwork profile has very little to do with the work you get/don't get on those sites. It is about your approach to potential clients, it is about your answers to job posts, there are countless posts on this forum which demonstrate that the person who considers their approach and refines that, will gain advantage over the most 'impressive' profiles on the internet.

Tough love coming in 3 .. 2...

You are action faking, you spend your days doing the digital equivalent of navel gazing, if you continue along this path you will stay in the slow lane. The only way to shake your inactivity, is to face up to it and be honest with yourself about how much of your actions are actually effecting your bottom line.

If you post another long-winded diatribe about how you went to lunch and used photoshop and blah, blah, blah, I very much doubt you will get any meaningful responses that will help you in your quest to join the fastlane.

The kind of progress you should be posting is:

1. Identified n problems today

2. Sent out n emails, used x responses, will monitor which ones work.

3. Put y plan into action to increase income.

Then eventually

4. Got first gig, seemed to be because of response C, will formulate more emails around that response to see if I can generate some more gigs.

Filling in a profile, using photoshop, sending an email, or stopping your entire day because of an insignificant website glitch is NOT progress.

Tough love over.

Good luck, I hope you find lots to do today.
 

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Chop, chop. How many gigs did you land today? How many clients did you contact? What other platforms could get you in front of clients?
 

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I am willing to discuss my specific action steps with people who have themselves succeeded at those steps. I am willing to get review of my plans from people who have themselves succeeded at comparable goals. I am willing to get advice about additional marketing platforms from those who are successfully using them.

Offering that advice is NOT made more powerful, more meaningful, wiser, more effective, or more mature, by neglecting the most basic adult humane expressions of kindness and respect.

When emotionally mature, socially responsible adults learn that someone is widowed, they respond with, "I'm sorry for your loss," not "I refuse to give a touchy-feely pat on the back."

My dislike at getting that insulting response to the fact of my greatest loss and grief in life, doesn't show that I need thicker skin.

When emotionally mature, socially responsible adults learn that someone is a cancer survivor, they respond with, "I'm sorry to learn that, I hope your health will fully recover," not "you are seeking participation medals that it's my job to give or to withhold."

The whole "participation medal" thing, anyway, came into society only with a generation mostly born long after I was already out of college. It is not part of my experience in any way.

As I said in another thread, throughout my first 25 years of life I got far more abuse and neglect for being imperfect, than appreciation for my even trying, let alone for my successes along the way. It is not motivating to tell someone who was consistently abused and neglected, within their family of origin, for being imperfect, that they deserve even more hostility now from strangers, for their sin of being imperfect. That is not valid, wise, effectively targeted psychological counsel and guidance.

Wise, effective counsel, just as any kind of marketing or sales or leadership approach, recognizes and adapts to the one who is the target of the guidance or the attempt to influence. Spewing negativity about what one imagines and invents in one's own mind about someone else's flaws and sins, is not a demonstration of advanced emotional maturity and psychological effectiveness.

My dislike at that insulting, presumptive, arrogantly patronizing dismissal of me, also doesn't show that I need thicker skin.

When emotionally mature, socially astute adults learn that what they invented and supposed about what someone else's inner life is flat out wrong, they say, "I'm sorry I made a presumptive assumption that was wrong," not, "your only right is to shut up and let me explain yourself to you."

When emotionally mature, socially responsible adults see a concern about how someone seems to have misused ONE day, they ASK, "is this a typical day? Am I on the right track with what I decided to guess, assume, suppose, invent, and speculate about you?" BEFORE they ASSUME their own ASSUMPTIONS are correct, and then IMAGINE those assumptions are facts that authorize them to criticize the character and motivation of someone they don't even know.

In my personal journey I was very fortunate to work with doctors, counselors, social workers, and ministers who have professional training and many years of experience at identifying emotional or psychological issues, and at effectively guiding people through those issues.

They did not diagnose a stranger and give prescriptions, based on what they chose to make up inside their own imagination.

Based on their actual professional guidance sessions with me, they consistently complimented my depth of psychological awareness, my commitment to personal growth, my willingness to take constructive next steps. I am not making up self-aggrandizing bullshit here. This really is a strength of mine, that's been objectively confirmed by people with a valid professional credential to have an opinion that matters.

They had no reason to bullshit me about this. I flat out asked them, and they specifically said that I was to admired, based on their professional opinion, at what I was doing to rebuild my life after a depth of hell that many people don't experience.

One of them had nearly weekly appointments with my late sweetheart and then with me for a year, before I learned that his cancer and hospice counseling was only his side job. His main job was providing psychological assessments that are valid in court. When we were alone I flat out asked him what he saw as my issues to deal with, and he flat out told me, "Chris, I see NO reason to diagnose you with any psychological issue. You don't have any condition in the DSM. You are simply someone who has had to deal with a hell of a lot of loss and grief to work through."

I do not have any reason at all to believe that some strangers on the Internet are more wise and profound in psychology and counseling than the professionals I worked with. If any of you who condemn do have a psychology license, then you would know that it's professional malpractice to even attempt to diagnose someone without an appointment conducted according to ethical standards.

I have a talent at quickly writing about my experiences in depth, including the feelings and attitudes involved. I've been complimented on using this talent online by many people, and I've been complimented on using this talent in person by many people, who had no reason or benefit for bullshitting me, going back many decades. Far from being a problem to solve and an issue to shut down, it is going to be the cornerstone of my new career.

Many emotionally mature, socially responsible adults consider it valid and valuable, to respectfully consider the emotional and psychological aspects of how other people feel, when they give advice. This is actually something important and meaningful, if one wishes to have a lasting, positive effect on another person.

I have a total of three threads I created on this site - this one and two others - where I consider and reflect on my own feelings and attitudes. Nobody is obligated to read them. I also created a very pragmatic thread about online marketing and have some more of those topics I expect to add, with just the objective facts about some technology and business things I directly know well.

In one thread from someone else - the one about someone else's experience with death in the family - I gave a heartfelt comment.

I've responded to dozens of other threads with purely factual, pragmatic comments focused on specific next steps. So, that's a very small percentage of my participation here that includes anything on the emotional/psychological side. Emotions and psychology matter, which is why MJ discussed them so much in his books. I will not accept that the rule of these forums is that my own emotions and psychology must never be dealt with respectfully here, and that insulting negative assumptions about others are standard protocol, unless I get that guidance directly from MJ.

Total time today dealing with this topic: around 20 minutes.

If you want to invent a lot of bullshit about how spending a few minutes on emotional honesty is a waste of time... that's not my fault, and it doesn't show anything broken about me that you need, or have any right, to condemn or to fix.

You are welcome to say, "I think the report you gave about your time shows you're not as efficient as if, instead, you had done this." I will respond to such positively framed, helpful ideas.

You are not welcome to say, "I'm the judge of your emotions and qualified to be your shrink, and if you don't like my psychobabble bullshit about you, that proves you're broken." I may not be able to prevent it from being said (although the terms do include, "VC specifically prohibits any use of the website... and users agree not to use the website ... for posting any incomplete, false or inaccurate information, or ... to place on the website any material that is false, defamatory, abusive, harassing or hateful.") But I can prevent such bad behavior, showing disrespect and bad faith, from getting an undeserved respectful answer. I will have no further response here to such insulting, disrespectful negativity.
 
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Ocelot

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Hey Late Bloomer,

Do you have any measurable goals or targets set?

Such as:
  • How much you want to make a month?
  • How many clients you want to close per month?
  • The price you'd like to charge per website?
  • If you'd like to make X amount of $ by X date?
I ask because it's easy to get bogged down in things like signing up for bidding sites and chasing after $50 bids. But is it really the best use of your time?

When you couldn't sign up for UpWork, did you ring any local businesses in the mean time? Have you pitched to anyone today? If not, why not?

People will be stoked to read your posts if you have something to report like, "I rang 10 local businesses today, offering to do their site for $100, 2 are interested and I'm following up tomorrow".

That's taking action, that's worthy of respect.

But buying pens and telling us what browser is your favourite is not a good use of your time or our time. That's why you are getting negative replies. People don't dislike you, they just dislike what you're sharing.
 

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Henry Jones

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Hi Chris,

I am not sure what advice is given in regards to Fiverr on the other threads, but I will give you what I have learned.

Before I got a Job, I used to write on Fiverr, making about $1000 a month (While studying so not fulltime)

That was 3-4 years ago so my advice might be old but still worth a try.

Make sure your profile is completed as fully as possible, link all posiblle acounts like facebook, google+, linkedin etc. It gives you more authority.

When you post gigs for sale, use all the available space. There is not such a thing as too much info on Fiverr. I sometimes wished they gave me more space. Also, post unique pictures on your gig. Use Canva or other free graphic design software.

Include a video. Video gigs rank better. If you don't want to show yourself on camera, use Windows Movie Maker os something similiar and make a slide show.

People prefer using people who are online. Log in to your Fiverr, and use a refresh extension to refresh your page every few minutes. This allows people to find you easier.

Reply to questions and queries as quickly as possible. If your response time is low (Try to aim for 1 hour or less), you will rank better, and give customers more trust and confidence. Achieve this by downloading the fiverr app and replying as quickly as possible.

In the beginning, I offered way more to people, for way less, to encourage them to buy. New accounts with no ratings are scrary to buyers, but worth a chance when they offer alot for not that much.

Then offer more. I used to surprise customers with extras they did not expect. I included more words, pictures, etc. (More on that in a moment)

Then, when you deliver, ask for feedback and ratings. I got so much more feedback when I asked for it. But only when you deserved it. I asked for 5 star ratings, and if they think I didn't deserve it, I will do the job over, or refund them their money. Sure it might be counter productive, but a five star rating does wonders.

When you get more ratings, you can start bringing up your prices to reflect market rates or more.

Customer Service is everything. Be personal, use their names, and use unique messages when you speak with them. A lot of people used generic copy and paste answers.

You say you are going to offer writing services. Try to include images as a bonus. Get a few from pixabay or similiar and include them. Make sure they are royalty free though, and let them know it's royalty free. Over deliver as much as possible.

Never ever be late with deliveries. It will rank you badly and will get you tons of negative reviews.
Unforturtenetely that is all I have time for now, I have to meet someone in 10 minutes, but if you want any more info, let me know and I will gladly assist.



 

Late Bloomer

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Hi Chris,
I am not sure what advice is given in regards to Fiverr on the other threads, but I will give you what I have learned.

Thank you very much. I appreciate your helpful advice.

I'll follow up more tomorrow. I'm only on briefly today, before I head out for a local business event at a local bank. I don't know if it will be a good networking opportunity, but rather than try to guess about that, I'll go and find out.
 
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Late Bloomer

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It sounds mean.

Thread authors may change the title of their own threads. As I did here.

Thread authors may also delete their own threads. Which I'll be doing here within a few days at most.
 

Argue

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