Technotip.org - Part 19

How to Protect Your Freelance Business from Financial Ruin

This is a guest post by Deborah Dera. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guest post guidelines.

Building a freelance business is hard work. Most freelancers work much longer than the average eight-hour day and often work seven days a week. Once you have built up a good client base and a steady flow of income, the last thing you want to see your business fall into financial ruin because of a few mistakes.

Don’t Mess With the IRS
Good financial records are always an asset you can fall back on in times of trouble. If the IRS hits you with an audit, it will make your life a lot easier if you have your paperwork in order. Likewise, make sure you declare all your income properly. Just because you don’t receive a 1099 form from a client doesn’t mean you’re not obligated to declare that income on your taxes. Playing games with the IRS is a quick way to land your business in serious trouble.

Keep Separate Accounts
Even if you decide not to form an LLC or file for a DBA license, you should still have separate personal and business accounts. Having different accounts makes it easier to track your business income and expenses. Many freelancers have a personal checking account and opt to use a system like PayPal to track their business expenses. You could also just have two different checking accounts. Either system works as long as you use your business account strictly for business related transactions.

Plan Your Time
Keep track of all your ongoing projects and completion dates. Don’t take on more work than you can reasonably handle. A freelancer who develops a reputation for missing deadlines and being unreliable will find it hard to hold onto clients and even harder to land new ones.

Keep Email Records
Freelancers should save every email they exchange with clients in case there is any dispute about a project. If you make an agreement verbally, send a follow up email confirming the agreement. In the event there is a disagreement, you can resend them the email and tactfully point out that they made a mistake or misunderstood. Many freelancers have lost payments or received less than they should have because they didn’t have anything in writing.

Don’t Spend Money You Don’t Have
When planning your expense budget, only count on the money you have on hand. Don’t count on future payments or projected income to make up for. Do not overspend with the idea, “I’ll just take on more work to make up for it.” Clients come and go; the work may or may not be there when you need the money.
Successful freelancers are ones who run their freelance business just like any other type of business. For a freelancer working without the benefit of an office staff, organization and self-management is critical. Not having a solid approach to managing your freelance business is the quickest way to see all your hard work go up in smoke.

Deborah Dera us a full-time professional writer specializing in personal finance, SEO, education, and more. She currently contributes to a number of sites involving education and careers in surgical technology, medical billing, sonography, and more.

10 Tips To Reduce Wastage in Office

This is a guest post by James Adams. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guest post guidelines.

Reducing waste in your office is always a great idea. It not only helps reduce overhead, but it can also help the environment as well. Here are ten great tips to use to reduce waste in your office.

1. Invest in More Efficient Printers
One idea you should consider is investing in printers that have the ability to print on both sides of a piece of paper. Books, magazines, newspapers, and other printed documents have always had text on both sides of a single page. It only makes sense for your office documents to have two-sided pages as well. It will also allow you cut down the amount of pages you print by nearly one half.

2. Use Recycled Paper
Another way to help the environment in your office is to use recycled paper. You may be worried about the quality of recycled paper. However, there is indeed recycled printer paper that is nearly identical to normal printer paper. You should also never settle for paper that is composed of less than thirty percent recycled pulp.

3. Have Policies Geared Towards Cyber-Communication
Another tactic your office could use is to rely more heavily on communication using office networks and cyberspace instead of paper. For example, you could switch from printed memos to only using e-mail to distribute memos. Communications with clients and communications between employees in different departments can also be performed by either e-mail or instant messaging programs. This is certain to greatly eliminate your reliance on paper.

4. Implement Videoconferencing
Travel expenses can become one of the biggest expenditures a company has to make every year. All the business traveling that occurs every day also leaves behind a rather decent sized carbon footprint that harms the environment. One solution is to implement videoconferencing. This way you can have the benefit of face to face communication while also cutting down on overhead and your company’s impact on the environment.

5. Unplug Electronics When They Are Not Being Used
Many people do not realise this, but many kinds of electronics such as computers and televisions use power even when they are switched off. To help your office conserve energy, you should unplug office computers whenever they are not in use. Simply unplugging all computers after workers have left for the day is sure to save your company plenty on electricity costs.

6. Program Your Office’s Thermostat Properly
Another way many offices waste energy is through how they use heating and air-conditioning. You should make sure your office’s thermostat is programmed to only heat and cool your office when you really need it. Wasting energy to heat or cool your office when no one is actually working inside the building is never a good idea.

7. Provide Your Employees with Eating Utensils
Disposable plates, cups, and silverware are one large source of waste in the break rooms of many offices. Instead, you should consider providing your employees with reusable dishes, cups, and silverware. This will require your employees to wash off their plates and eating utensils when they’re done. However, it will certainly cut down on how much garbage your break room produces.

8. Use Low-Flow Water Fixtures
You should consider switching all faucets and toilets in your office to low-flow alternatives. They will use far less water. Low flow water fixtures also require less heat. This will allow you to save plenty of money on energy costs since your office’s water heater will not be used as much.

9. Use Natural Lighting
One way to save on electricity costs is to use natural lighting. Install more windows and skylights around your office. This will greatly decrease your office’s dependence on artificial light sources that can consume lots of power. It can also prevent your employees from feeling like they are trapped indoors all day during work hours.

10. Start an Office Carpool
One thing that many offices do to cut down on their carbon footprint and help save on transportation costs is to run an office carpool. Many employees will be happy to share a commute to save on gas money. It is also a great way to allow employees to get to know each other. This can translate to better synergy and teamwork on different projects those employees may work on together.

James works as a full-time writer and editor for Cartridge Save, a store that stocks a huge range of printer cartridges and PhotoSmart ink cartridges.

Not Able To Login After Enabling 2-step Verification: Google Account

If you are not able to log into your YouTube, Android, iPhone, GoogleTalk/Pidgin client, POP/IMAP, Outlook – home computer, Thunderbird, Google TV, Picasa desktop client etc accounts after enabling 2 – step verification for your Google Account, then here are simple 1-2-3 steps to solve your problems. Step 1: It’s very simple, so stop worrying!

Log into your Main Google Account.
Goto “My Accounts”.

If you are inside GMail, at the top right corner there is a link for “Settings”. Inside Settings -> “Accounts and Import” tab -> Under “Change account settings:” -> Click on “Other Google Account settings”.

Now follow the screen shots below:
Click on “Authorizing application & sites”

Verify your Google Account once again use your regular Google username and password.

Some applications that access your Google Account (such as Gmail on your phone or Outlook) cannot ask for verification codes. To use these applications, you will not use verification codes. Instead, you’ll enter an application-specific password in place of your normal password. Common applications and devices that require an application-specific password include:

1. Enter the application name, that you are not able to login. Hit “Generate Password“.

2. In the next screen you will get a password and you can use this application specific password and log into your account.

3. You can click on revoke link to remove the application specific password previously generated.

If you check the “remember password for this computer” check box, then you need not remember this complicated password.

Secure Your Google Account

Most of us are so much dependent on Google services: Google Search, YouTube, Google Docs, Gmail, Picasa, Analytics, Google Places, Google Apps, Checkout , Google Friend Connect , Orkut, Feedburner, Adsense, Adwords, Google Webmasters Tools etc etc to name few.

Some people who use Adsense, Adwords etc might have sensitive business data. And with Orkut and Picasa you may have your private pictures. Hence, securing it makes sense.

Google has comeup with 2-step verification, similar to that you have for your online bank accounts and shares(demat) account.

Basically, you have two steps for successfully signing into your Google Account. First, you need your regular username and password. Second step, you need to generate a verification code from your mobile application on your Android, BlackBerry or iPhone device. If you use any other device to login, then you can simply request a verification code which will be sent to your primary phone number or secondary phone(backup) number as an SMS OR you can request for a quick voice call to get the code.

Here are some screen shots which illustrate the process of setting up the security:
For login:
login-sms-gmail

For activating this security:
Log into your Google Account, click on “Account Settings”.

If you choose “Remember verification for this computer for 30 days” option while logging in, you won’t need to re-enter a code for another 30 days on that computer. You can also set up one-time application-specific passwords to sign in to your account from non-browser based applications that are designed to only ask for a password, and cannot prompt for the code.

You also get 10 back up verification codes, which can be used to log in once in case you do not have access to your primary or secondary mobile number that you have connected to your Google account. So it’s advised to have a print copy of these backup verification codes and keep it safely.

All these may take 10 minutes to set up, but I think its worth it especially if you are using Google Account for storing any of your business or private information/data.

View 12 New File Formats On Google Docs

Not everyone uses Google Docs, but most of us use Gmail. Now Google Docs supports 12 new file formats. This is not a good news for just professionals who use Google Docs, but also to those of us who use Gmail for file sharing.

Now you can send
Microsoft Excel (.XLS and .XLSX)
Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 / 2010 (.PPTX)
Apple Pages (.PAGES)
Adobe Illustrator (.AI)
Adobe Photoshop (.PSD)
Autodesk AutoCad (.DXF)
Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG)
PostScript (.EPS, .PS)
TrueType (.TTF)
XML Paper Specification (.XPS)

via email and it can be viewed directly on your web browser and need not be downloaded to your hard disk drive.

You can even upload all the files with above mentioned format to your Google Docs account and share the link across the web.

Source: Gmail Blog

if you have a file on your desktop with above mentioned file format and don’t have proper software to open it, then simply goto your Google Docs account, upload it, view and/or edit it.

Play Snake Game On Any YouTube Video!

On this cool Sunday evening I started playing some awesome online games: The 100 Best, Free Online Flash Games

After 30min, I don’t know how, but I was on YouTube watching a video! Procrastinating 🙂
It was a huge video and it needed some time to load. With this and my gaming mood, I remembered this old trick of playing Classic Snake game on YouTube. It still works!

What I do is, pause and mute the video and activate the game.

If it is something new to you
Once you are on YouTube and on the video page, simply press the arrow keys on your keyboard, and the game will be activated.
[Make sure that the focus is on the YouTube Player.]

Game Rules
This is similar to most classic Snake Games that you can find on mobile phones. The snake has to eat the twinkling dot and the snake grows(in length). The game will end if you hit the wall(edge of the YouTube player!) or if the snakes mouth touches itself!

Troubleshoot!
If you don’t see any snake after you hit the arrow keys on the keyboard, then make sure the focus is on the YouTube player. To bring the focus on the Player, click on the YouTube video Player once and press the arrow keys. This should bring up the snake game.

This doesn’t work on embedded videos, so you need to be on YouTube to play this “Snake Game”.

Snake Game can only be activated while the player is loading the video. See the above screenshot for a clue.

10 Open-Source Programs for a Variety of Uses

This is a guest post by Cathy Pierce. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Open-Source software is more popular than ever because many Open-Source programs are now on-par with purchased software. To get even more bang for your buck (so to speak, since all of these Open-Source programs cost only a few clicks of your mouse) here are some of the top Open-Source programs that have a variety of uses.

• Open Office — Probably the best free Open-Source alternative to the Microsoft Office Suite, Open Office includes Writer (a word processor), Calc (an Excel-like spreadsheet program), Impress (a Powerpoint-like presentation program), Base (an Access-like database program) and more. In addition to having its own native file formats, Open Office also can recognize and open any MS Office file format.

• Notepad++ — Created as the souped-up programmer-targeted alternative to Microsoft Windows’ Notepad program, Notepad++ is great for editing source code, creating Cascading Style Sheets, or typing out the occasional good old .txt file.

• Miranda — Miranda is a an all-in-one instant messenger application that lets you combine contact lists from all of your other IM applications, even Facebook, and IM them through the Miranda interface. It’s a small and efficient program that saves your chat history to your hard drive for added security and can be customized with skins.

• Audacity — A great audio editing and recording program. Audacity lets you record live audio, convert cassette tapes and records into MP3 format, change the speed and pitch of recordings, blend sections of different recordings together to make your own sound mixes, edit numerous file types including MP3, WAV and AIFF and more.

• GIMP and GIMPshop — GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a powerful image-editing, painting, drawing and photo-manipulation program that boasts the same kind of power as Photoshop. In fact, if you download the add-on, GIMPshop, the menus will rearrange and some features will rename themselves so that those comfortable with Photoshop can effortlessly convert right to GIMPshop.

• NetBeans IDE — An Integrated Development Environment for programming in numerous languages, including Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, C, C++, CSS and more. An excellent tool for web and software development, and useful for editing existing web pages and Cascading Style Sheets as well. NetBeansIDE is split into modules for each program so you only install the module for the language you want to program in.

• TightVNC — TightVNC allows you to view and remotely control another person’s computer through yours. You see their desktop as if it belongs to your computer and can move the mouse and use the keyboard to make changes that affect that computer even though it’s far away from you. TightVNC is great for tech support, administration, accessing your home computer’s software from another location and more.

• Cabos —A free alternative to Limewire, Cabos allows for peer-to-peer file sharing. It uses the Gnutella network and enables fast downloading. Use it to get the latest music or movies out.

• GnuCash —Keep track of where your money is going with GnuCash. It’s free accounting software that implements a double-entry bookkeeping system. Use it for large or small business, or even personal, accounting needs.

• AssaultCube – All work and no play isn’t the way to live. Escape the daily grind with this multi-player first-person shooter game. Turn your home office into an arcade for a few minutes.
These are just a glimpse of the hundreds of free Open-Source programs out there for you to download and make good use of. While these programs are useful for a variety of things each, there are also many great programs aimed at doing one particular task well. Since Open-Source is free, you’ve got the power to try as many different programs as you like until you find the one that works best for you

Cathy Pierce is a business professional turned stay-at-home mom. She loves her kids, good TV and the Web. Follow her on Twitter @mrscathypierce.

Page Not Found Error While Trying To Edit And Save ?

Arvind,

Q: I have a problem where every time
I edit a post, 1 out of 2 times when
I save it, I get the message that
the page is not found!

This is strange and most annoying, if you had written a lengthy article and lost due to such weird behavior! If you encounter such a situation, then hit the back button on your browser and most of the time(if you are using Chrome and Firefox) your data will be safe. Thanks to browser cache.

Normal Reason For This Problem
The reason for such problem maybe the URL slug. Never have those weird characters in the URL slug. If you have double quotes or single quote or some special characters in the Title, make sure you remove those characters special code from the URL slug. Because some browsers may interpret these characters differently, hence behave in different manner.

The “slug” is the URL-friendly version of the name. It is usually all lowercase and contains only letters, numbers, and hyphens

SEO Wise
Best practice is to remove unwanted words and characters from your URL slug.
Ex: My Title is “Page Is Not Found Error While Trying To Edit And Save ?”

Here remove My, Is, While, To, And etc and retain only the main keywords which you think are most relevant to the article.
So my article’s URL looks : http://technotip.org/page-not-found-error-edit-save/
My title is still Page Not Found Error When Trying To Edit And Save ?

More sophisticated problem
If you don’t have any special characters in your URL slug and still have this problem, then your next suspect should be plugins.
Deactivate one plugin at a time and try to edit and save. By repeatedly doing this trial and error method you can detect what plugin might be in conflict.

Also make sure you have all latest plugins and have upgraded your WordPress installation to the latest version. Most of the times these bugs will be fixed, but we forget to update the software and face the consequences!