Online Jobs

There are many online jobs available. I first ventured into online jobs as a consultant for a writing firm in 2005. I didn’t know anything about working online, but I was a quick study. I started out by writing articles myself. Then I got into editing, and eventually managed my own group of writers as an independent contractor. I’ve been booked solid since.

I learned about different trades available to people seeking online employment. There are people who design websites, write content, edit, build links for and perform Search Engine Optimization for client sites. I’m going to give you a brief summary of these different online jobs available.

Let’s start with the basic jobs:

• Writer. Content is King! With the last Google algorithm change, Content Farming and rehashed, rewritten work is out, and fresh articles with high relevance are left standing. The websites that used article spinning methods and rewritten works are being penalized by Google for their methods, and good content writers are back in demand…Well, good writers have always been in demand, this just makes them even more so. Check out my previous post if you want to ace a writing job online. But, remember this piece of advice… Writing as an online job is WORK. Don’t think of reasons to conclude otherwise. In fact, working online means you have to be even more professional, more dedicated and waaaaaaay more flexible. The client is always right, just figure out how you can deliver what they need without sacrificing too much time.

• Editor. When you have enough experience, it’s time to hold the reins. This is actually when you can reap the rewards of what you’ve learned. Different clients prefer different writing styles, and you should be versed in all of them. Remember that when you take on this position, you are responsible for all the content that passes through your desk. If the article needs to be revised, ask for a revision from the writer. Don’t be shy about this. All content that passes through your hands is stamped with your seal of approval. Make sure it’s worthy of your standards.

• Web Designer. Everybody has an idea of what a web designer is. These are the people who create websites by designing and developing them for publishing. This means that to be one of these guys you have to know code and other things. But, I’ll tell you something…you can skip all of that and just study WordPress. It’s one of the easiest ways to publish a website. You only need a little knowhow to get a professional looking site up. This site of mine is powered by WordPress. I’ve had a breeze putting it up, and I enjoyed the benefits of learning it this late. Everything is simpler and easier than it was before. No need to catch up by studying code. In fact, dare I say it?…WordPress is the future of web design. This is because Google loves it. It’s easy to set up, and it’s easy to optimize for high Search Engine Results.

• Link Builder. If content is king, then Search Engine Optimization is the general which leads the wars. Good content is everywhere. But, if nobody sees it, what’s the point? It’s not going to build you a reputation or make you any money if there’s no traffic to your website. This is where search engine optimization comes in. Search optimization is about making sure your website or article is seen in the first few spots of a search. There are many jobs in SEO. Most people start out as a link builder. Either they do it for their own sites, or for others, this is where they get their feet wet. Link building is simply making links to a site. Websites normally have sections for comments. Some comment boxes allow people to leave or make links back to their preferred sites. These links help search engines see your websites. This, in turn helps your website rise in searches.

Once you have a firm grasp of these basic skills, you can move up to a better position. Here is what the future may turn out to be:

• Content Manager. Content management is the evolution of the Writer->Editor path. Once you’ve mastered the art of web content, with your writing and editing skills, you should be ready to do content management. Content management can evolve into different things. First, you should be able to plan content. What content is beneficial to your website? What does your audience want to read? You have to conceptualize the content to be created, flesh it out, and tweak it to grab hold of more readers. Content management may also mean hiring and managing writers, creating a process to evaluate and train your staff and curating existing content. I’ll go into this in more detail later on. But you get the idea, right?
• SEO/SEM. These stand for Search Engine Optimization/Search Engine Marketing. As I mentioned earlier, linkbuilders can become SEOs. Building links is just one aspect of optimizing a website for search engines. SEOs plan campaigns to help a website meet its targets. Now, campaigns have different objectives, either to make more sales, or to add more people to a mailing list. Whatever the site’s objectives are, an SEO must be able to optimize a website, get links that can help the campaign, and achieve the goals of the clients. We also have to make reports, research the competition, do keyword research, plan the content marketing strategy, and be able to audit a website to analyze its strengths and flaws. This is a very exciting field to be in, as all e-commerce is dependent on SEO and SEM.

That rounds up the initial listing of online jobs. Makes you think about choosing where to begin, right? But, the funny thing is this…this is actually the list of what you have to be. You have to become all of these to ensure the progress of a scalable online business. You definitely have to know how all of these jobs work together, and I’ll try to cover that in a later post.

Anyway, when all of these work together, it allows your website to reach a wider audience. In a nutshell, this goes like this…It all starts with a website. This is where you will write your killer content. This content will (of course) have to undergo editing, just to make sure that the grammar is correct, and that everything stated is technically accurate. Once everything is finalized, publish the content. Then it’s time to build some links telling people about the content you offer. Then it’s about planning the long-term content strategy, as well as the online marketing strategy of your site.

If you search for me, Bingo Ventura, you’ll see me after a few searches about online Bingo. In the second post I made, I mentioned that my Alexa ranking was somewhere in the 4 million range. I’ll keep working at it as I go along, and I’ll tell you about it in later posts under the SEO category. (I haven’t touched my website in years, but since Ventura Consultancy is growing, and I have excellent partners who are just doing amazing work with me, I thought it was high time I updated my site.)

I’m a student of life, internet businesses, and SEO. I know some things, which I’ll share with you, but I’m also very interested in learning something new every day.