Have you tried Xara Xtreme? Perhaps you should

As an artist I love messing around with Photoshop and Illustrator or any graphical program for that matter but the other day I was surfing around and came across Xara Xtreme.  I decided to download the trial version and then grabbed a few images to play with.  The ease with which you can extract images from their backgrounds was what really got me excited.

Xara Xtreme still has a few clunky operations that I’d like to see rounded out a bit more – the 3D extrude for one – now to be fair, I haven’t yet explored whether or not I can break apart images and apply the 3D abilities to just portions rather than the entire image, so I’ll be investigating that shortly.

Intuitive Tool

Overall, Xara Xtreme is quite intuitive and very easy to work with.  It isn’t Illustrator by any means and those who are strong graphics users will not find  Xara Xtreme a replacement by any means, but for anyone who wants quick work made of image manipulations – it’s worth downloading the trial and seeing if it might not be one of the programs that can enhance your work a bit or make some things that you do in other graphics tools, a little quicker or easier to manage.

Here’s a Review done on Xara Xtreme that provides an overview of the program for those interesting in learning more from a source other than the company’s website.

10 tips to make the “could I be a freelance writer” decision

The life of a Freelance writer is sometimes a love/hate relationship.  When the assignments are great, the money is rolling in and the clients you are providing services for are fabulous, loving everything you do – freelance writing is a terrific way to earn a living from almost anywhere, anytime.   On the flip side when there is a lull in the assignments available, you either have to pick up the slack by seeking out additional opportunities or if you are fortunate, you can use these times to catch up on some of your favorite or even less favorite things – like sleep and house cleaning – or is that just an exclusive ‘me’ thing?

If you’re considering entering into the Freelance writing market you’re probably asking yourself whether this is something you could do, or even should do.  So, from one freelance writer to another prospective one here are some of the ways you can determine whether or not freelancing is really something you should jump into.

Could You?

Although the following are certainly not all encompassing,  they are some of the key elements I’ve found work well and I class them as important elemens to becoming a successful  Freelance writer:

1. Time - do you have it to spend?  If you are considering this field I’d imagine you have some time free, but surprisingly being a Freelance writer can and does take up a nice chunk of a person’s day if the opportunities are available.   If freelancing is meant to be a primary income for you, you want to be certain that you can dedicate a specific number of hours to the task and for a set number of days out of every week – taking into consideration that as a freelance writer your family may not realize that when you are working on articles you aren’t available for taxi service (or again is that just me?).  Having the following key in place of course helps to ensure you do have the time.
2. Management - Freelancing in itself is one which demands that you keep accurate and organized records and have the ability to manage your time effectively.  With many freelance writers juggling several clients at a time the importance of good management and organizational skills is paramount.  Just as you can’t obtain or keep quality clients if your writing ability isn’t up to par, you can’t keep your freelance business on track if your management skills just aren’t there.  Learning how to manage your business and your time however; simply takes a little ingenuity, research and desire to ‘bone up’ on the ins and outs.
3. Independence – As a freelance writer you set your schedule, take on the work you want to and pretty well dictate your direction as far as workload acceptance goes.  Do you have the ability to be self-directed and work within your own little world day in and day out?  If you don’t mind the solitude that comes from being a freelance writer a lot of the time, then you should do reasonably well for yourself in the field provided you have more than just this key ingredient in place.  Independence however; goes a step beyond just being able to work alone and that leads us into …
4. Motivation - without this you may in all likelihood flounder.  There is no one handing you a paycheck at the end of the week if you haven’t had the motivation to hunt out the assignments – unless of course you are lucky enough to have a client such as one of the ones I do, who comes to you whenever they require work completed.  Having a client or even several clients like this is what I class as ‘easy street’ only because I don’t have to seek out assignments quite as feverishly as someone who doesn’t have this opportunity.  Once you become known as a quality writer who is dependable and produces work that is on time every time – likely you will garner your own selection of clients whom you can come to depend upon to seek you out often.
5. Self-editorial ability – One of the major keys I’ve found to be extremely beneficial in obtaining clients and keeping them happy is being able to provide assignments that are literally free of error.  I use a spell-checker which is integrated directly into my browser as well as the spell-checker and grammatical tool that comes with my word processor.  The Internet is a bevvy of content and more is being added by the second, if you are dealing almost exclusively as an on-line content provider, adding a Plagiarism checker to the mix is also something I recommend.  Just as more than one person can have a similar thought or idea about something, they can also write in similar veins – regardless that I am anal about doing “in my own words” writing, I still always run my work through these checkers just to be safe.
6. Research – This is something you can neither be lax with or have a dislike for.  I’m a research-aholic.  If there is a subject that I want/need to know about I will literally research it to death!  The one great thing about freelancing is that when you are choosing assignments that interest you, research can be minimal but if you are writing for topics that you don’t know a great deal about – you get a free education, which is always a great thing.   That said however; you really do have to be able to understand what you are researching so if quantum physics is a mind boggle, unless you understand what you are researching you might find it difficult to put the information into your own words, so always keep that in mind when accepting your assignments or seeking out writing opportunities.
7. Self-Promotion – Some of us are very good at talking about what we do  and often this freedom to express our abilities is a key strategy to getting our name out there.  If you aren’t one who likes to speak yourself up – you’ll want to learn.  By promoting yourself in a positive, knowledgeable light you are opening the doors for people to get to know you  and your services.  Regardless of what avenue you choose to take in your freelance career, being able to do your own promoting is one way to save yourself money and time when it comes to landing new clients.  We should always feel comfortable in doing this and if you find it difficult to begin – just ask those who know you what you’re really like – you might get some great responses that will help make writing your promotional tools much easier than you thought possible.
8. Blog, Blog, Blog – Yes, everyone is doing it and it’s a great way to get your style and your availability factor pumped.  If you don’t have a blog yet, my goodness what are you waiting for?    Considering your blog a portfolio of sorts is a great way to have fun honing your writing skills while getting the word out that you are a quality freelance writer – and your blog proves that.
9. Strengthen yourself – By this I mean looking at other avenues of writing that may or may not actually help you pay the bills.  By picking a few excellent opportunities even if they are volunteer – you have a terrific way to improve upon your skills  while broadening your scope.  I have found that as a ‘run off at the keyboard’ type, grabbing opportunities that require me to say a lot in as few words as possible (175-300), helps me tighten my writing.   Push that envelope – write, write and write some more – you will be amazed at how this strengthens you and in turn strengthens your position as a freelance writer.
10. Never be afraid to try - This is the huge one for me.  I truly detest hearing someone say “I can’t do that!” especially if they’ve not tried it first and therefore don’t have anything to base their assumption on.  I’ve taken on writing assignments that actually have had me sitting here thinking “wow, is this going to be a little too much for me to chew?” yet so far, I’ve not turned down an assignment on any subject simply because I have a very strong Research capacity (remember #6 – the door opener to all things?) and it’s something I love to do.  If you have a great “thirst” for research and knowledge, you will have the opportunity to do quite well in the freelance market simply because you are a seeker of knowledge through your writing.  Just because you don’t know a subject does not mean it should stop you from learning everything you can about it in order to write with authority.  As long as you understand what you have researched, using your own words to create great work should really never, in my opinion, stop you from tackling just about anything you want to.

Should You?

If you really enjoy writing you owe it to yourself to just go for it!  With all the keys in place I think you’ll enjoy the arena as much as I do – maybe more so.

Akaiya

“Think” Success For Your Business

“I’ll never be successful!”, “Your business is doomed to fail”.  Have you said or heard these before?  I have and I’m ashamed to say that for awhile I actually believed all the nay saying.

Sometimes it’s easier to get into a mindset that sets us up for failure, than it is to possess one that guarantees our success.  Failures are a dime a dozen, successes take time to accomplish and even though we know this, we still seem to derail our efforts through those nagging little self-doubt sessions that sometimes take place.

We lose a contract, an idea doesn’t quite pan out as expected, others express their concern for our welfare in ways that are less than helpful sometimes, or sometimes we just tend to read into the comments things that really aren’t there but are more a mirror of our own concerns or views.

Thinking your business is successful from the get go is one thing that many of us find hard to accomplish.  There are fears of what might happen under many different scenarios and of course our mind plays the “what if” game with us and usually we end up with too many “what if’s” that come with negative connotations.  That of course starts the spiral.

Using positive thinking isn’t something that everyone finds an easy task.  We are programmed to think individually, yet many of us receive daily affirmations that attest to the fact that perhaps we aren’t meant to be as positive as we’d like.  As children we often receive “negative feedback”  that comes from those whom we trust, respect and admire.  “Don’t play with that, you’ll get hurt”, “Don’t eat that, you’ll choke”, these are given to us as warnings of what not to do and the consequences that could result if we do them anyway yet they are also negative feedback.  Suggestions that are planted and that can have the exact outcome that we are told they will.

By changing our mindset – just slightly sometimes, great things, ideas and result are possible.  Thinking more positively denotes action, positive thinking begets positive results – the problem sometimes is in waiting for those results to actually show up.  It can be frustrating, but when looking back on the movement we make, often we can see exactly where the trail of negativity led us and where the positive trail eventually takes us.

Think your business successful is sometimes easier said than done, but you owe it to yourself to at least attempt to give it every possibility of working.  Sometimes it’s just a matter of changing our way of thinking that helps us to overcome a problem and replace it with a solution.

Next time you come up against negative thinking – quickly be conscious of the fact and then turn it into something – anything – that will put a positive spin on things.  You just might be surprised how soon this begins to show in positive flow being generate not only for your business but for yourself.

Akaiya