Marketing is the life blood of any business – without it you simply won’t generate the revenue you need to STAY in business.  However, marketing can be a scary process for some mompreneurs. It requires time and money, something we are often short of!

Lately, I’ve been collecting ideas on how to build and market my own business, and I thought I’d start sharing tips on free marketing and educational opportunities on this site. Here are a few I noticed over the past week. Check back soon for more!

Have A Story You Want to Share With Other Moms In Business?
Maybe you learned something you think others should know, or maybe you are an expert in a specific area and want to share your advice with other mom business owners. Write for Marketmommies.com! We are looking for moms to contribute to Marketmommies.com. We already have a great group of moms already at work – but would love to hear your story. Email: info@marketmommies.com, if you are interested in contributing!

Is your company Buzz Worthy?
Do you have a product/service that you feel is filling a niche in the market? How is your product different from your competition? For my Daily Buzz free PR newsletter, I write a post every Tuesday called Buzz Worthy. I’m looking for companies to showcase so let me know if your company has the right stuff to be featured on Buzz Worthy. And it helps if you are a Daily Buzz member. Sign up at here and shoot me an email once you receive your first Daily Buzz by simply replying to it. And spread the word about Build-A-Buzz.

Win a Trip to the Super Mom Entrepreneur Conference & Expo
The Super Mom Entrepreneur Conference & Expo will be held on 10/30/10 in NYC at The New Yorker Hotel.  Whether you are an experienced mom entrepreneur, one who is just starting out, or a mom entrepreneur to be, this conference has got you covered.

In an effort to give more mothers an opportunity to experience the inspirational and transforming event, conference speakers and mom entrepreneurs Mindee Doney and Julie Pickens, the co-inventors of Boogie Wipes, are offering an all expenses paid trip to one lucky mom entrepreneur. All interested moms, whether they have a successful business, are a new start-up, or are thinking of starting a business down the road, are eligible to enter.

To be considered, visit the Boogie Moms’ blog between July 1st and September 1st, fill out the form and tell them a bit about your business or business idea, your goals, and how the Super Mom Entrepreneur conference would benefit you. The winner will be chosen by The Boogie Moms and will receive an all expenses paid trip, including airfare to the conference (from anywhere in the Continental US or Canada), lodging for two nights, conference registration fees, and two hours of business consulting time with Mindee and Julie, The Boogie Moms.

I recently connected with Kristen I. Sabol, communications specialist at Guru.com, the world’s largest online marketplace for freelance talent. With more than 1 million registered members (a combination of employers and freelancers) and 125,000 plus active freelancer profiles, no resource, in my opinion, is better equipped to offer advice to aspiring freelancers.

Below are the highlights of my exchange with Kristen.

Hot Industries for Freelancers

An Interview with Kristen I. Sabol, Communications Specialist at Guru.com 

Noelle:

What specializations present the greatest opportunities for freelancers today?

Kristen:

Site-wide, Guru.com offers opportunities in more than 160 different skill categories. The site has traditionally witnessed the greatest amount of activity in the following categories:
 

• Website Design
• Website Marketing
• Programming/Software/Database Development

After these fields, we also see a high demand for:
 

• Writing/Editing
• Translation
• Graphic Design
• Presentations/Multimedia
• Illustration/Cartooning
• Painting
• Sculpting

Noelle:

How competitive are these categories?

Kristen:

That’s a good question! While it is true that these areas see the most activity on the site, the ratio of available freelance talent to available project listings needs to be considered as this balance has great impact on how competitive a category may be. 

These ratios are in constant flux as new projects are posted and awarded out to talent on a rolling basis, but if we look at a particular day in early February 2009, we can see that 16,678 Website Design / Website Marketing freelancers were listed as active; while a total of 1,537 Website Design / Website Marketing projects were listed as open for bidding. And, 23,217 Programming /Software/ Database Development freelancers were listed as active; while a total of 1,144 Programming /Software / Database Development projects were open for bidding. So it’s safe to say that today the Website Design / Website Marketing category offers greater opportunity and less competition!

In the most competitive categories, aspiring freelance moms need to take the competitive landscape to heart. Succeeding as a freelancer in these fields will require working very hard to market your skills and expertise.  In order to beat the competition and win work, you cannot have a passive mindset. Getting started in these categories will take lots of dedication and attention.

Noelle:

What general trends are you seeing in the freelance industry?

Kristen:

Overall, we currently have about 125,000 active freelancers and approximately 5,200 project listings. However, as the economy continues to weaken, we are seeing both numbers rise quickly. From 2007 to 2008, we had a 25 percent increase in new freelancer registrations and a 27 percent increase in transactions completed on the site.

Noelle:

What advice can you offer to new freelancers?

Kristen:

Freelancing in many ways is about taking complete responsibility for your own fate. Freelancers should not expect any online marketplace to instantly bring success. You have to create your own success, and that only happens if you really want to be successful. Guru.com presents opportunities, but a freelancer’s success is dependent on what they choose to do to capture and build upon these opportunities individually.

The Resource Center on Guru.com houses a large body of documents including how-to guides that orient users to the site; brief tips and reminders to keep them sharp and on their toes; and general documents that provide lots of information about how to approach freelancing in an online marketplace setting like ours. All new freelancers should peruse this information before getting started.

In terms of some of the most important steps a freelancer can take when conducting business on Guru.com, I’d say new freelancers should start by creating a detailed profile as well as a resume that highlights their skills. Then, they should be sure to upload work samples that showcase their skills and work. 

Once a freelancer begins to propose solutions to employers, they should be sure to personalize each proposal to the employer’s needs. Employers are not only looking for someone with the skill set they asked for, they are looking for someone who is in sync with their thoughts about the project. If you send a canned response that does not speak about their project or organization, you are sending the message that you don’t care or have the time to communicate with them.

Focus on the quality of proposals submitted over the quantity of proposals submitted. Make sure all your documents are free of spelling and grammatical errors. Though the work you may be bidding on does not require you to be an expert in grammar, the person reviewing your proposal will likely perceive you as a poor communicator if your proposal and profile are lacking in the proper grammatical structures. 

And don’t let rejections deter you. Securing work of any kind is a tough business. For every twenty or more proposals you send out, you may receive one response. Dealing with that type of rejection takes resilience, and the more you have of it, the better off you will be in the independent contractor world.

Finally, make sure you complete all projects assigned to you in the most professional and time-conscious manner. Good credentials and a well-developed track-record go a long way to securing future projects. Research has shown that 60 to 75 percent of the jobs filled today are filled through referrals. So be sure you produce referral-worthy work! 

Every time you successfully complete a project remember to ask the Employer to endorse you, so others in his or her Guru.com Network will see you as a recommended freelancer.

Noelle:

Why should aspiring freelance moms participate in an online marketplace for freelance talent like Guru.com?

Kristen:

Using a site like Guru.com offers aspiring freelance moms great benefits in terms flexibility, structure and protection.

When it comes to flexibility, the range of opportunities on the site allows moms to choose the kind of work that suits them best, whether that is short-term projects with flexible deadlines or longer term initiatives that require intense focus for a period of time. All opportunities posted also allow freelancers to work remotely. And how much work or stress one takes on at any given point is really under one’s own control and at the discretion of each individual according to their personal business-development goals.

In terms of structure, Guru.com includes tools that can help a mom manage her freelance business from start to finish-from searching for opportunities, placing bids on the ones she wants and detailing a project agreement-to managing work completion, payment and feedback.  Each freelancer account also includes a Project Tracker that can help a freelancer oversee multiple projects at once.

Finally, Guru.com is extremely devoted to the security and protection of our users. When work is contracted through our site, transactions take place through our patented SafePay system which includes an escrow service for guaranteed payment upon work completion. This service is extremely valuable as it also includes access to our team of mediation and arbitration experts should a disagreement or other problem ever arises between a freelancer and an employer.