Desperate Freelancer

This is my last post.

Yes dudes, I know. It's sad and I am the saddest of all. Especially because I feel like I let you down. You won't see me again on that blog, won't laugh of my bad jokes and foolish humor. You won't get some strange news or thoughts about facebook/myspace/youtube/google.... You won't read that bad English filled with French formulations and grammatical mistakes. You will miss all that.. (or not).

But, on the other hand, that's a great news. Because, it mean I finally can retire once and for all. Last week, my government changed its mind about my retirement pension and finally decided I was eligible for it. So I can start a new life doing nothing and be paid for it.

I can't really explain why they suddenly change sides. My lawyer could but it will let me penniless to bring him in this blog so you can have a clue about what happened. The administration of my country is so illogical sometimes, I feel like a hero of a novel of Kafka. But illogical I am too, to spit in the hand that will feed me.

I guess I had too much resentment about what happened and the long years of battle to have they acknowledge my rights have deprived me with of the usual thankfulness people get educated for.

Oh, I am lucky boy now. I won't earn much but I am used to it. I will have real spare time, I would be glad to use on that new passion of mine : Internet. Since I am a geek now, I could spend all my time till I die, exploring the virtual world. Great program isn't it ? Much more cool than starting playing bridge or knitting nightcaps for the grandchildren I don't have.

Before leaving you forever, readers and passersby, I would like to thanks Delconsulting for the opportunity it gave me to become a freelancer blogger for a while. It opened so much my perspectives about technology, Internet and all that stuffs (most of them stupid and useless in my opinion yet so much fun) that hang out on the web.

I have been recruited by Delconsulting, thanks to my daughter's commitment to support her poor father and thanks to some director's mis-seeing my daughters' charms. During a little bit more than 2 years, they gave me the chance to discover a new universe that really changed my world.

I deeply immersed myself in the web and in the job of being a freelancer. I found out so many websites and amusing stuffs, and moreover I had the pleasure to entertain you buddies with my discovering.

I am leaving the net now.

Hoping to see you in the life 2.0 (if there is one)

I have found out this list of TOP 3O earning websites in the world. This list was created by Michael Dunlop, a young web entrepreneur that run a very interesting blog named IncomeDiary

And waow ! The figures are just amazing. For example, Google is earning 691 dollars every second. Facebook - I am still puzzling about its fundamental interest for mankind - is making a poor - in comparison to Google - 9,51 $ every second. But it's still 300 Millions bucks a year. The same amount as Youtube.

Of course, you find in the list, all the stars of the internet such as ebay, Yahoo, Amazon, Myspace or Paypal.

But what stupefies me the most in this list, is not the money these websites earn .. it's the following points :

- I don't know a good third of these websites. (That's strange and great in the same time. Strange because an old-wannabe-geek like me should know everything on such a topic. Great because I have some great hours of exploration and discovering in front of me to get to know these unknown websites.) For a foreigner, the big websites are not so "big" as they are supposed to.

- There is not a single French website in the batch. Some are global but a lot only operate on US territory. Globalization of Internet as a unique market is not yet here, pals.

- Twitter is NOT on the list. Whereas it should as it's as useful as Facebook, and now growing at a faster rate. Well, too young a service to earn billions I guess.

- Some companies are in a situation of quasi-monopole (who's really competing with Google or Paypal for example ? What service rivals Skype ?). That should explain such huge incomes.

- The revenues of these websites are impressive but are not still reaching those of the good old "mortar businesses". Microsoft's announces $51.12 billion revenues in 2007. That's more than twice what Google is making. And there are few chances that it changes in the years to come.

The list arises also a few questions :

- How much of these websites are profitable ?

- How much money have been spend to found the services ?

- As all websites don't have the same age, which are the ones that had been growing faster ?

- What are similar websites in other countries earning ?

- What position the founders or owners occupies in Forbes billionaires list ?

Well, to conclude, I would like to ask you if 10 or 15 years before, you could have imagined that Internet based companies could make so much money is so little time ?

"The Internet? We are not interested in it" -- Bill Gates, 1993

source : Myxi

Many companies have the obsession to find the perfect consultant, the perfect freelancer. They are seeking the holy grail of consulting for one main reason : consultants are so expensive that they have to be sure to hire the best for their business.

As I stare at my co-mates sharing my office, as I observe them practicing as freelancers, I know - as a neutral observer - what is working and what isn't. What let them pass for perfect consultants for their clients and what makes them stand as morons.

I can now set up a list of the best attitudes and behaviors that will transform you into the perfect consultant. Here is the main "good habits" I observed.

1. Never position yourself as a consultant

Your clients do want a consultant to do the dirty job they can't do themselves, but in fact they hate consultants. They don't want someone snobbish or proud as they think consultants are. Consultants usually have a bad reputation in firms that hire them because almost everyone find that they behave like "the guys with the truth".

If you sell yourself as a normal freelancer and not a consultant, and tell people about what you do - and not what you know - you will gain respect instead of hatred.

2. Be clear with your fees

Another mistake many consultants plunge into is to be unclear concerning their fees. As they charge the time passed, they usually send a bill that is not in many cases do not concorde with what was sold in the beginning of the mission. Especially because no-one ever managed to follow a planning.

Selling all your services during your mission as a package with a fixed rate is a good way to make no surprise in the end. You will stand out of the crowd of consultants. Yet you won't earn a lot with your first mission, but you will soon get a second at an honest and lucrative rate.

3. Never try to be a leader within the organization

Usually consultants try to get the leadership within the companies that hire them. They want to be the center of attention while they think they make things changing, they revolutionize the whole stuff.

It's completely wrong. They just move air around the fan. The real change always come from the ones who sign the checks.

So be a good consultant, pay attention to your masters.

4. Don't make diagrams, speak

You don't need diagrams and patterns on powerpoint to express your opinion. Your clients think that your compulsive attachment to diagrams is a way to charge more time and help you stand for an high level intellectual, which means in the end useless and expensive to them.

If you have an idea, a thought you need to share, just share it with your main client. You don't have to write down a document every time you find something. Documents spend time, and are truly never read by the people who count.

5. Don't dress yourself as an undertaker

Even if you are here to bury the firm.

You don't have to frighten people, it's counterproductive.

Don't make them laugh neither. But remember your are not here to win a fashion contest at the French Riviera.

6. Produce results

Mostly consultants are criticized for producing a lot of bla-bla and a lot of theories, ideas and recommendations and very few results. So force yourself to leave a concrete track that could be measured.

Do something, share the everyday life of the employees of the firm for which you are doing consulting. It pays more for everybody than putting white gloves to shake hands with the workers in the factory.

With all these attitudes, you may not become the perfect consultant, but you will surely stand out of the crowd. Whereas all your concurrents usually leave a bad image of the profession, with their "morgue" and non-acting but advising habits, you would be the good boy that people like and want to see again.

And that should be your main objective.

Recently I told you about a guy in Australie who sold his whole "life" on Ebay. He sold his house, cars, all belongings and so on, in hope to start all over. For sure, it was a crazy idea.

Even crazier, some people are now selling themselves on the web. Internet is changing the nature of mankind, human beings now see themselves as goods and don't hesitate to communicate about it and even undertake their own selling.

Two examples that you need to think about :

1) A 26-year-old girl named Chen Xiao from Beijing is selling her time on the internet

On her website, this young Chinese girl is trading her time against money. She would do anything (unless it's illegal, immoral, violent or pornographic) to please customers.

She usually charges 3$ an hour and already made around 500 $ net income with more than 100 clients. She took pictures of every assignment she had. Some were quite weird : a mother buyer wanted Chen Xiao to call in on her young daughter disguised as a panda, and encourage her to study harder.

She has had quite a lot of success since she opened up this service, so that she is now compelled to sell her time on auction.

More here

2) A young bachelor in France named Yannick Miel sold himself on ebay

Yannick, a 23-year-old bachelor in Economics Intelligence was desperately looking for a job. He had the idea of selling himself on ebay in order to find a decent job. He wrote down an humorous ad on the famous auction website and managed to had a few buyers, but yet no real job indeed. He mostly had a good press coverage.

Then, capitalizing on the success he had on the French media, he decided to go hand out some resumes at a place called La Defense, a famous business center in Paris.

He was finally bought by Martin Hirsch, a member of the French government, for quite a good bargain.

These are recent examples but not the firsts of people willing to sell themselves.

Don't you remember those :

A British lord already put's himself for sale

A Cambridge university student also did the same in 2007.

Or that guy who wanted to sell his body in year 2000 ?

So what's new under the sun ? Nothing much. People are mad and are selling themselves on the web. Assuming their status of modern happy slaves, and getting publicity or ego satisfaction through it.

I wonder when we will be able to buy a complete family, a whole group of friends or an entire village on the net ? That would be great, if you have some cash, to own that sort of stuff. That's is surely more trendy than a Hummer or a diamond ring.

I wonder if I should, desperate freelancer for ever, sell myself for the purposes of investigation. I am just afraid not to get any buyer.