I write primarily from the point of a person who is a freelancer or telecommuter. But we have two parties in the game: in case with telecommuting it is the employer. Does he get any benefits if his staff work from home? Sure. I will just number a few, but I am certain there are much more:

· Office space savings. Depends on the type of business, but he can cut rented office space to minimum or give it up completely.

· Office equipment savings – not always the case, but nowadays most families have their own PC, fax, Internet access, printer, scanner and etc.

· Employees save on commute time and costs. Possibility to work from home makes their job more valuable in their eyes - a great employer advantage.

· Taxes and insurance. It is a regular practice that employees become some sort of freelance workers and take care of their tax and insurance issues.

· Flexible schedule – no need to stay 9-5 hours in the office to instruct and control the staff. One can check the progress reports and delegate tasks at any time by e-mail or phone. The employer becomes a telecommuter himself.

No doubt, the employer loses a certain degree of control, he can’t keep the track of the working process, but he needs to focus on the results. He should require regular reports to be submitted via e-mail or online to see the progress. The employer should be confident of his workers, trust them. He should test new employees properly before switching to telecommuting.

Telecommuting gains popularity – thanks to the fast development of telecommunications. Probably, it will become a standard for many businesses in the near future. The earlier you introduce the switch, the faster new business model will be adopted, the more advantages will you get over your competitors.
[tag]telecommuting, employment, employer, work from home, home based jobs[/tag]

eBay.com attracts thousands (if not millions) of legitimate sellers and buyers from all over the world - I guess the auction site acccepts members from every country. It also opens business opportunities for thousands of scammers. Yes, many scam schemes from the 90’s are not working anymore. Unfortunately, eBay.com is not yet 100% safe place.

I know that many watch collectors shop on eBay regularly and find great deals there. Just keep it in mind. One should be on the alert all the time when you get offers too good to be true. Here is a story of a Girard-Perregaux watch seller:

When Al Iacofano’s dad asked him for help in selling a pricey Girard-Perregaux watch, the Perry Township man knew where he could get the best price.

He listed the watch on the popular Internet auction site eBay, confident that one of its 193 million members would bid at least the $1,600 he paid for it.

“Within 12 hours, I received a message from a man who offered to buy it for $4,000,” Iacofano said.
It was a good offer, just a few hundred bucks shy of retail - but not quite too good to be true.
But as with anything, especially selling a high-ticket item to a faceless customer halfway around the world, the devil is in the details.

Iacofano’s buyer turned out to be a thief with a seemingly endless list of stolen credit card numbers.
And while Iacofano caught the attempted fraud before it was too late, many buyers and sellers fall victim to scams like these perpetrated in the online marketplace.

Iacofano’s buyer, who claimed to be in Indonesia, made his offer through a personal message rather than by bidding on the item. This, experts say, is a common sign of fraud, indicating that the buyer is in a hurry to pay for the transaction, often because they are using a stolen credit card that they fear will soon be canceled. Other warning signs included the buyer’s low feedback score - a number that signifies an eBay member’s reputation from prior transactions.

He also wanted to avoid PayPal, a widely used online payment system, Iacofano said. All this raised some level of skepticism for Iacofano, who admitted a bit of wishful thinking with the prospect of a $4,000 sale.

“We kind of pushed some of those red flags aside, thinking, well, if he’s got a credit card and it gets approved, then we must be OK,” he said.

The buyer gave Iacofano 30 credit card numbers, all with different names.

Iacofano, in turn, reported each of the numbers to their respective companies in an effort to stop the thief.
While Iacofano recovered the watch after halting the shipment, he was out $235 in shipping costs.

[source: www.news-herald.com]

Well, the above scam is too easy to spot; there more advanced and intelligent scammers on this market who are more cautious and inventive. I remember I used to sell some stuff on eBay. One day a wholesale buyer from Nigeria contacted me via e-mail, he was ready to buy all my listings and more in one bulk at a good price. As a resident of Nigeria (the country is not supported by PayPal) he wished to pay me with a credit card and also asked to ship all products on the same day with DHL. I agreed. He promptly submitted the online payment. Then I checked the payment details – the payer was from the USA. Sure thing, I did not ship the products and never heard from that Nigerian guy again (just from another one a few weeks later).

[tag]ebay, eBay online shopping, eBay selling, Google, Microsoft[/tag]

Web 2.0 is the buzz word of the last 6-9 months. The trend supporters state that the Web enters a new stage in its development, the opposition says there is nothing new, it all was invented back in the 90’s.

Just to give our readers more information on Web 2.0 I will turn to the list of its significant features. It is up to every person to make his decision to accept or not this Web 2.0 trend (I guess for most Internet users it does not matter – all we want is to see Web more useful and convenient. And free).

What Web 2.0 website features make it different from a traditional one?

o Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability (When devices and programs are connected to the internet, applications are no longer software artifacts, they are ongoing services. Therefore: Don’t package up new features into monolithic releases, but instead add them on a regular basis as part of the normal user experience. Engage your users as real-time testers, and instrument the service so that you know how people use the new features.)

o Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them (Applications are increasingly data-driven. Therefore: For competitive advantage, seek to own a unique, hard-to-recreate source of data.)

o Trusting users as co-developers (The key to competitive advantage in internet applications is the extent to which users add their own data to that which you provide. Therefore: Don’t restrict your “architecture of participation” to software development. Involve your users both implicitly and explicitly in adding value to your application.)

o Harnessing collective intelligence (Intellectual property protection limits re-use and prevents experimentation. Therefore: When benefits come from collective adoption, not private restriction, make sure that barriers to adoption are low. Follow existing standards, and use licenses with as few restrictions as possible. Design for “hackability” and “remixability.”)

o Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service (Small sites make up the bulk of the internet’s content; narrow niches make up the bulk of internet’s possible applications. Therefore: Leverage customer-self service and algorithmic data management to reach out to the entire web, to the edges and not just the center, to the long tail and not just the head.)

o Software above the level of a single device (The PC is no longer the only access device for internet applications, and applications that are limited to a single device are less valuable than those that are connected. Therefore: Design your application from the get-go to integrate services across handheld devices, PCs, and internet servers.)

o Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models (Web 2.0 applications are built of a network of cooperating data services. Therefore: Offer web services interfaces and content syndication, and re-use the data services of others. Support lightweight programming models that allow for loosely-coupled systems.)

Job sites also follow the Internet trends and there are a few out there that fit Web 2.0 guidelines. For instance, Jobazaar.com

How do they differ from hundreds of competitors?

• Lightweight, yet powerful
You don’t need people sending you resumes and CVs, you just need someone mowing your lawn? That’s what we made Jobazaar for.
• It’s free and you’re not going to take any risks
With Jobazaar you can easily offer jobs and manage job postings. Why should you pay for looking for someone?
• Modern and fast interface
Don’t waste time waiting for pages loading or filling out unnecessary form fields. We know you don’t like that.
• Optional features
You decide if you want to enable applications directly via Jobazaar or if users can ask questions to your jobs.

A few more Web 2.0 features of the website include: tagging (tags are keywords that you can add to a job to make it easier to find), RSS feeds, applicant ratings forums. There are three versions of the website: US, UK, German. Obviously, the company targets the global job market.

Summary
Freelance jobs are scarce with Jobazaar.com at this moment, the forums do not enjoy much activity, but the service progresses fast, it gains popularity on the Net and it is worth keeping an eye on. I guess its success or failure depends to a certain degree on the destiny of Web 2.0 trend. If it is widely accepted then Jobazaar.com will make it. And we will get another good source of freelance jobs.

[tag]freelance, telecommute, job sites, outsourcing, web 2.0, work from home, home based job, contractor, career, employment[/tag]