Out Of Work & Baby On The Way...

[dou9las]

Warriors,
My client work and income have dried up, and my resumes are not getting responses. My wife is in the 2nd trimester with our first baby. If I am unable to generate revenue quickly, we will have to up-root and move out of state to stay with family temporarily (not desirable during the pregnancy.)

Over the past 2 years I have struggled against a declining economy with 2 different consultant businesses (one in architecture, the other SEO.)

I went to work for a web agency most recently, but they were losing clients and money (many were in the home building sector) and thus had to lay me off. My additional job seeking efforts are just not yielding results.

One note: My situation is similar to Nelson's in this thread:
Just Got Laid Off - What's the Quickest Way to Make Money?

There was a lot of GREAT advice given in that thread, I have read it thoroughly. I especially liked the responses by Jagged (Ken Perry) and I am going to try to mobilize and act on one or several of the scenarios he put together.

The other idea I would like to pursue is doing an "emergency WSO" (which I could use some help with generating ideas for...)

Either way, in the interest of time (and my landlord is waiting for a rent check as I write this...) I would like to appeal to any Warriors that are in need of IM/SEO related consultant services, such as:

Article marketing, social bookmarking, social media marketing, misc. web admin duties, keyword research, on page SEO, link campaigns, WordPress blog set up and optimization (SEO and IM plugins), ghost writing/blogging, etc.

I don't enjoy having to publicise the above (generally don't like asking for help) but I also don't have a lot of time, so I appreciate any words of wisdom, or freelance work, etc. that can be offered. Resume available on request.

Many Thanks,
Doug

[steveweber]

It won't be an instant solution, but why not begin putting some of your SEO skill to use in developing some affilate and/or adsense sites?

[showbizvet]

There are many of us that either are going, or have gone through difficult times, indeed all of America is struggling. One area since you have skills, is to offer your services, not only here (and there may be takers) but also on scriptlance, elance and similar sites. There is a lot of SEO work needed, I'm on scriptlance so I know that for a fact.

And mainly, don't give up and keep faith. If you must, take a day job (doing whatever) for a temporary fix (pay the bills, buy groceries) but know that the skills you possess are in demand, finding the client is the only hard part.

[Jason Pereira]

How much are you looking to raise?

If you can write you can do quite a bit. For the emergency WSO, maybe offer all your skills in one place and let buyers choose which ones they want.

Ex

- Unique articles researched and written with submission to article directories.
- Social website page setup (Facebook, myspace etc)
- SEO (on page and off page - optimization and link building)
- Wordpress services
- eBook research and writing
- Blog research, writing and management
- Site creation services (X articles + decent WP theme + needed plugins - you can sell these sites for $50+ on here)

There is always a lot of interest in those kinds of skills. You could even work on a payment first basis (10 people pay you $50 up front and you work on their projects over the course of the month).

Good luck

[dou9las]

Originally Posted by steveweber

It won't be an instant solution, but why not begin putting some of your SEO skill to use in developing some affilate and/or adsense sites?

Hi Steve,
Thanks for your reply. I did actually mention that I have several projects going on, some that I put considerable time into, but the net income being generated is less than we need to live on (by a long shot...)

Essentially, I am getting the occasional trickle of sales on all of these sites, totalling about $500-800 per mo. One site actually brings in a steady $250+ in ad revenues (text link ads) and I am doing my homework as we speak to create an effective listing on Flippa (it's in the VoIP niche...)

Like a lot of IMers (from what I read here at WF) I am suffering from the struggle to go from "trickle" to "steady money", and I don't have a PPC budget obviously.

Cheers,
Doug

[FreshMedia]

I feel your pain Doug, and really sorry to hear about that. I got let go last year, and do the best I can to stay afloat. One thing that I would recommend is to read this great thread: My 3 Day $2500 Challenge Results & Method

I may be doing something similar soon. Thanks and good luck.

[dou9las]

Originally Posted by Jason Pereira

How much are you looking to raise?

With rent and rock bottom neccessities, a starting target would be $2000 (asap) and an ongoing $2500 monthly, again just to "survive" and pay basic bills. San Diego is not cheap unfortunately, and that is after "downgrading" i.e. moving to a less expensive community recently.

Originally Posted by Jason Pereira

If you can write you can do quite a bit.

Intuitively, I totally agree. Yet, I have had a hard time specifically getting writing or SEO Copywriting gigs in the past.

I know eLance is always talked about, but when I posted there, I was competing with people who had permanently "set up shop" on elance, with tons of projects and testimonials etc. under their belt. Essentially, my efforts to land gigs were just completely drowned out.

Originally Posted by Jason Pereira

For the emergency WSO, maybe offer all your skills in one place and let buyers choose which ones they want.

Ex

- Unique articles researched and written with submission to article directories.
- Social website page setup (Facebook, myspace etc)
- SEO (on page and off page - optimization and link building)
- Wordpress services
- eBook research and writing
- Blog research, writing and management
- Site creation services (X articles + decent WP theme + needed plugins - you can sell these sites for $50+ on here)

There is always a lot of interest in those kinds of skills. You could even work on a payment first basis (10 people pay you $50 up front and you work on their projects over the course of the month).

Good luck

Thank you, I needed to kickstart the ideas for what and how to offer my skills for the WSO, and this is a good starting point.
-Doug