BlogCatalog

Where did the jobs go?

Ever since the banker's shell game came apart and the economy tanked out across much of the world, many people have been forced to seek new employment. Jobs are gone and as some politicians have pointed out some of them just aren't coming back.

Some people, too, get crazy ideas about dumping their day jobs and working for themselves even when the signs of the times would seem to indicate that this might not be the most reasonable course of action.

Enter the Digital Worker

Amazon's Mechanical Turk website calls them "Artificial artificial intelligence". Most other people call them freelancers. I've always been peripherally aware of these denizens of the digital workforce, but they were never right there in front of me until just recently.

After spending some time looking for a new job, I realized that it would probably be more fruitful to just create my own job and changed course to that goal. That's when I discovered that there is a huge economy out there for freelance workers.

And they have their own blogosphere too.

As I got into looking at this opportunity I began seeking information about it. Not the information provided by the freelance job sites, though there is some good information there. What I really wanted was the information provided by these workers themselves.

Can you think of anyplace better to find this kind of information than in the BlogCatalog Blog Search Tool? No? me either, so of course, that's where I went. And I telly you I was not disappointed in the least.

There are many good of blogs in the catalog that offer up information on freelance working from a number of perspectives. I'm going to focus here on those that are written by people who actually do freelance work and blog about that work. They offer tips on finding jobs, productivity advice, writing ideas and much more. The Freelance blogs in the catalog are essentially a decentralized academy of the freelance arts.

I have become their devoted student.

Ariana R. Cherry blogs about her recent entry into freelancing at her blog, The Rural Freelance Writer. She's just started working as a freelancer, and still maintains a day job that she hopes to reduce to part time and then eventually eliminate. She's working her way into freelancing slowly. I hope she meets great success and I hope she continues blogging here experiences along the way.

Allison blogs about her freelance career at her blog, My Online Freelance Writing Career (BC Listing). She offers great advice about finding and maximizing online freelance jobs. With articles on how to find the jobs, how to get the best pay from the jobs and how to organize your job search. She also just completed the grueling 100 articles in 100 days challenge at ezinearticles.com. Talk about padding your portfolio. She detailed the process and posted regular updates about her progress though the challenge.

Katie blogs about working as a freelancer at her blog, Real Freelance Life (BC Listing). She offers up hard nosed, practical advice on how to get the job done as a freelancer that you can read, digest and immediately put to work in your own freelance efforts. Great stuff in there.

Jon Phillips and a crew of three other bloggers blog about everything to do with being a successful freelancer at his blog, Freelance Folder (BC Listing). This team of seasoned freelancers write well researched, informative articles designed to help any freelancer, novice and pro alike learn and develop a freelance career. They are currently looking for writers to join the team, and in the interest of full disclosure, I applied to write for them.

That's just four of the blogs in the catalog that write about freelancing. There are many many more there too. So if you've been left out in the cold by the old economy, or if you've just been tempted by the new economy, all I can say is, hit the freelance blogs in the BC Catalog and start reading. There seems to be a big, bold, bright future for the digital workforce. One thing any of the bloggers I introduced to you today will tell you that the number one thing to do is take action. Find jobs and put your name out there as a writer. Go seize your own career today.