What is Contract Programming? An Alternative to th

What is Contract Programming? An Alternative to the Conformity of Everyday Employment

by: Michael Nigohosian

What is contract programming, you ask? Well, when companies need specific computer programming expertise, for temporary periods of time, they generally hire a contract programmer or an employee of a consulting firm. Contractors almost always have a higher hourly wage than a salaried employee and are often paid for overtime. Contracts can last from one to three months to many years, depending on the situation. A contract programmer generally does one thing: program (code) for the duration of the contract. So, contract programming is just an area of computer consulting. Other areas of computer consulting include custom developers, network consultants and information technology (IT) consultants. The contract programmer can work via two forms of contracts: 1) ขW2 ข contracts and 2) ข1099ข contracts.
Thereกs the กW2ก contractor
The ขW2 contractorข receives the typical IRS W2 form at tax time and works as a temporary employee of a contract broker or some form of employment agency. The contract broker basically acquires a contract with a client company and hires the contractor to work on that contract for them. Brokers make their money by charging the client an amount over your agreed upon hourly rate. In this form, the contract programmer is a temporary, hourly employee of the broker’s company and this is the form that is easiest for the newcomer to obtain.
And the ก1099ก contractor
As a ขW2 contractorข, your broker a.k.a.: temporary employer or agency will collect taxes from your paycheck, just as if you were a regular employee. The ข1099 contractorข, can still work through a broker, but gets paid on an IRS form 1099 and must take responsibility for paying all applicable taxes herself. This ข1099ข form is for, in IRS lingo, ขIndependent Contractors.ข Independent contractors have more work to do before they get a contract: they have to market themselves like any other business. This includes brochures, business cards, web sites, networking, etc. They have to consider obtaining more forms of insurance that may include general business liability and errors & omissions insurance. They also generally have to form a corporation in order to work for certain companies. The pay back for this extra work is a higher hourly rate. To the beginning contractor, I always suggest starting out as a ขW2ข contract programmer because it is generally the quickest and easiest path to becoming a contract programmer and the best way to determine if contracting is the right career choice.
The กW2ก contractor is like a typical employee…almost
The main differences between a fulltime employee and an hourly, contract employee working for a broker are, the contractor:
1) Will probably have to pay for his or her own health and disability insurance, which amounts to very little compared to the increased income one usually sees.
2) Generally gets paid topdollar for his or her work. Many earn $100 or more per hour for 40+ hours a week.
3) Can take as much time off from work as he or she pleases, while inbetween contracts.
4) Has independence from corporate politics.
5) Has the chance to live wherever she wants or live in different places as determined by the particular contract.
6) Is often seen as an expert in his or her field.
More work for ข1099ก contractor
These points apply to the ข1099 contractorข as well, but the ข1099ก contractor has more work to do in filing taxes, corporate paperwork, advertising and searching for her next contract as opposed the ขW2 contractor,ข who basically makes a few calls to her favorite brokers and tells them she is ready for another contract and the brokers do the jobsearching for her. Now, everything I’ve said thus far is pretty cutanddry, so let’s take a look at a more elusive topic: what qualities make a good contract programmer.
Signs of a good contract programmer
Over the last decade, I have met and worked with many varied computer programmers. From this experience, I have devised the following list containing what I believe makes a good potential contractor programmer. A good contract programmer:
1) Makes computers an avid hobby of his. When he comes home from work he plays with or hacks the computer trying to improve its performance.
2) Tries to learn more about computers than his peers do and he also likes to program the computer to have it do ขcoolข things.
3) Has often dreamed of being an expert, highpaid computer professional.
4) Has learned how to master the art of studying computer science.
5) Spends his free time reading computer books and magazines — yes kind of geeky!
6) May like to build his own computer systems and enjoys tweaking and upgrading them to extract the most performance from them.
7) Is very professional and humble.
Youกve got to love to do it!
These really are just some of the basic qualities of someone who loves computers and loving computers is really the main ingredient for a successful career in contract programming. If you don’t love doing it, you will not survive. If you do love it, it will be a joy to go to work every day and to continually update your skills. The computer field changes rapidly and only someone who really loves computers and makes it his hobby will have the desire to continually upgrade his skills and be the best he can be at all times. If you possess most of the seven qualities listed above and like the idea of using your hobby to catapult yourself into a highpaid, fulfilling career, even if the economy is down, you should consider a career in contract programming.

About The Author

Michael Nigohosian is the author of the awardwinning and bestselling series, ‘the Secret Path to Contract Programming Richesก and instructor for the course กIntroduction to Contract Programmingก. He is also director of Rapid Mastery Technology™ at McGillis, Wilcox, Webster & Co., Inc.™ http://www.mwwcorp.com

This article was posted on June 15, 2004

by Michael Nigohosian

Why Your ISP Takes Bribes From Spammers

Why Your ISP Takes Bribes From Spammers

by: Niall Roche

The lifeblood of the spammer is email. They need to be able to send lots of it on an ongoing basis to stay in กbusinessก. High profile spammers can send 80 million pieces of junk email every single day. Yes one single person.

ISPs all over the online world have vowed to stop spammers sending such vast amounts of email through their mail servers. Do they really keep their word? All the end user sees is that the spam keeps coming. There must be a loophole there somewhere. There is.

In the soft white underbelly of the internet there exists something known as a pink contract. The term pink contract comes from the color of the famous tinned meat that junk email gets its name from. A pink contract is simply a business agreement between the ISP and the spammer. The spammer agrees to pay the ISP to turn a blind eye to the junk email passing through their mail servers.

Surely this is bad business for the ISP? Well the answer to that is both Yes and No. Yes itกs bad news for the people who receive the junk email and No itกs good news for the ISPs bank balance. A monthly pink contract can pay the ISP amounts from $10,000 upwards. Bearing in mind that the average workathome spammer averages $100,000 net per year the above figure is small change fo the bigger junk email vendors (the guys who earn $200,000 $400,000 per month.)

But….. the CanSpam Act 2003… surely thatกs going to make a difference? Of course. Any ISP in the United States can get in serious, serious trouble for signing pink contracts. Problem is that thereกs a whole big world wide web out there and the vast majority of pink contracts are signed with overseas ISPs where US authorities have no jurisdiction China and Russia being perfect examples.

Thereกs no moral to this story. Spam is a huge problem thatกs finally being taken seriously by Governmental bodies. However until they start imposing prison sentences or seizure orders on those individuals and companies in the pink contract business the problem can only continue.

If youกd like to learn more about fighting spam and spam blocking solutions drop by http://www.spamsite.com

About The Author

Niall Roche is the content author and owner of http://www.spamsite.com which reviews and tests spam filtering software for the business and end user.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 07, 2004

by Niall Roche

Writing a Book’s Marketing Plan for Maximum Profit

Writing a Book’s Marketing Plan for Maximum Profit

by: Roger C. Parker

Much has been written about book proposals. But less has been written about book marketing plans. This is wrong!
What happens after your book is published has a great deal to do with whether you become published and profitable… or just published.
A book proposal is a directmarketing document intended to persuade publishers to edit, print and distribute your book. It’s a sales piece intended to communicate the inevitability of your book’s success.
Your book’s marketing plan, however, is intended for an audience of one – You! It’s not intended for your publisher. Rather, it’s intended to identify the revenue streams that you will develop after your book is published.
Your marketing plan should describe profits you will earn above and beyond royalties from sales of your book. It should describe in detail your market and the steps you will take to earn this income.
The reason to prepare your marketing plan now, before you sign a publishing contract or write your book, is that the success of your marketing plan depends on the way your book publishing contract is negotiated.
Coaching and consulting
Let’s assume, for example, that you plan to use your book as a way of enhancing your visibility and credibility among your target market. At the simplest level, you will want to include your web site address at several points in the book. Knowing this goal, you can insist that the publisher agrees in writing to include your web site address in specific locations in your book.
Remember: promises don’t make it! Let’s take the worst case scenario. You and your acquisition editor agree that you can include five mentions of your web site address in the book. However, as often occurs, the acquisition editor, after signing the contract, fades out of the picture.
The new development editor then informs you that author’s URL’s can only appear in one place, in the author biography hidden toward the rear of the book. When this happens, what happens to your coaching and consulting plans?
Likewise, you may have planned to buy books in case lot quantities for resale and/or distribution to your prospects and clients. Understanding this before you sign the contract, you can include the right to purchase books for resale at trade discounts in your contract, ensuring your ‘book pipeline’ won’t get turned off.
If you know you want to offer telephone coaching at $75.00 a call, for example, you can negotiate written permission to promote this service within the body of your book.
Remember: promises are written on air. Only written agreements count!
Other backend profit opportunities based on your book’s title include:

Articles, columns, newsletters
Yearly updates
Special Reports
Teleclasses and seminars
Speaking and training
Audio/video recordings
Choosing a web site address based on your book’s title
Free downloads of sample chapters from your web site
Feebased web site services

The possibilities are endless, but nothing can happen if, after signing the contract, the publisher limits your ability to promote your business and your website in your book.
Thus, it’s imperative that you start by preparing a marketing plan that analyzes postpublication profit opportunities and describes the steps needed to make them happen. Only then are you in a position to decide if the publisher’s ‘boilerplate’ contract meets your needs.
The stronger your book proposal and the more experienced your agent, the more likely you’ll get what you want (need) in your contract.
Jay Conrad Levinson says the first volume of his Guerrilla Marketing series earned him thirty million dollars. But only about $35,000 came from the book itself. All the rest came from backend profits.
That’s how important this issue is!

About The Author

Roger C. Parker is the $32,000,000 author with over 1.6 million copies in print. Do you make these marketing and design mistakes? Find out at www.gmarketingdesign.com

This article was posted on July 02, 2004

by Roger C. Parker

Overview of Cellular Phone Carriers

Overview of Cellular Phone Carriers

by: Declan Tobin

How many times have you heard of people spending hundreds of dollars on the latest and greatest cell phone only to be disappointed by the bad signal? Dropping calls is another very annoying occurrence with cell phones. You need to look very carefully into the cell phone carrier that you wish to sign up with. You will be signing a contract usually for one year so make sure it’s money well spent.

Who are the main cell phone carrier?

AT&T

TMobile

Verizon Wireless

Cingular

Nextel

ALLTEL

Sprint PCS

The above carriers are only a hand full in and every expanding mobile world. All will approach with special offers and incentives with camera cell phones etc to sign you up. The positives are obvious. You get a free cell phone and maybe some extra minutes talk time but they get a customer for a year. Most carriers have good coverage but it is worth your while looking at your options.

If you rely on your cell phone for work such as sales reps or drivers etc you need to look into the roaming charges. Some people think the charges may only vary slightly from one carrier to another so why bother. This is a lazy approach and untrue. You could save yourself hundreds of dollars per year simply by looking around. You can check the rates out online on most of the carrier’s websites. Roaming rates can be expensive so look long and hard before you decide.

I don’t need to travel so roaming charges are not a worry to me:

If you are happy enough using your phone mainly from the house or just plodding around you are not going to have any concern of high charges for roaming, but there are other ways to save money and lots of it. Many people never think too much about the SMS Text messages they send. Yes it saves money rather than calling and it is fast and generally reliable, however, different carriers have different text rates. You might not think that onecent saving in not much and rightly so but if you are a regular Text user you need look at the overall yearly saving. Most cell phone carrier companies will offer special saving incentives on SMS Text so look into it.

Where else can I save money?

The latest and the greatest, the camera phone is as popular as a DVD. Everywhere you look people seem to have them. Great fun and very handy for that special moment for when you only wished you had a camera but very I repeat very expensive you decide to send many pictures to friends and family. Here by looking at your different options you can save plenty of you hard earned dollars. All it takes is a quick look around the web or a phone call; most of the carriers have free toll numbers. Monthly service rental will also vary from one company to another.

Another Tip

With so many cellular phone stores around you will be spoiled for choice. Remember stores make commission so if you are in a large shopping mall the chances are that there are a number of different cell stores. Check out the different rates and you will see a difference. Money is not everything, going back to the start of this article you need to make sure that you have an exceptional signal. If you are going to be a loyal customer for a year or so you should expect nothing but the best back in service.

What if I already have my own cell phone?

This is not a problem. If you are out of contract with one of the cell phone carriers you are free to look around just like from the beginning. You can either use your own cell or take them up on their offers, as most will offer you a free cell phone as a new user to the network.

What if I want to terminate my contract before it has officially ended?

Look long and hard at your contract before you sign, especially the smaller print. All carriers have different clauses in their contract but if you want to terminate early there usually is a penalty charge of some sort. One way out of this is to get a prepaid cell phone where you have no contract. You are free to swap from one carrier to another as you please. Be aware prepaid cell phones are more expensive pre minute talk time and Text than if you where on a monthly fee.

About The Author

Declan Tobin is a successful freelance writer providing advice for parents and consumers on purchasing a variety of Cell phone plans which includes

Cell prepaid plans Carriers and more! His numerous articles provide a wonderfully researched resource of interesting and relevant information for all of your phone interests and needs. http://www.no1incellphones.com

This article was posted on January 18

by Declan Tobin

Web Marketers Get Some Professional Help!

Web Marketers Get Some Professional Help!

by: Tim Coulter

There is lots of freelance help available on the internet, from writers, editors, proofreaders and other professionals in the writing industry to software developers, graphic designers, web designers and all manner of other technical and business specialists.
Thanks to the increasingly popular outsourcing exchanges, such as Elance.com, SmarterWork.com and ContractedWork.com, it is now very easy to find and hire the right contractor for your project at the right price. If you need help with a technical project, such as software development or web programming, there are even exchanges like RentACoder.com that specialize in these disciplines and organize their participants according to their individual skills.
Using an outsourcing exchange is quick and easy. You simply post a description of your project requirements (in sufficient detail to allow a contractor to estimate its cost) and within hours you will receive proposals from a number of freelance specialists, each one eager to win your business.
You can even use an outsourcing exchange as a research tool, to get an idea of the likely cost of a development project that you may be considering. However, you should beware of posting repeatedly without awarding a contract, as this will earn you the reputation of a timewaster and may adversely affect the response you receive to future postings. As a buyer of freelance services, posting your requirements is usually free. It is the contractor that pays for access to the service, either as a monthly subscription or as a percentage commission on the value of contracts awarded.
If you decide to award a contract in response to a posting, you can protect yourself (and the contractor) using escrow payments. You simply prepay the contract value into an escrow account (an interim bank account provided by the exchange operator) knowing that it will only be released to the contractor when you confirm that the work has been completed to your satisfaction. Likewise, the contractor benefits from the reassurance that funds have been reserved to pay for his services. For complex projects, it is even possible to administer phased payments via the escrow account and, in the event of a dispute, take advantage of an arbitration service.
One of the benefits of online outsourcing exchanges is that they provide access to contractors from all over the world. Several countries (such as India and parts of Eastern Europe) have very low labor rates but a highly skilled and professional workforce, making it possible to buy highquality services very economically. Most of these professionals also speak and write English to a very high standard, making formal communication no more difficult that with a local contractor. The instantaneous nature of internet communication means that it is no longer necessary to collaborate facetoface.
Of course, the use of freelance contractors is not without its risks. To ensure that your project delivers the results you’re expecting, you should follow a few simple guidelines:

Create a budget for your entire project so that you know how much each aspect should cost. This will enable you to assess the overall feasibility before you start spending money on contractors.
Write a detailed specification for each of your freelance requirements.
If appropriate, use a nondisclosure agreement before sending out the specification to bidders. If so, it will be necessary to post a project overview in the freelance exchange and to operate a closed bidding process.
Get a fixed price quotation before assigning work to any freelancer. If a freelancer is unable to provide a fixedprice quotation, it may be an indication that your requirement specification is not sufficiently clear or detailed a warning sign of trouble ahead.
Administer your freelance assignment using a written legal contract that clearly specifies time limits, fees, dispute procedures, confidentiality, ownership and other contractual terms.
If possible, use the exchangeกs escrow payment service to protect yourself and the contractor.

If you take the freelance route, it is important to ensure that all rights to profit from the final product, or any materials produced in its creation, remain yours. If you do not, it is possible that a contractor employed to contribute to your project could claim the result as his own and use or sell it independently when it is completed.
You should keep a paper trail linking yourself to anyone with whom you discuss your project, including emails, letters, faxes, and even written records of telephone conversations. This will establish the relationship between you and your contractors, and will prove the source of any confidential details. Although this paper trail may never be needed, if problems arise youกll be glad you made that little extra effort.

About The Author

Copyright © Tim Coulter. All rights reserved.
Tim Coulter is a consultant and software developer who helps netpreneurs to harness marketing technologies.
He is also the author of กClickBank The Definitive Guideก The Ultimate ClickBank Tutorial & Reference Manual.

http://www.clickbankrevealed.com/

This article was posted on June 29, 2004

by Tim Coulter