A man is looking for his daughter, Tammy Scherer, age 46, in the Port Huron area. It's been over three years since his last contact with her. Last he heard, she had remarried to a man named Wayne Williams... so may have his last name now. Anyone with information on Tammy, please contact me.

Are you a skilled professional out of work or looking for a second income? Becoming a freelancer may be an answer for you. Here are some of the job categories in which there's work to be found on freelancing job sites: Web Development, Design and Multimedia, Writing and Translation, Administrative Support, Sales and Marketing, Finance and Management, Legal, Engineering and Manufacturing, Customer Service, Software Development, Networking and Information Systems.

Maybe you have a skill you hadn't even thought about trying to earn an income with... If you know a second language fluently, you could find work translating documents or audio. Perhaps you know Microsoft Word inside and out, are a quick typist, and/or excel at spelling and grammar. Those are all skills some employers are looking for. There are even jobs that just about anyone with a computer and internet access can do-- such as posting ads to classifieds sites. There are jobs answering telephones, responding to emails, being the voice for audio-based productions. As the skill level goes down, of course, so does the pay. And keep in mind that many people and companies posting jobs on these sites are just looking to outsource work as cheaply as they possibly can... especially in the less-skilled sectors, which means it's a lot harder to find decent-paying positions in those areas, because you're up against workers from third-world countries who will work for next to nothing (as low as around $1 an hour).

So there's definitely better opportunity in freelancing for those with skills that took some "higher education" to develop.

A staple of the freelancing job site is a feedback system (like on eBay) for buyers and providers, as protection for both. Upon (in)completion of a job, employers can rate workers and vice versa on a number of criteria. Until you've well established an excellent reputation with clients, you'll likely have to underbid your services in order to get hired. As you rack up the feedbacks and beef up your portfolio, you can steadily increase your asking rate until it's what you should really be getting paid. One way, offered on many of the job sites, to get instant credibility is to take tests in your area(s) of expertise and add your passing score(s) to your profile.

As further insurance against fraudulent activity, many of the sites also offer escrow payment services, which is where compensation for a job is paid by the client (employer) ahead of time and held by a third party (the escrow company) until the job has been completed, then released to the provider.

A second similarity to eBay is the bidding system. It's reversed though-- the ones selling something (services) do the bidding, and rather than bidding money, they bid how much they want to be paid.

I've been freelancing for over a year now, and absolutely love it. A lot of my clients end up offering me more jobs and/or referring me to other clients, so I've been staying quite busy. There are a slew of freelancing job sites to choose from, but the three I've narrowed my usage to and recommend are:



oDesk

GetaFreelancer