Is the economy hurting your business?

It's a fact that the economy is affecting our online money as well as our offline money. There aren't quite as many jobs available and some of the ones that are out there are looking to pay as little as possible. Not everyone that works online has been affected but many have.

So what do we do to survive? There are a couple of things you can do.

• One tactic I've always used was to think outside of the box in terms of how we usually proceed to find work online. If you haven't noticed, many sites have an "employment" or "jobs" link on their page where they may be looking for people to fill positions. Be sure you keep your eyes open for these when you're surfing the web.

• Even if a site doesn't have a "jobs" page, if you think you can offer a valuable skill to them, email them and let them know what you can do for them. If you see some mistakes on their page or things that you believe could be improved upon, let them know! Be very diplomatic when approaching them but take that chance. You never know where it might lead. You may have many that don't respond or respond saying "thanks but no thanks" but if you don't try you may miss an opportunity.

• On bidding sites, you might consider knocking down your regular hourly rate for a little while or offering your services initially at a lower rate; offer incentives like a percentage off for new clients and/or a percentage off for every xxx invoice paid by an employer. Think in the mindset of still making money but making your offer more attractive to employers. Realize that your competition is probably trying to utilize similar methods to land that same employer. Things are different right now and you have to get into a more competitive mindset.

• Expand where you look for work. If you usually use one or two sites to find work, look in some other places. See what other sites and resources are out there. You may have to work a little harder and spend a bit more time than usual trying to land projects but you have to put food on your plate.

• You might even consider hitting up local employers. A lot of local employers are laying people off, not hiring, etc. because they are trying to save money. Offer to do work for them as an Independent Contractor and let them know how they still save: they don't have to pay benefits, you only get paid for actual work you do, not an 8 hour day where an employee might not be working that entire time (on breaks, lunch, hanging around the water cooler, just being present, etc.); no overhead costs, etc.

• Consider picking up projects you might not normally be interested in. At this time, we may have to consider work outside of our industry (as long as you have the skills to complete the work properly and timely). Right now isn't necessarily the time to be too picky

• Look at other ways to make money online. Freelancing isn't the only way to make money. Some sites pay you to write articles or write reviews and other stuff. They may not pay the best, but it's a little something extra on the side. Again, if the work isn't coming in like usual, don't be too picky. Do what you have to do to get through the gap.

Put your best foot forward and become even more motivated to survive this downturn in jobs. Maybe even think about adding some new skills to your resume; learn something new that can broaden your potential.