Use your blog to show your expertise, get work, and make money

The picture above shows an oDesk job invitation which I received a couple days ago. The good thing about this interview invitation is that I got it because of my blog.

My secret source of online work and earning
I have a blog where I share various programming related topics every now and then. The most popular article on this blog attracts more than a hundred viewers ever week. Link to the blog is given below:
aprogrammersday.blogspot.com/2014/05/disconnect-block-drop-calls-android-4.html

This blog post is about a technique which can be used to block an incoming call on smart phones running Android mobile operating system version 4.x.x. Disconnecting calls based on caller's phone number has been a pressing problem for Android app developers since the launch of Android 4.

More about my popular blog post

I am sure many others would have figured the same technique out but nobody would tell their secret, I decided to publish it in spirit of helping the community. I discovered the technique while I was experimenting and playing with a few ideas which I needed to get sorted for a project. It was quite a "Eureka" moment I must say.
There has been a lot of activity on the blog, the number of comments has been very gratifying for my ego as well. It makes me feel that I know something which people don't know.

Making money on internet is easy (not)

The fact that we need thousands of visitors before someone actually tries to buy something from you shows the difficulty level of internet marketing. It is no mean feat to get clients from the internet and it is not a piece of cake or a walk in the park. There are a lucky few whose ideas click instantly and they make sh*t load of money along with getting famous. Pretty much fairy tale stuff, and if someone's telling you that you can get rich with Adsense, they are completely nonsense.

Hire me for Android mobile app development and Windows PC software development on oDesk.com 
https://www.odesk.com/users/~012d73aa92fad47188

My blogging story
I created my very first blog in 2006, I wrote my first blog post from an internet cafe. The thing was short lived since I didn't even own a computer back then. Then came my second tech blog which I started in 2009, where I've been adding content steadily with a brief 2 year blogging "menopause" after getting married. This blog still gives me about 100 hits daily.

Then there was a third blog where I would post crap about gadgets, that too was short lived and I decided it was not worth it after couple dozen posts. It also brings in about 30 hits daily.

I also have an Urdu language blog which I write just for fun, a post every few months which is a bad practice since people don't like irregular writers. This blog also gets about 20+ hits daily.

And finally this blog, I started this one when I quit a full time job in favor of a freelance career. The AdSense account which I create sometime around 2006 is still showing "all time revenue" around $58 and I guess it won't cross the $100 mark any time soon.

Role of social media
On time of this writing, I got about 200 followers on Twitter. 300 connections on LinkedIn, and 200 friends on Facebook.
I am often a top contributor in oDesk Linkedin group as well.
All these social media outlets get me a reasonable number of hits as soon as I publish the blog and tweet about it or post a discussion on Linkedin.
Having a strong reputation on social media can be helpful, although please don't use this statement as an excuse to watch cat videos.


Demo TCP/IP Sockets Read and Write in C#, Free Udemy Course from Naeem Akram on Vimeo.
Moral of the story
Overnight success does not happen in blogging, we have to try and fail and get up and get started. Same practice needs to be repeated again and again until we hit the sweet spot. It is like discovering yourself, and finding your true competencies.
You need to be passionate about what you will be writing, filming, or pod-casting about but that alone is not enough to make you a success. There must be a market for the stuff you want to write about.

Then you must write regular, readers/viewers want to hear back from you. The content in your publications will show your character so always try to post high quality and well presented stuff.

Leads through your blog or youtube channel will start flowing your way, but again it is going to take some time. Best of luck :)

Truth Always Prevails Book by Sadrudin Hashwani of Hashoo Group

Last Saturday I happened to attend a talk and book launch ceremony of top Pakistani businessman, Sadr-ud-Din Hashwani who is the chairman of Hashoo group.
The event was being organized by "The Indus Entrepreneur" shortly known as TIE Islamabad chapter.
More than 600 people were present at the event including children from Beaconhouse school and "Hashoo Scholars" whose education is funded by Hashoo Foundation.

The English version of the book was launched earlier and it went quite unnoticed. But the Urdu version has gained a lot of popularity and kicked quite a controversy within days after its launch.

The main reason is that the book has openly criticized several Pakistani politicians including President Asif Ali Zardari who served as President of Pakistan between 2008 to 2013.

But the question here is whether this book is written with the sole purpose of defaming Mr. Zardari or it contains something other than accusations? Honestly speaking, every reader will extract their own meanings from the book and maybe something I see in one way will be considered differently by someone else. 

Who was Sadr-ud-din Hashwani?

Hashwani was youngest son in a large Ismaile family(10 siblings), his father and grandfather were traders who dealt with "Rally Brothers" a British company. Hashwani joined his brother in law's business as a trainee when he failed in college.

Hashwani was deeply grieved by his failure in college and he put all his energies in the business. It is a notable fact that he played cricket as a fast bowler from Agha Khan gymkhana before becoming a businessman.

Truth Prevails Video from Naeem Akram on Vimeo.

The transport business grew quickly due to the young man's relentless efforts, he used to visit Quetta and Qallat ever 15 days to collect payments. The cold nights of Quetta were very difficult to endure but he did it happily. He even had to sleep in the open once when a truck broke on the way to Qallat, when he woke up in the morning his face was badly swollen due to insect bytes.

They later on started managing sea ship loading/unloading business as well. Almost all of this was because of Hashwani's relentless efforts. His brother in law would come to office at 10:00 AM, bother Hashwani with silly question for while, take some rest, and go on to club at 1:00 PM for lunch.

Later on his brother in law accused him of stealing 5000 rupees from the office, Hashwani decided to keep quite because if things escalated wedding of his older sister "Malak Sultan" would get in trouble. In Pakistan people usually don't differentiate between personal problems and professional problems.

Selling steel stripes to Cotton King

After being betrayed by a family member Hashwani started working as a salesman. He would sale steel stripes which are used to tie up cotton bails, he would go to various factories and supply the stripes. He was a single man, his father was alive and doing good business along with his younger brother Akbar. Which means Hashwani accumulated some money in a few years and started into cotton business.

By 1973 he was known as the "Cotton King" of Pakistan, since he exported Pakistani cotton world over.

Nationalization 1973

In 1973 the Government of Pakistan which was then led by charismatic Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto took control of many large Pakistani businesses. Back then it was said that business in Pakistan is controlled by 22 families.
Hashwani's cotton business was also usurped. He had no choice but to start something new.
That is when he ventured into property business and bought/sold properties for a short period of time.

Holiday Inn Karachi that lead to "THE Hashwani"

Hashwani had bought a piece of land in Karachi some time ago, he decided to create a five star hotel on that land. When he asked for a permit from the government, they placed a condition which seemed difficult at that time but turned out to be good for both Pakistan and Hashoo group.
Bhutto government agreed wanted Hashwani to build a 5 star hotel in Islamabad since a five star was badly needed in then new born Pakistani capital.

Government allotted Hashwani a piece of land for this purpose, he then bought builders and architects from Singapore and Hong Kong to build the hotels.
The piece of land in Islamabad later become a serious problem for Hashwani in General Zia's marshal law since General believe Hashwani must have been an accomplice of Bhutto, and this land must have been a reward of some scrupulous favor.

For full details I recommend you to buy the book and read it. You may order the book by sending an e-mail here:
Hashwanimemoir@gmail.com

Is Hashwani a proud mad old man?

Not at all, in fact I was astonished by his down to earth attitude. He's got tremendous expectations from young Pakistanis.
He says Dubai has got only 50 kilometers of coastline and they've built a business wonder on that. Pakistan on the other hand has got 900 kilometers of coastline, and the largest deep sea port Gawadar.
He says Gawadar is the future, he even built a 5 star PC hotel in Gawadar which is still in loss since not much is happening in Gawadar.

What is the controversy about?

1. Hashwani has clearly criticized Z.A. Bhutto's nationalization policy in the book. We can understand his anger since he'd lost a running business, for which he was known as "The Cotton King of Pakistan."
2. He's told the story of how Zia-ul-Haq thought he is an aide of Z.A. Bhutto, later on Hashwani refused to buy an imported Mercedes Benz from Junejo who was Pakistani PM back in the day. Junejo made Zia believe that Hashwani was supplying funds to Benazir Bhutto who had recently returned to the country, this caused a lot of trouble for Hashwani.
3. There were some problems between Hashwani and Nawaz Sharif as well.
4. Most controversial are Hashwani's statements about Asif Ali Zardar, son of a Sindhi landlord who later became Benazir Bhutto's husband, chairman of PPP after Bhtto was killed in Rawalpindi and finally President of Pakistan. 

Hashwani vs Zardari

In 1983, Marriott Karachi was run by Hashwani and it had a vibrant disco club. According to the book, a young Asif Zardari had a fight with someone from Baloch Zahri tribe in the disco. Hashwani told the guards to through both parties out. Next day Hakim A. Zardar, father of Asif A. Zardari called Hashwani and showed his anger.
Hashwani says Mr. Zardari created problems for him and his business when his wife became first female prime minister of Pakistan. The animosity kept going on and on.

Marriott Bombing

In his book, Hashwani says that various business factions in Pakistan are using terrorism as a veil and destroying their opponents under the guise of terrorist attacks. He didn't write that the Marriott bombing was a similar act but the message is clear if we read between the lines. Hashwani specifically mentioned the blue flames on first floor of Marriott, he says the bomb was detonated on the first floor outside main door but how come there were blue flames dancing on first floor. He writes maybe it was a chemical fire started intentionally.

Running for his life, Dubai 2008 - 2013

Hashwani stayed in Dubai between 2008 and 2013, he says "someone" was trying to kill him and wanted him to hand over most of his assets if he wanted to live. Hashwani secretly fled to Dubai along with his family and returned to Pakistan in 2013, when new Shareef government was in place in Pakistan.

Purprose of this article

The author is not taking sides at all, the piece is written as a neutral observer.
I hope this article serves as an informative piece and it could help clear most of the clutter created around the controversy at present. I believe not much is going to happen if people simply forget the book and move on.

Yours truly along with the free copy of the book that was awarded to all participants.

Really nice 5 star lunch was offered to all the participants afterwards

TIE Islamabad is considered world's most progressive TIE chapter.

The hall was packed full by the end, this picture was taken before Hashwani's arrival. By the end, people were standing in the back of hall and on the sides as well.

Urdu article about the Sadar-ud-Din Hashwani book "Truth Always Prevails" can be found on link given below:

http://kehna.blogspot.com/2014/11/blog-post.html

Decline oDesk Jobs Artfully

Yesterday I got 5 interview invitations via oDesk. Most of those were not relevant to my skill set, the were some about Excel spread sheet data entry, web-site development, and even cards image designing.

What to do if you don't have the skills to complete the job?
Seriously, what should you do? Is it okay to lure the client in and get them to hire you and then sub-contract the job to someone else? I don't think so. If you can spend a few hours and learn the skill needed for the job then perhaps you should just go ahead and learn the skill and let the client know. A skill is always useful, maybe some time in future you will get a bigger or a better job based on a skill you learned for a small project.



Demo TCP/IP Sockets Read and Write in C#, Free Udemy Course from Naeem Akram on Vimeo.

Maintain a consistent profile
There was an Excel data entry job invitation which I could have completed in an hour or so. It was a good $20 quick gig, but then I thought what would be the impact of this quick 20 on my profile? I have a profile packed with software development and mobile app development jobs, a project like this will make my profile look bad and maybe some time in future it will cost me loosing a good mobile programming project as well.

A marketing opportunity!

Even when you are declining a job, you have an opportunity to connect with a potential client. Maybe some time in future this same client will have a job that is perfectly suitable for you and s/he will have your name somewhere in their mind since you will be one of the few noble souls who took an extra minute to write a reasonable response while declining their job invitation.

So, take it as an opportunity and promote your services whenever you can wherever you can.
"Bad publicity" is nothing, take each and every opportunity and squeeze it until you get the last drop of juice out of it. And don't just spill that juice all over the place, put in a jug or maybe a bucket :)

Beginning November 15, 2014, a minimum rate of $3.00/hour is required for all new hourly contracts says oDesk

In a recent development world's number one freelance website oDesk.com has made a very important announcement, setting a minimum hourly wage at $3/hour. Given below is the exact text of the news which appeared some time on 12th November 2014.

"Reminder: Beginning November 15, 2014, a minimum rate of $3.00/hour is required for all new hourly contracts. Your current contracts can continue at their existing rate. Learn more."

A screenshot of the announcement as seen on the writer's profile is give below.

I strongly believe that this is a very good initiative, and it will help a lot of low paid freelancers get a better lifestyle and better equipment in order to continue providing high quality services.
In the past a lot of clients were paying people as low as $1/hour, which is IMHO an inhuman act.
Freelancers from poor countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, and even Pakistan would agree to work on the lowest possible rates thinking that "something is better than nothing".

What is the minimum hourly rate on oDesk?
Minimum hourly rate on oDesk is $3 per hour.

In recent times oDesk has been scrutinizing freelancer profiles, and making life difficult for people running fake profiles or providing low quality services through the website. The freelancer community has been moaned and groaned but it couldn't do anything, end of the day oDesk has listened and drawn clear boundary around minimum wages which is a huge favor for the freelancers.

Hopefully oDesk will keep up the good work under the now not so new leadership of Fabio Rossati.