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Making timely payments for work delivered is one of the cornerstones of getting work done online. Today, we’re rolling out a set of new Android and iPhone-ready pages that will allow you to fund and release escrow or make payments to providers as soon as you receive an invoice notification or timesheet, all through the convenience of your own mobile phone. Here’s how it works.
 

 

First, an email from Elance will arrive in your iPhone or Android's inbox looking like the image above indicating that you have a new escrow funding request or pending timesheet. Once open, simply click on the appropriate link, in this case, “Fund escrow for the requested milestone >>” and it will take you to a mobile-friendly secure sign-in page.

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According to many experts in the field, podcasting is one of the fastest and best ways to add great content to your site. Brian Prows, Director of Mobile Development at MobileBeyond, lets us listen in on his tips and strategies to help get your podcast started.

Looking for ways to engage people who visit your blog or website? Improve the effectiveness of your site’s content? Then consider using podcasting.

Why? Because audio enhances your blog posts and site content. Audio podcasts excite your listeners’ ears, communicate your company’s value proposition and personalize your brand.

eMarketer estimates that 38 million U.S. consumers will download podcasts monthly by 2013, double the 17 million who listened to podcasts in 2008. Regardless of your industry or market niche--technology, politics, current news, religion or humor—podcasts enhance the impact of blogs and other social media channels.

What is a Podcast?

A “podcast” isn’t just an audio or video file inserted into a blog post. A combination of “iPod” and “broadcast,” podcasts, like blogs, are frequently syndicated and listened to on MP3 players and mobile phones. There are four types:
 

• Audio podcasts, lasting five minutes to an hour, appeal to Web audiences who enjoy listening rather than reading. You’ll find thousands of them on iTunes, BlogTalkRadio, Podbean and other syndication services.
   
• If you’re a Wordpress blogger and podcaster like me, Blubrry’s plugin makes it easy to add audio to your blog and appear on iTunes. eCamm’s Call Recorder lets you record Internet phone interviews on your Mac. And Audacity is a free software recording program for PC’s and Macs.
   
• Video podcasts, produced by NPR, ABC and other media companies, add streaming video to the audio. They’re more complex to produce and require faster Internet connections to download but are very effective demonstrating products or services.
   
• Enhanced podcasts are slideshows with audio, mainly intended for Mac users. GarageBand, a powerful recording and editing software program for Macs, is a good software tool for this type of podcast.
   
• Screencasts, video screen capture podcasts, are useful if you want to show PowerPoint slides or other “static” computer screen images.
   

Eight Podcast Tips and Ideas

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Getting the word out about your brand isn't as difficult or cost-prohibitive as it used to be. Angelia Kane, Marketing Consultant and director of The Bedtime CEO, translates basic techniques exhibited by street vendors in Bangkok into effective marketing campaigns for you.

May I Have Some Profit With My Satay, Please?
In a tough economy, you can forget about formal marketing training and B-school theories. To succeed in today’s marketplace, you need to use street smarts. Combining commonsense and hustle, street smart entrepreneurs know how to make a viable living. They may not be MBAs, but their real-world savvy can teach us all.

Our unlikely classroom is located in the bustling streets of Bangkok, Thailand. There, street food vendors serve everything from breakfast to 2am snacks and generate $1 billion annually in the process. These savvy entrepreneurs transform simple, local ingredients into tasty meals.

Panrop Kamlah became one of the noodle kings of Bangkok, all from his noodle cart. Already earning $175 a night using a commercial dough, he further improved his product with his own, homemade dough. Business grew as a result, helping him launch more carts. Then with the assistance of family and friends, he expanded into a full-fledged franchise. As of 2009, he had over 1,500 franchisees.

Resourcefulness Wrapped In a Banana Leaf
Street food vendors are resourceful out of necessity. For poor vendors coming from the countryside, they have to “make do” with any cheap tool they could find, even with the humble banana leaf.

Banana leaves are a versatile and prolific tool for Thai vendors. They make handy takeout containers that impart foods with a mild aroma and flavor. When molded into geometric shapes, they create a labeling system. Pyramid, conical, or triangular shapes indicate a sweet or savory product inside. Specially cut, angled or looped leaf tips on rice packages distinguish the ones made with coconut milk from those made with taro or palm fruit.

So find your banana leaf. Create the unexpected from accessible tools.

The Right Location Is In Front Of Your Customers
Success on the streets of Bangkok, or any street for that matter, means picking the right location. Where are your competitors? Are there too many similar products in your area? How high is the foot traffic? With so many street vendors in Bangkok, that it’s common for vendors to go door-to-door to sell their wares. Yes, the noodle cart does make house calls.

As an entrepreneur or freelancer, you probably have some sort of an online location: a website or even a social media page. But are you working unnoticed on a crowded street corner or are you a standout online? Do your customers know where you are? How high is your traffic? If they’re not coming to your cart, what are you doing to deliver to your customer’s doorstep?

Success Made-To-Order
A successful soup vendor doesn’t just sell soup. He builds a made-to-order experience. He combines a variety of noodles, meats, vegetables and garnishes all cooked to the customer’s liking. Customers can then fine-tune their soup with spicy, tangy or savory condiments.

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Looking to supercharge your next business idea to get it off the ground? Our friends over at Vator.TV are searching for the best up-and-coming, early-stage startups to help them launch their business idea by getting it in front of the right people at the right time.

The Vator Splash (Sept) Competition is a free-to-participate competition. It allows any early-stage startup to enter by using ther Vator company profile as the application. The competition has two rounds - a popular round and a judges' round. So, once you've entered, simply get as many of your fans to vote for your business by the September 16, 2010 deadline. The top 15 to 20 with the most votes will then go onto Round 2 and will be rated by a panel of judges to help determine the final winners that will be delivering their business pitch to the audience at the next Vator Splash event.


 

The top 10 companies will win tickets to the Vator Splash event taking place at Café du Nord in San Francisco on September 30, as well as the opportunity to give a four-minute presentation on stage to executives, angel investors, VCs, and media. Winners will also receive a 30-minute meeting with North Brige Venture Partners.

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Ask any freelancer around, and you'll get the same response: Maintaining a strong level of productivity is an absolute must for success. Ed Gandia, co-author of The Wealthy Freelancer and co-founder of International Freelancers Day (Sept. 24-25) brings 6 great ways to make you a more efficient and productive freelancer.

I love working from home. The flexibility to take my lunch break whenever I want, visit the gym when it’s not crowded or walk my dog when I need to clear my mind...

You just can’t put a price on that!

But with that flexibility comes temptation. The temptation to watch a bit of TV (which turns into a two-hour break). Eat a snack and call a friend about last night’s football game. Take a nap. Go shopping. Name your weakness.

That’s not good. Because as a freelancer, your most precious nonrenewable resource (besides your knowledge, talents and experience) is your time. Using it wisely is one of the quickest ways to boost your income and get more free time.

How can you become more productive? Here are six simple and easy-to-implement tips that have helped me boost my productivity by more than 30 percent over the last two years. I guarantee that you’ll get similar (or even better) results if you apply them.

#1: Start by developing a productive attitude. Treat your craft as a business, not a hobby. And treat your time as a business owner would treat her most valuable inventory: with great care. After all, time is part of your own “inventory.”

This doesn’t mean you should work more hours. You could be working full-time, part-time or half-time. It doesn’t matter. But when you’re at work… work! Which leads me to the next point…

#2: Set working hours every day. And stick to them. For instance, I’m at my desk every day by 7:00 a.m. I find that the early morning hours are the most productive for me. My mind is clearer and my creative energies sharper.

End time is 6:00 p.m. That sounds like a long day, but I take an hour to go to the gym every day. I also pick up my son from school four days a week. Some days I take him to school in the mornings. And when we get home, we usually spend an hour doing homework and playing. I also often have meetings, lunches or coffee with friends and personal appointments. So it’s not all work time.