Writers and other self employed professionals are entitled to certain deductions on their tax returns. Do you know what those are? Do you know how to claim them? Every situation is different, so as you read through these tips, remember to check with this year’s tax code or an tax professional about which deductions apply to you and which don’t. Because tax laws change frequently, consider having an accountant or tax professional help you file your taxes.

Are You a Professional?

Are you a professional blogger or do you dabble as a hobbyist? This is an important consideration. If you intend to make a living from your writing, you are a professional, and you can deduct the cost of all of your costs. Keep receipts from all of your purchases and other expenses, so you can accurately tally these. Expenses might include Internet connection, a personal computer and writing classes.

If you writer for your own pleasure but happen to have earned some income for it, you can only deduct your expenses up to the amount you earned during the past year. If you lose money at writing for several years, it’s a hobby, not a profession.

Do You Blog Alone or as Part of a Group?

If you work solo, whether you have filed for a business license or not, you are a sole proprietor. As a sole proprietor, you will need to file a Schedule C form when you file your federal tax return.

If you blog with others, such as co-blogging on a shared platform, you must file as part of a general partnership. Any business that operates as a general partnership absolutely must have a written agreement as to how this business relationship is being handled. You will also need to file partnership returns. If you haven’t created an agreement yet, do this immediately. It would probably be wise to have legal assistance as you work out these crucial details.

Tracking Expenses

This is one of the hardest parts of running any business. Just trying to meet deadlines with your hair intact is hard enough, much less keeping receipts intact. If you plan to deduct expenses when you file your tax preparation, you need to have some sort of physical proof of these expenses. Should you get audited, you want proof for the IRS. Here’s how to track:

• Keep a journal of your income and expenses. This can be as simple as a two-column ledger or as complex as a spreadsheet. Make sure to hang onto your receipts for any costs over $75.
• Track your mileage. Anytime you travel to meet a client, you can deduct your mileage at a rate of $0.365 per mile, subject to change every tax year. If you have an expensive vehicle, you may wish to deduct a portion of your travel costs and actual expenses, but many prefer to simply use the standard rate.
• Do you run your business out of your home? You may be able to deduct a portion of your utilities and other home expenses based on the percentage of your home that is used to conduct your business. Ten percent is a common ratio. Above that, the IRS might raise an eyebrow. If your work space is that big, you probably need to rent out space somewhere.
• You can deduct advertising costs, including promotional spots and giveaways, brochures, media ads and website design and hosting costs.

Keep these deductions in mind throughout the year and be careful to keep your quarterly earnings up to date. It’s hard to make time, but it’s even harder to figure it all out if you wait till December to evaluate all four quarters. In addition, waiting till the year’s end can cost you in penalties. The IRS expects business owners to file quarterly.

Self-Employed Guide to Tax Deductions

This interview will take you through the ups and downs you can expect as a graphic designer for an architectural office, what it takes to land the job, what you can expect to earn and more.

What is your job title and ethnicity?

I am a Graphic Designer for an architectural office, and I have two years of experience in this particular field. I would describe myself as demanding, awkward, and restless.

I was born and raised in San Francisco, CA, but I am ethnically Filipino. Both of my parents immigrated from the Philippines, so although I have never really experienced discrimination, my childhood was a little bit more difficult than normal. I had to learn English as a third language, but these hardships taught me at an early age that if you put the work in, you will be rewarded with accomplishments.

What does your job entail?

I studied architecture in college, so my work as a graphic designer is focused on the field of architecture. My work has aided in re-branding the firm’s image and voice as presented in texts, graphic prints, and on the web. I also design and create various prints such as pamphlets, brochures, and books used for marketing purposes and award program submissions. In addition, due to my knowledge of computers and programs, I have provided general technical computer support. I think there’s a common misconception that graphic designers are artists. I have found that one’s “artistry” really needs to be held back to please the clients. Maturity in this field shows in the way in which a graphic designer can please his clients while still maintaining a quality of work that he can be proud of.

Are you satisfied with your current position?

I would rate my job satisfaction as a 10 out of 10. I love architecture and graphic design. I literally sit and make pretty pictures all day long and get paid for it. Of course, there are the stresses of deadlines, but I have learned that it is my responsibility to be realistic about the work I am able to do. It is very important to know your limits and to express them to those you work with as well as to those your work for.

I love doing graphic design for an architecture firm. It’s extremely fulfilling and exciting, and I am constantly learning new things. I think that although I am very happy with where I am now, it is just in my nature to be restless and I have many more careers and worlds that I want to see. I am currently exploring writing, and it has its own set of challenges and rewards.

How did you end up in this career field?

I got started in this work while still studying in university. While working on my degree in architecture, I worked as an intern at an international architecture office. Since I was not yet a licensed architect, most of the work given to me was graphic work. From then on, I improved and showed a real talent, so I moved more toward graphic design than floor plan drafting. I am very grateful and happy with the way in which my career developed. I wouldn’t change anything.

What have you learned while on the job?

Honestly, I have learned that there is no secret to success. All you have to do is work hard and dedicate yourself. I believe that this goes for any career path or life goal. Some things in life need an inherent passion and talent, but even with those, success needs hard work.

As I’ve previously mentioned, learning your limitations as a graphic designer is very important. I learned this the hard way. In my office, there are only two graphic designers. We are somewhat understaffed, considering the amount of graphic work we do. When I first started, I was eager to prove myself and my skills, so I accepted every single project pitched to me. This is very dangerous, because if you cannot deliver, the failure not only affects you as a designer, but the company you represent, as well. It is very important to know your limitations so that you do not promise more than you can deliver. Unfortunately, there is no way to learn this unless you push yourself.

What makes you go to work every day?

Client satisfaction is what motivates me to get up for work every day. The designing and creativity is fun, but the truly rewarding aspect of this job is the appreciation that clients will express for jobs done well. You will quickly learn in this field, it is very difficult to truly please clients.

Have you ever experienced stress on the job?

Design isn’t solely about the concepts. School tends to be theory heavy, which is excellent for fostering talent and fueling passion. The workplace, however, is hardly like school. Sometimes, it’s sad to admit, but concepts can take a back seat to the client’s wishes. It’s the designer’s job to not only make the client happy, but to open the client up to good design if the client is closed to it initially. This can prove to be very difficult at times.

The biggest challenges in this field are demanding clients. More specifically, demanding clients with no clue about graphic design. It is extremely frustrating to work with clients who not only undervalue the work you do, but have no real grounds for such a view. Having to deal with these impossible people makes me want to quit, sometimes.  I once had a client refuse to pay because they argued that the work we did was not quantifiable. I’m not sure how they came to this conclusion because they were the ones who specifically requested the project. Needless to say, they still paid for the services rendered.

Graphic design can be a very stressful job if you let it get to you. Deadlines are a simple fact of life in this field. Some clients can add stress by requesting near-impossible delivery dates. It is up to you to draw lines when your personal well-being starts to get compromised. Personally, I have developed a healthy balance between work and my personal life. The secret is to love what you do, but never let your job be your life.

What are your salary and benefits?

I get paid a little under $50,000 per year (net). It is a good amount for the city I live in, considering the cost of living. With my salary, I am able to live a very good lifestyle.

The company I work for normally does a cumulative hours build-up system that is directly proportionate to the amount of hours I work. Depending on how many total hours I work, I can take anywhere from two to four weeks of vacation a year. It isn’t nearly enough for my insatiable wanderlust, but it’s pretty standard for the field.

What advice could you give someone wanting to enter the field on graphic design?

Graphic design tends to be a very competitive world. Level of education can sometimes be overlooked for a stellar portfolio. It all depends on the company and the type of talent it is looking to hire. However, it is always a good idea to study graphic design at the university level to gain the basic skills that all companies are searching for.

To anyone considering becoming a graphic designer, I would ask them if they really love design. This field is something that needs not only talent and hard work, but an absolute love for the projects. The hours are long and the quality asked of you is extremely high. If there is no love for what you do, you will burn out incredibly fast.

Where would you like to be in five years?

In five years, I hope to have a collection of short stories published. Not only will I have written the content, but I will also design the cover and all promotional materials.

This is a true career story as told to DiversityJobs.com.

Currently, I am a graphic designer. I do graphic design as well as web-work for a variety of companies. I have been independently contracting work for nearly 10 years.

What does your job entail?

As a graphic designer, I end up doing a lot of website work. Most of the time, this entails designing web pages and content for customers. This involves using a lot of Dreamweaver and programming Java and Perl for specific applications. What many people do not know is that this is a highly customer service oriented field that requires one to stay on top of facilitating the needs of customers in order to ensure you do not have to waste time and money by redoing assignments.

How satisfied are you with your job?

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate this job an eight as I am satisfied with my work. But, as with most creative fields, to unleash one’s true enthusiasm a certain level of freedom must be achieved. That is why I choose to work as an independent contractor, picking the assignments that interest me the most.

Getting praise from customers helps to reinforce the feeling that I have found my sweet spot in life. Given that the average customer has no idea how to use PHP or program a web-page they are usually astounded by the type of work that gets produced.

How did you start in this career path?

I initially got started doing Technical Support for a company called DataStorm in the Midwest. This job later helped springboard me into more technologically advanced fields. I collected professional credentials starting with an A+ certification and went from there. The fact that I had so much computer based work experience made it easy for me to branch out into other more advanced fields. Tech support looks good on a resume especially for computer based jobs, it shows you can deal with customers well.

When it comes to doing web work the first thing most people learn the hard way is that the customer is always right. This may seem cliché, but this is very true. It is important to consider that working as an independent contractor means you have to meet the client’s specifications prior to getting paid. I remember one particular instance when I assumed that an individual real estate agent wanted a nondescript, standard website. I should not have made assumptions, because I had to rework the entirety of their website on my own time in order to get the order completed on time. Now I always ask as many questions as necessary in order to ensure I know exactly what I need to be doing for the customer.

What have you learned on the job?

The biggest thing I learned outside of school is that school does not count for everything. Many people would prefer to hire someone with less education and more real world experience. This is why many people are choosing to obtain certifications in specific skills in order to spend more time finding real world work. Making sure you are formally certified in programs such as Dreamweaver help show a potential employer that you’re going to do more than give them a Microsoft FrontPage template. So, it is important to weigh the options and decide what will be the best for your future before spending all your time and money on going to school.

Providing unique content for customers is an ever changing experience. This can help makes things interesting day to day without having to worry about work being too monotonous. Not knowing exactly what you are going to have to do from one day to another can at times be stressful, but it can also make things exciting because you never know what type of assignment you’re going to get.

What are the challenges that accompany your job?

The challenge of interpreting a customer’s requests can make anyone doing graphic design or web design want to pull their hair out. This is why many large companies hire people to specifically do this type of task. Of course with smaller companies and individuals that independently contract work this opportunity is not often afforded.

Doing web-work can be a very stressful job. The most important thing is being able to separate work from home life. This is why many people, such as me, find it is a good idea to do work in a separate home office. This makes it so that you can “go to work” and then leave work in a specified area within your home.

What are the benefits of your job?

A rough salary for this position is around 30 to 45 thousand a year. That is, of course, only if you put forth a substantial effort in order to find enough work to do the job full time or, in many cases, much more than full time.

I try to take a week or two of vacation a year. Sometimes it can seem like it is not enough, but it just depends on how well I plan for the vacation. Not having to worry about work that needs done when I get back helps me to truly enjoy my vacation and to leave work at work.

What is your advice to other web designers?

In order to succeed in this field of web and graphic design, you can go one of two routes. You can either go to school and get a degree specific to graphic design, or merely collect certifications and on the job experience. The degree route will be more successful at reaching a variety of different companies. But, consider for a moment that most of what you may learn in school will be out of date by the time you finish school. Real world experience with HTML, Java, CGI, Perl and .Net Programming will go much further than a degree, but if you have both you will be on top of the pack. This is because the industry is rapidly changing and in order to stay current getting certified in newer programs and techniques is a great way to stay current and employable.

I would tell anyone considering a job in web-design or graphic-design to check their local markets. If you are in a larger city it may seem like there is more work. But, by the same rationale there are many more people offering these services, therefore if you can afford to work, or even live in a more rural area you may find yourself with more work than you can handle. But, don’t go too rural because horses and cows do not generally need web pages.

What are your future goals?

If I could write my own ticket I would start my own company (by hiring people to delegate work to) in order to do what I’m doing on a bigger scale. If I had a few people under me it would be easier to book a larger amount of work and make substantially more money.

This true career story, as well as an Interview with an Enterprise Team Lead for the Forest Service, has been developed by LatPro, who will organize the 2012 Diversity Jobs Fairfor bilingual professionals in a few cities throughout the country.

Basic SEO 101 teaches us that a combination of quality content and authoritative backlinks from trusted websites is the key to an improvement in SERP results. However, if SEO was as easy as creating well-researched content for your website, and then acquiring some easy backlinks from some article directories and blog comments we’d all be number 1 on Google. In-fact the secret to SEO success is to target your backlinking efforts effectively at the websites that are best-positioned to bring you some quality SEO link juice.  The best websites are “social websites”, where the authoritativeness and quality of the site is built on the trust and appreciation of the visitors and users of the site themselves. In essence, you’ve got to start targeting blogs for your SEO efforts.

Why are blogs such a valuable SEO resource?

Google loves to see an element of “sociability” when crawling a website because what higher quality indicator can Google see in a website then if this site is receiving many backlinks from other trusted blogs and sites based on the quality of its content? Google takes every follow backlink from reputable sites as a vote of confidence in a website, and due to the social nature of blogs, the high level of interaction between readers and bloggers ensures that blogs form the hubs in what can be described as a social network of links. This means that blogs have become a more valuable source of links since the Google Panda update was rolled out back in February of this year, and they should become a primary focus of your linkbuilding efforts.

But how can blogs be used for SEO?

Blogs offer you the perfect opportunity to share your insights, thoughts and opinions with your fellow bloggers and readers through guest articles. These articles should contain unique content which of course benefits the readers of the blog, and can be considered authoritative and well-researched. However the quality of your article is just one piece of the puzzle, as the relevance and quality of the blog in question is just as important to the quality of any backlinks that you will acquire. Target blogs that possess articles and content that is relevant to your personal website, or are even targeted at the same type of audience. Google will take this relevance factor into consideration when waiting the value of any backlinks that you acquire through your articles.

 If your guest articles are fresh and insightful, and the blogs on which they are featured are considered authoritative on your chosen keyword area, then the quality of the backlinks that you will acquire will be vast. But the benefits of acquiring “social backlinks” through blogging collaborations will not just apply to your SEO strategy, as well-researched, expertly written articles from you have an increased chance of being shared around the blogosphere via further backlinks or even social media retweets and likes. The more an article of yours is shared (and thus is linked to) the higher the positive impact of name recognition will be on the marketing of your skills!

 Author: Robert from twago, Europe’s leading online platform for freelancers and customers working on projects in the fields of web design, graphic design, SEO, copywriting and translation.

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With the unemployment rate hovering near the double digits, tens of thousands of Americans are in need of new jobs to cover their expenses and survive today’s cutthroat jobs market.

With no monthly income and the rising costs of utilities job-seekers everywhere are in a desperate search to get hired. Unfortunately, getting a job in this kind of environment is tough for many of us. While it is quite easy to search blogs and advice columns for tips on how to get hired, we have opted to take the alternate route and let you in on some of the best ways for you to avoid landing a job.

1.    Know the Good and the Bad About the Company

While most job hunting tips will naturally advise you to spend a lot of time researching the history and profile of the company you are applying to, why not try taking a stab at the information they would rather you know nothing about? Dig a bit deeper and dwell more on your future company’s dirty laundry. If you can sneak your way around their office, it’s a great idea to find out who will be interviewing you in advance. Once you have their name, go incognito and investigate into their family life, hobbies, past jobs and any other useful information you can get your hands on.

2.    Creating the Imperfect First Impression

As they say, first impressions last a long time, which is why many job-seekers dress to the nines to win over their potential bosses. Instead of looking like the boring IT guy next door, why not fire it up and catch their attention by either under-dressing or over-dressing. In a job interview, it is always important to look interesting, and if that means putting on your grandmother’s old night gown, then by all means, go for it!

3.    Arrive Early…Way Too Early

Any sane person would tell you to come to your interview at least 15 minutes ahead of time. Of course, you get brownie points for doing this, but as you are in a frantic search for a job, you need to do more than just that. Our advice is that you get into the interviewer’s office earlier than anyone else has to be. Instead of showing up a couple of minutes early, why not surprise your future boss by being there even before they show up for work?

4.    Let Them Know Exactly What You Want

Perhaps one of the biggest lies made in job interviews across the globe is, “I am not here for the money, only for the job”. What a big fat lie! Anybody in their right mind would of course apply for a job for the sole purpose of getting paid. If you want to take the “holier art thou” route, go ahead, but for us, we recommend that you tell your future boss exactly what you need, a big fat paycheck that you haven’t even earned.

You’re not going to get hired by any means following these tips, but if it doesn’t get their attention, then I don’t know what else will!

If your goal is to grossly underwhelm at your next interview, make sure to avoid getting a diploma from one of these respected online accounting degree programs. Why compare accounting associates degrees that could lead to a real job when your mom will let you live at home well into your 30s.