During the pandemic situation, most of the people are looking for home-based income opportunities. Online writing profession could be a dream job for anyone who wants to stay home safe and earn good money with dignity. Nowadays, diverse local and international platforms are offering writing jobs online. But many writers couldn’t grab those jobs due to several issues, like lack of proper skill, choosing unsuitable job, inappropriate way of application, lack of professional profile, inadequate portfolio, etc. Read this article to know some tips to get hired for online writing jobs in local and international platforms.

How to Get Hired for Writing Jobs Online

Know Your Interest and Skill

Not all writers have the same level of interest in different domains of writing. Some are proficient in business writing, some choose translating works, while some others prefer blogging, article writing or even ghost writing tasks.

As a writer you have to ask yourself in which domain of writing you are good at. Interestingly, the online freelancing platforms are offering jobs for various branches of writings. So, you need to focus on your specific field of interest and level of skill without getting bothered about other categories of writings.

Upgrade Your Skill

When you exactly know your field of interest, you can move forward to level-up your proficiency in writing. For strengthening your grip on language, you need to read informative and rich articles, blog posts, and books. Learning new vocabularies will open your door to versatile usage of words. When you read the articles of popular websites or blogs, you get the opportunity to learn different style of writings.

Read Work From Home, Earn and Be Your Own Boss.

Choose Online Outsourcing  Platforms

Are you looking for jobs in local freelancing market or international sphere? In local freelancing platforms, the competition is comparatively low so does the scope of earning. As a newbie you can start with local platforms like Belancer (https://belancer.com/) or Outsource My Job (http://outsourcemyjob.com/).

However, if you are confident enough to fight for a job with the overseas writers, you can go for the international freelancing market places, like Upwork, Freelancer, People per Hour, Fiverr, etc. However, each platform has some pros and cons. Choose one or two depending upon your level of skill.

For instance, Upwork (https://www.upwork.com/) is the biggest online outsourcing platform for freelancers worlwide. Here you can find a wide variety of writing jobs round the day. The payment system is fast and transparent. However, the account approval process is a bit crucial. And the competition is too high, as multiple freelance writers apply for the same job. For the novice writers, getting hired on Upwork can be a bit challenging.

On the other hand, People Per Hour (https://www.peopleperhour.com/), and Fiverr (https://www.fiverr.com/) are also popular outsourcing platforms for Bangladeshi freelancers. Though the commission rate and number of available jobs are lower than Upwork, here you may find writing job opportunities under your chosen category. In these platforms, the account opening process is not so complex. The competition level is moderate to high. Both the experienced and newbie writers can get hired if applied in a proper way with right portfolio.

Read How to Create a Personal Website on WordPress

Create a Professional Profile

Each outsourcing market place has some specific rules and regulations for opening a new account. For example, Upwork may require you to enter full details of your educational qualification and skills. As a part of the account opening procedure, Upwork may require you to attain some tests to judge your level of skill in writing, including grammar, and vocabulary. However, the other freelancing platforms may have different requirements.

Create a Professional Portfolio

Preparing an excellent portfolio is the most significant factor of getting hired online. If you are looking for article writing jobs, then write a bunch of unique articles in diverse niches like travel, technology, education, etc. You can also follow the advertised jobs to understand  what kinds of contents are required by the clients. Then prepare your sample articles regarding those topics. Don’t forget to check out the uniqueness of your content using free or paid plagiarism check software like copyscape.com. The richer portfolio you have the greater chance to get hired.

Read How to Monetize Your Blog

Choose Appropriate Writing Jobs

Diverse online platforms are looking for writing professionals for different categories of jobs like, academic writing and research, copywriting, editing and proofreading, resume writing, web content writing, article and blog writing, creative writing, grant writing, technical writing, translation works, etc. Some jobs are targeting native writers while some are open for all. Jobs are available for both novice, and expert writers.

You don’t need to haunt all categories of jobs at the same time. Pick the one which suits both your skill and portfolio. Otherwise you are going to miss the job opportunities, which will not only waste your valuable time, but also make you feel discouraged. If you continuously fail to get jobs, it can jeopardize your writing account in the top freelancing platforms like Upwork.

Read Best Job Searching Websites in Bangladesh

 

Apply for Job in Proper way

After choosing a job, the first thing to do is to read the whole proposal properly.  Then prepare your application accordingly. Try to answer all the questions provided with the proposal. Try to be honest and sincere while preparing your application. Beware of using the same application for multiple jobs; otherwise your account can face unfortunate scenarios like permanent cancellation.

Know the Value of Work

If you can’t evaluate your own skill, none will be. It is a common issue with local freelancers that they are willing to work at under-paid jobs. Such practices are harmful not only for a potential writer, but also for the whole writer-community. Therefore, you should not compromise with the value of your skill and hard work.

While submitting your application against any job proposal, you must ask for reasonable payment. If you are unsure about the range of payment, you can consult with your mentors or other freelancers. Diverse facebook groups (such as Freelancer Bangladesh) are helping freelancers with valuable guidelines and advice at free of cost. However, if you are a newbie writer, you can apply for the basic level writing jobs that are looking to hire novice writers.

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Read How to earn Money from Instagram

The safety of riding public transport during the coronavirus pandemic depends on a variety of factors, but there are ways to minimize risk.

The main way that the virus spreads is through droplets people spray when they talk, cough or sneeze. That means the best way to reduce the spread of infection on public transit and elsewhere is to wear mask and stay 6 feet from others, experts said.

Transit systems around the world are requiring riders to wear masks and encouraging people to socially distance. Compliance could vary, especially as ridership levels start rebounding and trains and buses get more crowded. But there are other steps you can take to make trips less risky.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests traveling during non-peak hours, avoiding crowded spots in stations and stops, and skipping rows between seats when possible.

Surfaces are also believed to pose a risk, though to a lesser degree, and transit systems are employing a variety of cleaning techniques. Moscow and Shanghai have experimented with germ-killing ultraviolet light and Hong Kong has deployed a robot that sprays hydrogen peroxide. In New York, subways are shut down overnight overnight for cleaning.

Even so, the CDC says to avoid touching surfaces such as turnstiles and handrails if you can.

Though much remains unknown about the virus and how it spreads, experts note there have not yet been any major outbreaks linked to transit systems.

The World honors Nelson Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) for his lifelong struggle against racism and discrimination. This Nobel laureate served as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker and the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa. Mandela is known as the iconic figure who out won the apartheid regime of South Africa at that time. To commemorate is great leader July 18—Nelson Mandela’s birthday—is celebrated every year as ‘Nelson Mandela International Day’. While the whole world is suffering from the multifaceted effect of Corona Virus pandemic, the Nelson Mandela Day reminds us that each individual owns the ability to make a difference and the power to change the world.

What Can We Learn from the Life and Legacy of Nelson Mandela

Passion Fuels Perseverance

Nelson Mandela led a non-violent action against apartheid policies the white minority government in South Africa. In these consequences, he was jailed for 27 years. After the imprisonment, Mandela was first-time able to cast vote in his motherland and became the first-ever black president of South Africa.

Mandela’s lifelong struggle is teaching people to build their lives, work, and legacy around a noble cause. If someone finds a cause worth fighting for he becomes passionate and this enthusiasm produces perseverance. When an individual gets engaged in something he truly believes in, his energy soars and he turns into a magnet for other people sharing the same belief. Mandela inspires people to adopt the ways of strategies and tactics but stay faithful to their cause.

Change Is Painstaking

Nelson Mandela was a partner of a law firm – only run by black people – in South Africa. The firm served a huge number of black clients who were suffering from diverse political, economical and legal acts of the government targeting non-white people. Instead of sacrificing the precious years of his life in prison, Mandela could have led a comfortable life, if he had never attempted to make a change.

Mandela believed that solving trouble which really matters or bringing a change that is really worthwhile is not easy to achieve. To translate someone’s vision into reality, he requires the backbone to push through the painstaking journey full of obstacles, struggle, misfortune, sacrifice, and pain.

Mandela taught us that if the road to change were linear and didn’t require unprecedented courage, anybody would do it. However, just because an individual is facing frustration and misery, it does not mean that the cause he is fighting for is not worthwhile.

Forgive to Move Forward

On the TV, Bill Clinton – the president of the United States at that time – observed rage on Mandela’s face during his release after serving 27 years in prison. Clinton was more surprised seeing that Mandela’s anger vanished after a few moments. After years, the US president asked Mandela about this incident.

Mandela replied that the day when he stepped out of prison and looked at the people observing, a flush of anger hit him with the thought that they had robbed his 27 years. Then he felt the Spirit of Jesus was telling him ‘Nelson, while you were in prison you were free, now that you are free don’t become a prisoner.’

As a human being, Mandela felt resentment and rage, until he opted for different path perceiving the consequences. Instead of choosing to live in a world full of racism, Mandela focused on how he could respond to that world. His determination inspires us still today not to be victims of our own past, rather we should let the resentment go away to achieve greatness.

According to Mandela’s perception, no child is born to discriminate. If we can learn to hate people based on their skin color, gender, or political affiliation, we can also learn to honor, love, and respect.

End Right vs. Being Right

After enduring oppression for 27 years in prison, Mandela could have felt the desire for revenge. But he did not. With the thought that ending right was more important than being right, this strong-willed leader invited his subjugators to work with him to bring positive changes. With his incredible capacity to forgive, Mandela established a remarkable example of integrity for the cause.

People can focus their energy for being right or ending right on diverse phases of life such as marriage, social justice or business. The concept of ‘being right’ feeds ego which traps us in our past; while the ‘ending right’ focuses on what we are trying to achieve in life.

Analyzing the life of this eminent leader it can be observed that Mandela passionately fought for what he believed in, but he was also humble and kind. He always focused on the power of collaboration and compromise. His determination taught us that we cannot make peace with the enemy if we are not willing to work with them and treat them with dignity.

Change Initiates from Inside

Self-awareness is a precursor to great leadership. During the 27 years of imprisonment, Nelson Mandela understood that what he wanted most for South Africa was peace, freedom, reconciliation, harmony, and equality. He realized that in order to make his nation free from racial discrimination and establish a peaceful democracy he would have to “be the change.”

Nelson Mandela believed that the difference starts with the thought ‘who we are and how we land on others as leaders’. His personal life was a vivid example of humanity that change starts from inside. This notable leader was able to spark hope for millions of people who wished to dream big and attain their dreams without oppressive limitations.

According to the notion of Mandela, what really matters in life is not that we have survived. If we can truly make any positive difference to the lives of other people that can determine the significance of the life we lead. Great leadership should be concerned about the growth of future generations, and help them to live with dignity, morality, and motivation.

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Do you often feel the urge of shopping without necessity? It is estimated that currently, around 5% of people worldwide are suffering from Buying Shopping Disorder (BSD) or compulsive buying disorder. People who are addicted to excessive shopping are called shopaholic. Due to the surge of social networking websites and e-commerce platforms, lucrative promotional advertisements are inciting people to buy things they need or do not need. The ongoing pandemic can be a great opportunity to deal with this BSD. In this article, we are going to discuss some basic concepts about shopping compulsion and ways how to stop online shopping addiction.

Why is Online Shopping So Popular?

Three key factors play a great role in creating an online shopping addiction. Those are:

- People who want to avoid social interaction and prefer buying anonymously.

- People who like a wide variety of collection.

- People who enjoy instant satisfaction.

How to Know If You Have an Online Shopping Addiction?

Key signs of compulsive online shopping disorder include:

- You are failing to control online shopping tendency even if when you really want to.

- Your shopping behavior is declining your savings and causing harm to relationships, and work.

- Your family members, partner, or friends are worried about your irrational money habits.

- You enjoy thinking or planning about shopping all the time.

- You get anxious, disappointed, or annoyed when you cannot shop online.

- Shopping online is the only thing that can make you feel better.

- The tendency of hiding purchased items from the fear of getting criticized for overspending.

- Feeling post-shopping guiltiness or regret.

- Spending little time to enjoy other things that make you happy.

- Purchasing things beyond budget even if you do not actually need or planned to buy.

How to Curb Your Online Shopping Habit

• Panic Buying

Due to the pandemic situation, many people are stuck at home for several months. Physical meetings with friends and relatives are being discouraged for the sake of limiting the spread of the virus. Getting distracted from the normal pace of life, many people are facing diverse psychological and emotional problems, like panic buying.

Besides flocking to the supermarkets, people are shopping from e-commerce websites to hoard a bulk amount of grocery items and other products during the lockdown period. Some food items may get decomposed before consumption, which is a wastage of money and food during the COVID19 pandemic. To prevent such mishaps, you can prepare a grocery list considering your family size and necessity.

Read: Pandemic Grocery List: Is Your Home Ready for Coronavirus Home Quarantine?

• Identify Your Shopping Points

When you are trying to control your shopping affinity, it is quite essential to identify what provokes you for shopping. For instance, if you do excess shopping from any specific Facebook pages/groups or e-commerce website, then you need to block those pages or sites.

Besides this, you can unsubscribe promotional emails, and delete shopping apps from your Smartphone. Now you will no more get notifications from those online shopping points. Your shopping behavior can change if you can resist the temptation of returning to those pages or sites.

• Find Your Shopping Triggers

What on earth is pushing you towards excessive shopping tendency? Some people tend to shop as a result of chronic depression; because buying goods can give them temporary happiness. While some other people do online shopping to kill boredom. However, the reason may vary from person to person. If you can identify your shopping trigger, it would be easier to deal with.

• Find Your Own Entertainment

You can start a healthy habit like reading novels, gardening, watching movies, or any other creative hobby in order to divert your attention from online shopping. If you invest less time in browsing e-commerce websites or Facebook shopping pages, you will be less attracted to new items. It will not save your money but also improve your emotional health.

• Pay in Cash

Most of the people, who use credit cards for online shopping, tend to buy excess things which they do not actually need. To harness your shopping spree, you can opt for cash on delivery (COD) instead of paying through credit card.

• Track Your Spending

When you track where the money has been spent you can justify your own expenditure behavior. You can maintain an expenditure log for every month to compare the increase or decrease in your shopping trend. It will also remind you about the burden of expenditure or debt whenever you wish to buy anything you rarely need.

• Tidy Up Your Wardrobe

If you love to buy new clothes every month and hardly wear those, then try this technique. When you take an attempt to organize the clutter of your wardrobe, it will make you remember that you already have nice, stylish clothes. It will certainly make you feel contained about your possession and diminish your tendency to buy more. You can repeat this process several times a month to get a better result.

• Make Yourself Wait

The virtual world is always presenting money-spinning advertisements that bait people to buy things that they actually do not need. It is found that when people feel the urge of buying any product, the wish usually disappears within 24 to 72 hours. You can apply this trick! Before buying things make yourself wait for a while!

• Save for Real Life Necessity

The famous American business tycoon Warren Buffett says “Do not save what is left after spending; instead spend what is left after saving.” You can choose a saving plan and deposit a considerable share of your earning to the bank every month. It will provide you long-term benefits like overcoming rainy days in job or business, sudden medical emergencies, securing the education of your kids, etc. You can spend the left amount to buy necessary things for you and your family. Then, you will hardly afford any extra money to shop for unnecessary things.

• Remind Yourself Big Dreams

Each of us may have a long-cherished desire – like visiting abroad or grabbing a car – which is yet to fulfill due to lack of money. Besides this, you can plan big goals for your life achieving a degree, or study abroad. Now you can start planning for these desires and goals, which really matters to your life! If you remind yourself about these plans, your spendthrift behavior will naturally reduce.

Read Grab Your Dream Car Today: Car Loan in Bangladesh.

• Ask for Help

Shopping addiction can lead to financial insecurity, family disagreement, debt, depression, anxiety, etc. So far we have discussed several ways to curb BSD or compulsive shopping addiction. However, if you still cannot control your shopping spree you can consult with a psychiatrist for counseling.

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Researchers in Canada say they are considering Cannabis as a potentially valuable tool to fight against COVID-19.

Researchers Olga and Igor Kovalchuck have reportedly been developing and testing a novel cannabis strain for years, except with the goal of creating a strain that helps to combat cancer and inflammation,

When the pandemic hit, the duo started to focus their efforts on how the strain might be used to help fight COVID-19.

The duo’s work was published in an April issue of the online medical journal Preprints, according to a Forbes report.

The study says similar to other respiratory pathogens, SARS-CoV2 is transmitted through respiratory droplets, with potential for aerosol and contact spread. It uses receptor-mediated entry into the human host via angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2) that is expressed in lung tissue, as well as oral and nasal mucosa, kidney, testes, and the gastrointestinal tract.

“Modulation of ACE2 levels in these gateway tissues may prove a plausible strategy for decreasing disease susceptibility,” reads the study.

After looking at the research on cannabis and COVID by other scientists, they were able to determine that cannabis, a special strain in particular, could potentially block COVID-19 from entering a person’s body to begin with.

It is also possible that the strain could be used to prevent the virus from being able to propagate once it’s already entered someone’s system.

“Cannabis sativa, especially one high in the anti-inflammatory cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD), has been proposed to modulate gene expression and inflammation and harbour anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties,” the study said.

“Working under the Health Canada research license, we have developed over 800 new Cannabis sativa lines and extracts and hypothesized that high-CBD C. sativa extracts may be used to modulate ACE2 expression in COVID-19 target tissues.” 

Right now it’s still a theory rather than a confirmed fact; however, it offers some hope for the future. If they’re able to prove the idea, the next step would be to manufacture the successful strain into medical formations that could be used for prevention and treatment by the medical field, they said.

Also read: Thailand launches full-time clinics dispensing cannabis oil

 The couple also pointed out that not every strain of cannabis is going to impact you in the same way. While it’s possible that they will be able to find a strain that can help prevent or treat COVID-19, there are also strains that could potentially make it worse.

“While our most effective extracts require further large-scale validation, our study is crucial for the future analysis of the effects of medical cannabis on COVID-19. The extracts of our most successful and novel high CBD C. sativa lines, pending further investigation, may become a useful and safe addition to the treatment of COVID-19 as an adjunct therapy,” the study says.

“They can be used to develop easy-to-use preventative treatments in the form of mouthwash and throat gargle products for both clinical and at-home use. Such products ought to be tested for their potential to decrease viral entry via the oral mucosa. Given the current dire and rapidly evolving epidemiological situation, every possible therapeutic opportunity and avenue must be considered.”

Also read: Declare COVID-19 vaccines a global common good: Global leaders