The art of “freelancing” has grown rapidly online, where people from all over the world can access the skills and talents of independent contractors for hire. A freelancer is an individual that is not under the employment of a company, but instead is contracted out by clients for work in their specific area of expertise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that about 10.3 million US workers are freelancers (equating to about 7.4% of the workforce). Freelancers enjoy the freedom of setting their own hours and choosing the work they desire, as they are essentially a one person business.

In recent years the online revolution has also helped to spur the growth of this freelancing market. Many websites now serve as a hub to facilitate freelancers and those looking to hire them. Some of those websites include:
- www.getafreelancer.com
- www.ifreelance.com
- www.guru.com

A quick registration on any of these sites would enable you to either setup your own profile as a freelancer or post a job listing of your own for freelancers to bid on. It’s an online job marketplace where individuals are being contracted out every day for their skills. Some of the popular skill areas for freelancers include: writing, software development, website design, marketing & advertising, graphic design, and many others. Posting a listing in its appropriate skill category will allow individuals fitting the job description to place bids on the project and provide an estimated time to complete.

After reviewing the bids and experience levels of each of the freelancers, a more formal agreement can be setup to begin contracting of the work needed. Often after an initial project is completed, the freelancer is offered additional work by the original contractor, having shown the ability to accomplish the task efficiently.

To really understand the beauty of what freelancing can enable lies in the ability to access the skills and experience of others, who more than likely live hundreds of miles away. For a startup business venture, bringing in experienced persons to build aspects of your business can be extremely difficult. Hiring can be a daunting task for a small startup strapped for cash and the limited reach they have in acquiring qualified employees. The playing field is leveled now that startups can hire the experience they need through the online marketplace of freelancing. Creation of a website detailing the aspects of their business can be contracted out on the freelance hub sites. This saves valuable time and money that normally would be exerted in scouting out a local web developer or corporate web design entity.

Similar scenarios can be seen across many different business opportunities. Looking for a writer to contribute articles to your site? Hire a freelancer. Looking to create an iPhone app for that great game idea? Hire a freelancer. If you need an advertising specialist to promote your online presence on the web, you’ll find great freelance talent out there ready to work and ready to bid on the opportunity to work with you. They say jobs are scarce in this marketplace, but you might disagree after spending some time on these sites.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Article Extras:

Here is a short PowerPoint presentation I did highlighting the uses of Freelancing:
- Freelance (PowerPoint 2007)
- Freelance (PowerPoint 2003)

One of the most interesting job oppurtunities I took on has to be working as a brand rep for Mountain Dew. I was in my Sophmore year at UF when I stumbled upon a website called RepNation. They are a company that is contracted out by major corporations like Dell, Microsoft, JetBlue, Jan Sport, Macy’s and many others to promote their brand in innovative ways around college campuses. Mountain Dew had joined up with them and was looking to have their brand promoted and marketed at 50 campuses nationwide. UF was one of these schools, so I decided to apply for the position.

I didn’t have much experience in marketing or setting up events, but that’s exactly why I wanted to get the job. I wasn’t afraid to try something new, and I knew a job like this could really improve my experience in marketing aspects. Knowing that in order to create a successful business someday, I’ll need to really have some knowledge and experience in marketing my product or brand to people. Maybe you have a really great idea or business model set up, but if no one knows about your product or can get interested in it, you will ultimately fail.

Applying & Interviewing

I applied to the position, citing as much as I could about how networked and involved I was around UF. I knew that they were looking for students that were very social, knew a lot of people around campus, were involved in organizations, and ultimately could promote their brand to the most students possible. The more people I could impact, the more Mountain Dew would benefit as a brand. So I listed that I was a member of a well known fraternity at UF, that I was very tech savvy with experience in web promotion, and that I had worked as a promoter for several night life entertainment companies in Gainesville.

Apparently I hit it right on the nose with my application, as I got a call not too long after applying for the position. I was given a phone interview to elaborate more on everything listed on my application. They really took to the fact that I was part of a fraternity, involved in night life, and generally knew quite a bit of people as an outgoing person. A few days later they offered me the position. I was ecstatic about getting the job as I know I beat out several actual marketing/business majors for the job (mind you, my major is Computer Engineering).

How the Campaign Worked

Each school had two students hired for the position, and I was paired with a great marketing student that happened to be pretty well connected on campus as well. She was a member of a sorority, on the cheerleading team, and knew what she was doing in terms of marketing and promoting brand awareness. We worked together to set up all of the events promoting Mountain Dew as well as setting up various business contacts at UF. Not to mention getting all of our friends behind what we were doing.

Here’s the flyers that we handed out throughout the semester:

The way the program worked, we had conference calls each week to elaborate on our program requirements and then additional one on one time over the phone with our managers in New York who directed the entire program. We were to implement 3 stages of the program along with associated events and would be compensated based on how well we carried out the events. We had a marketing budget to work with in order to buy supplies, and were shipped several promotion kits that included a lot of Dew branded items to give out and have people interact with. Oh, and cases upon cases of Mountain Dew samples to give out! I actually filled the better part of my room with all the cases. We reported to our managers any ideas we had about events we wanted to implement and followed those up with a detailed report of how the event went, number of people that attended, and anything useful to elaborate on our marketing efforts. Pictures were a must, and we submitted plenty of these to highlight each part of our events.

The main promotion involved Mountain Dew’s “Do It Yourself” campaign, which encouraged fans of the brand to create items branded in the Mountain Dew image and submit them online. Prizes would be awarded to the best branded items at the end of the semester. Here’s the website: www.dewdiy.com

The Events

We promoted three parts of the Do It Yourself campaign, which included: Art, Game/Tech, and Gear. We held events on campus at UF, after working with a few university contacts we made. At the events, we got students involved with the brand and gave out free samples to everyone who participated. We avoided giving out free samples to just people walking by, because college kids are notorious free loaders. We made sure that we got something valuable out of everyone who came by in order to help us out with our promotion and campaign, and in turn better communicated the Mountain Dew brand to them.

The last part of the promotional campaign included the Dew Gallery event. This event was to be a big event that showcased everything we could of the Mountain Dew brand, as well as showcased all the Dew DIY submission created by students from UF. I worked with a contact I made in the university that sets up and runs a Friday night event called “GatorNights”. It is the leading late night program in the Southeast that offers free events like movies, bands, comedians, improv shows and more to students every Friday night on campus. I was able to affliate our Dew Gallery event with GatorNights and secure a great spot in the Reitz Union (main building on campus) to hold our event. Then event turned out a LOT bigger than we had thought. I remember the GatorNight’s organizer coming up to me really excited the day of the event, asking me when we were starting because so many people had been asking about the event and wanted to come check it out.

The event went great, I had gotten like 6 of my friends to help out along with my partner and her friends. We had around 500+ people coming through our event to see what it was all about. I quickly found myself trying to manage the swarms of students that showed up. People were voting on their favorite Dew DIY submissions, checking out the rest of our event, and drinking some dew of course! Mountain Dew had supplied us with some special edition aluminum bottles which were a big hit. The bottles were part of a new Green Label Art campaign that was starting soon and had some great designs on them. I actually dropped off a case of the bottles at dinner at my fraternity house and everyone swarmed me to grab one. It was pretty hilarious to watch all the guys cheer their bottles together at the tables while other brothers walked in with a puzzled look on their face.

Here are some great pictures from our events:

[[Show as slideshow]]

Conclusion…

The semester concluded in a great way as my partner and I managed to place 4th out of the 50 brand teams in terms of promoting the brand. We had done exceptionally well in each of our events and were rewarded for our efforts. This was an incentive based program, so the better you performed, the more you were paid.

A couple weeks later I had noticed that RepNation had put up some flash animation highlights of each of the campaigns. I was surprised to find my picture smack dab in middle of it. I got a real kick out of that. The two pictures at the bottom left are of me. Right click it and select “play” to see it animate.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post, as it was one of the coolest and most enjoyable job opportunities I’ve had.

Look for Part 2 of “My Job as a Mountain Dew Brand Rep”, where I will be discussing the second campaign I did with RepNation and Mountain Dew.

If you would like to become a brand ambassador for a major brand like Mountain Dew, head on over to www.repnation.com and apply! Who knows, you might get a call back from them. That’s how I got the job.