Friday, January 30, 2009

Getting Started as a Freelancer

Join Freelance Sites

One way of working from home is by bidding on projects in freelance sites. There are a lot of freelance sites all over the internet but these are the ones that I personally use and recommend (especially the first two):



  1. GetAFreelancer
  2. Scriptlance
  3. oDesk
  4. RentACoder
  5. Elance

All of these sites have free and paid membership. Of course, paid memberships have more privileges but that doesn’t mean free members won’t get their share of success. You can start by signing up for free and as soon as you have built a strong profile, you may then upgrade your membership status. Make sure to read and follow their terms to avoid being banned on the site. (Scrap that! Just click on “I Agree” and you’re all set.)


Know Thyself

Assess your skills and interests. What is your field of expertise? What do you want to do?

I am good in… Maybe you can try…
Speaking Voice Over
Writing Copywriting
Selling Telemarketing
Typing Data Entry
HTML Website Design
Japanese Translation
Art Logo Design

If You Have It, Flaunt It

Convince your clients why they should choose you and what makes you so special. Do you have years of experience? What tools do you have? Make sure it is related to the job being offered. For instance, telling them that you can make a 3D design of a house, or that you can make a software for networking, or that you have an X-ray vision won’t do any good if the job only entails editing simple data.


Aim High

Do not settle for mediocrity. Try to exceed your clients’ expectations. If you have committed to deliver the project in 10 days, surprise your client by sending the complete and error-free data in 7 days. In that way, your clients will give you good reviews and possibly recommend you to others which can also help increase your market value.


If at First You Don’t Succeed, Heck You Know The Rest…

Do not be easily discouraged if you weren’t able to close a deal yet. Oftentimes, landing on the first job is the hardest part. It gets easier as soon as you are able to build connections with your clients. If you have succeeded on your first try, then your one lucky guy after all. You can go thank that Feng Shui guru in the Chinese shop where you bought that golden waving cat figurine.



2 comments:

Unknown said...

hmmmmmm I'm quite interested working at home too, but I really don't have any idea, can you please share even just a few specific tips on what to do?

I've been searching and seems it has been futile, the ones ive registered just turned out to just clutter my mail. I'd like to make use of our internet and help my mom. looking forward for your reply ciao!

Sannydrops said...

Hello Katrina, have you tried bidding on one of the projects in the freelance sites I've mentioned already? I think you can unsubscribe to their mail alerts if you don't want them to clutter your mail. But it usually helps since it will alert you on new projects. I have also mentioned tips on this post. Good luck!