Become a freelancer and sell your services to online clients. One can
make thousands of dollars each month by doing online jobs.
Freelancing-Sites now provide the platform where freelancers can look
for potential clients. To get jobs at these sites, one has to sign up
for an account which is 100% free. Creating a professional looking
portfolio is the second step. These steps take minutes to complete.
After making a portfolio, one has to browse the freelance-market to look
for available jobs. Clients [aka Online Employers] from all over the
world come to these markets and create job-listings. These listings
contain all the information about the work which the client wants to be
done.
Freelancers can browse all these listings and if they find some
interesting job, which they can successfully complete, they apply for it
by posting a Proposal or Bid. However, a new comer need to know lot of
things if he wants to become a successful freelancer. I have written
this tutorial for this very purpose. It contains lots of useful tips. I
suggest you read all of it. I have tried to answer questions that a new
comer will have in mind.
Why do jobs on the internet?
Even
in financially strong countries, such as USA and UK, the unemployment
rate is now above 8 percent. Global recession is making people to look
for alternative job opportunities. What will be better than an
opportunity that can let people work at home?
Many companies, especially smaller ones, cannot afford to hire
permanent employees and pay them each month, a fix amount of salary. So a
simple solution for these companies is to outsource their work to
freelancers [aka Online Employees] using Freelancing-Sites [these are
secure and trusted websites].
Employers can hire as many employees, as needed. There is no long
term commitment. Users are hired on short term agreements. It can be a
few hours, days or weeks job. Once the work is completed and the
employer pays the agreed amount of money to the employee, their
agreement comes to an end. Once this happens, both parties are then no
longer bound to any further commitments.
With this opportunity, people can work independently at the comfort
of their home. They can use their Knowledge and Experience to do short
term projects for different employers to create a solid income source.
Lack of office-job opportunity is just one of many reasons why one can
choose to work online. For example: assume that there is a mother of 2
who wishes to earn income for her family but she cannot leave her
children alone to go to an office. For some people, leaving children
with a baby-sitter is not a feasible option. So what can this mother do?
How can she stay at home with her children and at the same time earn
money online? Internet has now made it possible for people like her to
make a real, legitimate and stable income at home. I personally know
many people who can easily do an office job but they choose to work
independently as a Freelancer.
Another example of someone wanting to work at home are disabled
people. Freelance-markets provides them with simple jobs that they can
easily do.
How many jobs are available?
There is no shortage of work. Each day, thousands of new job-listings are made.
Following are links to top freelance sites. Open them in separate
windows and signup for a free account. Create your portfolio and apply
for few jobs. This will help you understand how things work. I suggest
you to come back and keep on reading this tutorial to gain more
knowledge.
1.
Elance
2.
oDesk
3.
Witmart
4.
99designs
5.
Guru
6.
ifreelance
7.
Peopleperhour
8.
Crowdspring
9.
Project4hire
Choosing Employees on Merit
In freelance-markets, job is awarded on merit. A employer from Canada
can choose to hire employees from India, Nigeria, Philippine or any
other country.
However, each employer has his own criteria for choosing employees.
Below are mentioned few signals which helps clients in choosing the best
candidate:
Number of Ratings
Each freelance-site has a ratings system. Assume that Rubaka hired
Aslam for a job. Aslam completed the work and sent it to Rubaka. After
verification Aslam is paid the agreed amount of money. After the payment
both Aslam and Rubaka needs to give each other a rating/feedback.
Aslam has to rate Rubaka based on factors including: how quickly she
replied to emails, explanation of required work, payment release time
etc.
Following are few factors that Rubaka will consider while she give
ratings to Aslam: quality of work, time to complete the job, honesty
etc.
If a person completes one project, he will get one rating. Clients give
10 out of 10
ratings for a job well done. Some employers consider ratings the main
criteria when hiring employees. The more ratings a person has, the more
will his chances be to win a project.
Professionalism
Some clients hire freelancers even if they have zero ratings. They do
consider ratings a criteria for choosing freelancer but they are
willing to hire professional new comers. Assume a freelancer who had
work for different companies and has lots of experience. If his
presentation is good, he can impress clients. There is a communication
system available at freelance-sites which can be used to send a message
to the client, telling him about his experience.
Skills/Education/Profile/Experience
Clients love to hire a person who has past experience in the field of
work which is related to their job. They can easily check freelancer’s
profile to see details about his education, skills and experience. So
having a professional looking profile is important.
No Office No Stress No Frustration
Office jobs can be very stressful. There is always a stress to
complete work in the given time or else the boss will get upset. One has
to listen to all people who are working above him.A boss then his boss
and so on. Reaching the office in time in another headache. One also has
to worry about his companies financial status. If a company loses
profits their office loses employees.
When applying for a job at freelance-site, one has complete freedom
to choose the time period in which he is willing to deliver the
completed work. No one can force a person to do work quickly. There is
no office so no traveling is involved. That’s a big relief.
Solid and Stable Income Source
Freelance-sites had been operating for years and they are growing
bigger every day. Forget about recession and start this career to
generate a stable and reliable income source.
Full-time or Part-time
A freelancer can work whenever he wishes too. He can choose to do
work each day making it a full-time job or he can work on weekends to
earn some extra cash. I personally know people who are making a good
living online, working as a full-time freelancer.
Winning a Project
After joining a freelance-site, the first goal is to win a project.
New comers have zero ratings so not many clients will like to hire them
unless a freelancer does something special to impress a client. Winning
the first job is tough: very tough indeed. However, some new comers get
lucky when some new client hires them due to his lack of experience.
Some new comers who joins these markets are not serious contenders.
They are searching internet for ways to get rich quick without doing any
work. They are simply wasting their time as we all know that there is
no such thing as free money on the internet. Unless a person is willing
to do full time or part time online jobs, there is no way to make money
online. Secondly, one should know that getting these jobs is no easy
task for beginners. New comers have to look for work in these markets
for several hours each day. This can go on for weeks without any
success.
Competition
Freelance-markets are getting crowded-up by more and more new comers.
Each day thousands of new comers join these sites in hope of getting a
job. For each project, that a client posts, several freelancers apply.
These freelancers contain new comers and also the ones who have high
ratings. Sometimes for a single job listing, 100+ freelancers apply!
Staying at Home and Lack of Outdoor activities
Can you sit in front of PC for several hours each day? It is easier
said than done. To do online jobs one has to stay at home in front of
his PC for several hours each day. If one chooses to enter this field of
work then he should create a time-table where he will have some time
for exercise.
Recap:
what are freelance-sites?
These are websites where clients and freelancers get to do business.
They provide a platform where clients can hire freelancers. Every hour,
hundreds of clients create new job-listings. To apply for a job,
freelancers have to submit a Bid or Proposal. They can do this by
clicking few icons and then filling up a simple form. The whole process
takes just few minutes to complete.
Apply only for new projects and take things slow and steady. After
registration process completes, bid on 2-3 projects just to see how
things work. Mention experience, educational credentials and skills in
your profile. If a writer has written articles before, which are posted
on the internet, then he should post links to the articles in his
profile.
For users who have no special skills but have good command over
English Language, they can choose to do writing jobs. Look for
copywriting projects and read the description. See what kind of work is
in demand and how much money is being paid. This is one way of getting
experience [by exploring freelance-sites].
Data entry jobs require no skills. One just needs a PC and Internet connection to do this work.
Users having both skill and experience have the best chance to
succeed. They just need to work on their Presentation skills. After
applying for a job one needs to impress the client which can be done by
good presentation.
What if one has skills but no experience?
Open job-listings and look at the descriptions. Get yourself
familiarized with the different kinds of job requirements. Try to
understand what work is in demand and how much money is being paid. Try
to estimate the time required to do a particular job. One can gain
experience by just reading project descriptions.
What about users who have no particular skill but have good Command over English language?
Such users can do writing jobs. Copywriting category has
sub-categories like: 500 words article writing, press releases, website
content etc. Find what the difference is between these sub-categories.
Jobs in each sub-category pays differently.
What about data entry?
To do data entry jobs one has to learn few very basic things. There
are numerous types of jobs posted under this category. Search and read
descriptions of different data entry projects to get familiarized with
this work.
Why am I not winning a project?
Unfortunately, winning the first project can be a pain. With all the
competition, one needs to work really hard to get his first project.
After bidding, some sites allow freelancers to send a message to the
client. This one message can make all the difference.
What to write in the message?
It will depend on the type of job required and who the client is.
There is not a single message that can be sent to all clients. As one
gains experience, he will learn about what to write in these private
messages.
Ratings
In the beginning, the goal should be to earn ratings, not money. Ratings give you power to do less work for more money.
Beating the Competition: Each project is bombarded with bids so what can one do to beat the competition?
Stay online a lot. Keep refreshing the freelance site’s homepage or
the page where new projects are posted. Look for newly posted projects.
New projects gives a window of opportunity to freelancers to be the
first one to bid and get noticed by the client.
After bidding quickly prepare the message [to send to the client].
[Note that some freelance-sites do not allow freelancers to send
messages. The communication can only start if a client starts the
conversation]
If the freelancer have done similar job before then that needs to be
mentioned in his message to the client. Freelancers can also send a
sample of work. If it is a logo design project then do some
brainstorming and come up with a Unique Idea. Create a sample logo and
send it along with the message. If required, mention educational
credentials. Do something that will make him notice you in a good way.
For example: tell the client that you can do this work in 1 day even if
you have to work for 12 straight hours.
Don’t waste Bids: You get limited bids on monthly basis: use them wisely.
All freelance-sites offer free membership. One can join for free.
These sites do have paid memberships which has some benefits including,
allotment of a lot more bids each month. Start as a free-member. Earn
money by completing a job then use this money to upgrade membership.
Can you send contact information to employers in private messages?
No one is allowed to exchange any contact information including emails, phone numbers, Chat ID etc.
Learn English
People with no skill and experience can do data entry jobs but the
pay for this work is minimum. Writing jobs pay good but to do them, one
needs to have good command over English. Find free online courses. Spend
few month to improve your writing skills. This can help freelancers to
do jobs in copywriting category.
How much can one earn?
Pay for the following jobs is good:
*Programming [PHP, C++, ASP etc]
*Designing Logos, Sites etc
*Making Apps
*SEO
*Copywriting
Pay for Translation jobs is good too. Jobs that pay low are usually posted under data entry category.
I cannot tell how much you will earn as it depends on what kind of
job you are doing and how much work you are willing to do in a day. But
know that many people are making a living online via this work.
This information is more than enough for anyone to get started. You are welcome to post comments and best of luck.
