Should You Use Elance to Sell Your Freelance Services And Tips on How to Utilize Elance
Are you having problems finding prospective clients? Do you need a little help finding freelance work? You should consider using Elance's services to boost your freelance career. Elance has been around for about ten years and is still up and running because it works. Both buyers and sellers get what they want. Buyers (employers) find quality freelancers and Sellers (freelancers) find work and make some money.
Elance has had a bad rap from freelancers living in America and other western countries. For western freelancers it is very hard to compete with freelancers living in
As a freelancer, you should know what you need to live comfortably. For this reason, believing in your rates and that you have set fair prices to both you and your client is important. Don't drop your rates to match those of freelancers from other countries. This isn't realistic and this isn't fair to you. Although you may lose a lot of bids to lower bidders, uphold your self worth and you will win projects. The way that freelancers from
What should you write in the pm? You need to make sure that you personalize your private message so that they employer knows that you think that their project is important. Make sure to briefly restate the project details. This way the employer knows that you read and comprehend the project description. You should then describe your experience and how it pertains to their project. You should mention how long the project should take and how much the completed project should cost (employers usually prefer to hear how much the entire project will cost instead of a per hour rate).to complete the project.
Also, make sure that you and your clients have a good relationship and that you are satisfying their needs. Elance buyers have a chance to review your work at the end of each project. If you get even one bad review, this could mean that buyers won't take your bids seriously anymore. They might look at your low review(s) and think that you aren't honest or that you aren't good at what you do. You will find that the more positive feedback that you receive on Elance, the better that your reputation will be.
I recommend using Elance to boost your freelance career. Good luck Elancing!
Click here for a list of other Freelance Job Boards that you can use to boost your freelance career.
Here are more articles with tips for finding freelance jobs and winning bids on freelance projects.
Here are even more articles on finding and winning freelance projects.
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6 Comments
If you're interested in freelancing, you should check out oDesk (http://www.odesk.com) Many marketplace sites have similar features, but oDesk offers several unique advantages:
1. No membership fees, ever. You set your own rates. We charge a 10% commission on what you make.
2. Guaranteed payment for hourly work. Hours are automatically logged through our oDesk Team software, and payment is guaranteed.
3. Large project size. Our hourly projects work out to over $3,000 on average.
4. Flexibility. Did you or the customer come up with a bunch of new ideas that will take longer than you expected? No problem—you'll be paid for every hour you work, and with oDesk Team's regular screenshots, you can show the Buyer what you're doing every step of the way.
5. Tools. Our free tools make it easy to collaborate with your buyer and all your team members. Track tasks through Bugzilla and remember every change ever made to your files with our SVN source code repository.
Good luck freelancing!
~Michelle, oDesk
http://www.odesk.com
My perspective on this is entirely different. If you're having trouble finding clients, focus all your energy and spare time learning to market yourself!
Examples: are you priced incorrectly for your market? Does your website look cheap and unprofessional (or is it non-existent)? Do you clearly explain how you are different than other freelancers? Do you meet with clients in a suit or in jeans? The answers to all of these questions are part of your marketing message.
eLance, Guru, and such have NOTHING to do with finding clients. They are about competing in a global market for projects. Companies that outsource projects on eLance have exactly one thing on their mind: get a non-strategic project completed with as little money as possible. They don't care about establishing the relationship necessary so that you can work on the strategic projects, and those are the ones that get the most money, so that's where you -- as a freelancer -- want to be.
My recommendation: focus on finding local clients that need the type of services you can provide and are looking to establish a long-term relationship. Clients WANT their strategic consultants to live nearby, so that they can have a face-to-face meeting if necessary.
How to find these clients?
1. Create a compelling web site, so that customers who find your web site want to call you, because you offer them something no one else is offering. Even if you think you offer exactly what other freelancers are offering, you need to figure out how you offer something better/bigger/faster/whatever. And hammer that message home when you get the potential client's attention.
2. Make sure your web site is visible. That means you either get into any directory that a client might look to find you, tuning your site so that you show up really high in the search results for the keywords that relate to your services (e.g., Austin software development), and/or paying per-click advertising (recommend: Google).
If you go the directory route and you're technical, I recommend FreelanceLocalTech.com, which is free to post a blurb about your services and is organized around the idea that you are looking for local clients and local clients are looking for someone like you.
Don't bother posting your resume on a job site unless you're looking for a contract position (which defeats the purpose of being a freelancer) or a full-time job. Clients looking for freelancers don't look at monster/dice/etc.
3. When you get a client to call you, do everything to close the deal! If the customer sounds worthwhile, set up a meeting and make sure you "wow" them in the meeting. That's the best part about focusing on local clients: you get to meet with them face-to-face and close the deal. eLance/Guru/etc.: you're a faceless bidder from another country or another planet.
Focus locally. Focus on relationship building. Focus on marketing.
Avoid faceless bidding on one-shot projects.
-- Andy.
Just a quick note about on another site that just started up, http://www.freelancewar.com. No commission fees, or monthly service fees. New site, but slowly growing. worth a shot.
Andy - thanks for GREAT advice about marketing yourself locally. I'm a web designer just started browsing those freelance sites and quickly realized I would be stressing myself out trying to compete with people willing to work for pennies. There are many more clients locally who are eager to build a working relationship with someone they can meet face to face and who is willing to train them when needed.
Hi
I am a fashion designer from india and doing a customised designing for party and wedding. Here I am lokking for a freelancing designing job related to design party or bridal wear.
Excellent article! Thank you!!!
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