Free Training - How to Become a Successful Freelancer

2009-02-05T15:27:00.000-08:00

How to Become a Freelancer With No Money Down

Introduction

As the old saying goes an ounce of planning is worth a pound of cure. If you wish to be successful as a freelancer you would need planning, probably little more than an ounce! In this age of corporate business you cannot deny the importance of planning. For utilizing your time fruitfully on a job or while enjoying a vacation you need PLANNING. Likewise, to be successful as a freelancer you need to plan ahead before you jump into the venture.

Like many other fields, Internet has dramatically changed the way assignments are completed by freelancers. With the widespread use of Internet many online marketplaces have come up that work as a catalyst or like a bridge between a freelancer and an online buyer. GetAFreelancers is one of the top freelance sites online.

GetAFreelancer is owned by a Swedish company, Innovate IT. It started its operation in February 2004 and soon came up as one of the top players in the freelance industry. Number of posted projects till date is 337,840, and number of verified users is 699,509. The volume of transaction is $29,748,800, till date (late December, 2008). On a Sunday, the average number of jobs posted is 277 and number of verified users using the site is 483. With these statistics it is quite clear that the site is growing at an impressive rate.

If you decide to establish yourself as a successful freelancer, irrespective of your core competence, you should get yourself associated with a forum like GAF. This online marketplace has over 50 categories on which projects are posted like .NET, AJAX, XML, ASP, Flash, Ruby/Ruby on Rails, Visual Basic, Website Security, Java, Perl/CGI, PHP, Python, J2EE, JSP, Linux, Os Commerce, Script Installation, Cold Fusion, C/C++, Link Building, Market Research, Photography, Project Management, Translation, Accounting/Bookkeeping, Audio Services, Data Entry, Data Processing, Photoshop, Proofreading, SEO, Engineering, Electronics, Website Design, Graphic Design, Banner Design, Copy writing, Logo Design, Training, and many more.
With this exhaustive list it is clear that almost all professionals would find some project matching his or her area of specialization. As mentioned earlier, planning, and in terms of project management, pre planning is extremely important to make any venture successful, first you have to set a realistic goal.

Even before that you should try to find out the answers of these questions very clearly:

Why you wish to become a freelancer?

Is it by choice or by some compulsion that makes it impossible for you to accept an office-based assignment?

Are you taking up freelance jobs beside your regular job for some extra income?

Answers to these questions will guide you to adopt a full proof strategy in planning the steps.
For example, if you are taking up freelance assignments for some extra income, you have to first find out how much time you can spend daily/weekly for your freelance assignments? Depending on this you should decide on the volume of job you are going to take up in general.
There are more such issues that we intend to discuss in this tutorial. Happy reading!

Let’s get started: Identify your core competence

Your very first step, even before you start clicking on all those lucrative job leads, will be to prepare yourself for the fierce competition. For this you need to identify your core competence and a detailed self-assessment. Initially this would look like a Herculean task. However, it is extremely essential that you identify your likes and dislikes and strengths and weaknesses, so that you can find assignments that are satisfying as well as enjoyable. The steps are

To review your existing resume:

Make a clear list of all the positions you have worked for. For each job, list the things you liked and why. For each of them also list the things you did not like and why. If you are a fresher, you should carefully scan the type of assignments you liked doing most and confident on doing them professionally. This step may lead you to acquire some additional skills to become professionally ready for the market.

Identify works that you really enjoy doing.

After successfully completing the first step you should be able to list at least ten jobs that you really love to do. You should explore all areas of activity including recreation, volunteering, sports, community, church involvement, clubs, hobbies, etc. There may be some branches which you always took up as hobby (for example, photography) but may now utilize it as a freelancer.
From this list of ten, identify the top four or five activities in which you are most interested.

Then ask yourself these two questions:

*Are you really passionate about any of them?

*Do they suggest some shift in career directions?

For example, you were attending a regular office till your kid was born. After that, as a busy father or mother, you realized that you need to spend more time with the kid and opted for some home-based freelancing job. You loved reading and writing and always contributed to the organization newsletter. Now you may think of exploiting your writing skill to become a freelance writer.

Identify how you are going to make a difference

To become successful as a freelancer you must highlight your technical or functional (soft) skills. To stand out from the crowd, take help of the top ten list you have prepared and, on each job, list the best accomplishments you have achieved.

This list will define how you are going to make a difference and how you plan to add value to the projects. The list of accomplishments is going to be the solid and tangible way to focus on your core competencies.

Study your personal characteristics and values

Write down the top ten adjectives/phrases that describe your personality. While preparing the list consider both positive and negative traits.

Likewise values are things that you respect and things that you want to retain. They may change as circumstances change. Therefore, reviewing them frequently is important. It is important, as your values should match with the assignments you are going to take up.
Whenever you review an assignment, review the culture/value before accepting the proposal. Values contradicting yours may restrict you to give it your best shot and it would be reflected in the quality.

Prepare an appealing profile

Now you are armed with all the inputs you need to present yourself in front of the online buyers. But wait! You need to present yourself professionally and for that you need to have an appealing profile. Nobody ever found job on the basis of a profile or resume alone, and, very few have gotten one without it. Your resume is a means of putting your value or worth to potential employers/buyers.

A resume is firstly a brief description of carefully selected historical facts about you, and secondly a means to stress on your core competencies. The profile should be deliberately prearranged to

**Clearly demonstrate your strengths/skills/core competencies
**Show how you have added value to previous organizations/assignment*
**Exhibit your professionalism and seriousness in approaching the online marketplace/buyer
**Introduce you to the buyer with relevant information
**For a freelancer who is going to place the profile in forums like GAF, this section should have brief description on types of projects handled in the past and should be upgraded frequently. If your proposal is found to be interesting to the online buyers, he or she only have you profile to know more about you and your competencies.

Guidelines to prepare the profile

Prepare the profile yourself: You are the best person to project yourself the best with your skills and expertise.

Register an email ID for specifically handling GAF projects. Select an appropriate name to set up your account. You may select some name that cleverly points out your core competence.
Present yourself positively and accurately and make the descriptions short and simple.
Your profile should be the showcase of your accomplishments. It should clearly state your strengths, your skills, and your core competencies.

Stress on how you are going to add value to the types of assignments you are going to take up.
The first section of your profile is quite critical. Many online buyers never browse beyond it. Make sure that important points are stated clearly in the introductory section.

Use separate bullets for each points you would like to stress, as it makes your profile a faster read.

Start each statement with an action verb.

Quantify your accomplishments as specific numbers almost always sell!

Simplify professional/technical jargon to make them understandable to the buyer.
For GAF it is mandatory to include per hour rate and you should decide on this critically before setting up your profile. You may visit some other providers’ profile to get an idea on the amount.
Upload your logo and link to your website, if you have one. This definitely makes you ahead of others as your services are perceived to be professional and of better quality. These days, with open source software it is extremely easy to prepare an appealing website, even if you do not have much technical skill.

In the profile or in your website include what the buyers have to tell about your services. You can provide sample jobs (software, websites, articles, graphic design, etc.) that you have successfully completed.

There will be several categories from which you should select the ones that match your core competencies. Depending on your selection you will receive project notification from the forum. For example if you select data entry, photography, project management, translation, graphic design, and SEO, projects related to these assignments will be sent to your email address.
In GAF, there are four options that you can include as your skills and also describe your vision statement and some relevant keywords describing your skills.

Identify the right job

Once you are armed with your profile start digging GAF on the available open projects. You can search for open projects in two ways. Once you have registered with GAF they will start sending you emails with bunch of job posting notifications that match with the skills specified by you and the keywords. Second, you can go directly to GAF site and search for open projects. The second process becomes necessary if, due to some technical reason, you stop receiving project
notification emails from GAF in your mailbox. In this case the only option would be to visit the page (http://www.getafreelancer.com/affiliates/sandy94541/) listing all open projects.

In this page you can see projects listed under two classes. The first group has newest 100 featured projects and the second group has general projects. All the jobs are classified under categories like Project name, No. of bids placed, Value of the Average bid, Job Type, Start date, and End date. Along with the project name you will also find useful tags like Featured, Urgent, or Nonpublic. For viewing nonpublic projects you will have to log in using your GAF ID and password. These project descriptions are restricted and cannot be spidered or crawled by the search engines like Google or Yahoo.

General projects are also tabulated under the same classes and come with tags like projects for which only gold members can bid or projects that are open for freelancers who do not have a feedback. Here we are going to present two very important concepts of GAF. They are Gold membership and Rating system.

In GAF, you can initially become a member for free. In this case no membership fee will be charged but once you win a project and subsequently get paid for it, a fee worth 10% of the project cost or $5 (whichever is greater) will be deducted. For example, if you win a project for $30, the fee taken as commission will be $5, but for a project for $100, the fee will be $10. When you become a Gold member you are charged a monthly fee of $12 and no commission fee is deducted from your account.

It has been found that almost 70% projects are won by Gold members. They are perceived to be more professional and capable of providing better quality. It is therefore recommended that you become a Gold member to enjoy its dual benefits.
GAF has a well-established rating system as well. Buyer and providers each rate the other on a scale of 10. The more you win projects and receive positive feedback (10 on 10) more your credibility is established. The comments and ratings placed by your clients are very critical and it can greatly influence your success in GAF. Other than quality, communication and attitude plays important role toward a positive feedback. We will discuss these issues later in detail.

Identifying the right job:

Once you have uploaded your profile and all set to start your venture as a freelancer in GAF, you will have to scan the available projects that match your skill set. You can filter your searches using the appropriate categories. GAF will also send you project notifications. On an average you will receive 40 to 60 notifications with links to the projects matching your preset criteria. With the project title you will be able to guess the type of the project.

Once you have selected few of them, open them one by one. The first section will show you the status of the project, Open, Closed (with selected service provider), or canceled. If the status is open, you can place your bid on the job.

The next section will specify the budget. The minimum amount for GAF project is $30.
Next two sections will specify the date of creation of the project and the date of closure with specifying number of days and hour left.

Next will be the description of the buyer with his/her status and number of feed backs. The buyer profile and the rating are hyper linked and therefore you can quickly visit the pages to know about the buyer and what other providers have said about his/her projects.

The next section, which is the Project description, is extremely important for you. You must carefully read it and make a note of the main points like the extent of the project, if the buyer is specifying any specific rates, or if the information supplied are sufficient to place a bid.
“Job type” section that comes next specifies the type of job and Database and Operating system section specifies technical skills needed for the project.

Next section tells you on the number of bids already placed on the project and the last section tells you about the average bid amount if the buyer wishes to inform this to the bidders.

Two buttons appearing below this table, “View Project Clarification Board” and “Post Message on Project Clarification Board” are very important. In the first place, the buyer specifies points which are not discussed in the project description and in the second link you may ask the buyer for some particular information that is necessary for you to decide on your bid.

If the project description is self-explanatory and you could comprehend the requirements, you can go ahead and place your bid in the project. This link will direct you to another page where you will have to specify “Your bid for the total project”, number of days you would take to complete the project, and the details of your bid. In many cases this section is hidden by the project creator. In this case only you can see you bid details. But, in many projects these are visible to everyone. In both the cases it is better to keep this message short and discuss the bid details in the Private Message Board or PMB.

There is a provision in GAF where you will be notified if anyone places a bid lower than you. Now you are ready to place the bid.

Once you go back to the project description page and click on the Post PM button, it will open a new page for you where you will be able to place the detailed proposal. You will also find an option to upload one file that you wish to project as a sample of your quality.

You may place a “placeholder” bid and provide the detail only in the PMB page.
Creating the message for this page is extremely important. You should carefully draft a small, concise proposal specifically customized for the project. It should not have spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Remember, other than your sample file, this is the only communication you are going to develop with the buyer. Therefore, it should reflect your attentive attitude. The buyer should realize that you have carefully gone through the project description, paid attention to minute details, and serious on doing the job.

Keep the message brief but stress on the positive points you have and what is your USP (quality, commitment, sincerity, etc.). When you specify the days you are going to take to finish the job, always keep a buffer of 2-5 days. You should always try to finish the project before the date you have specified and believe in “under promise—over deliver”.

Communication: Factors that make your proposals unique

Congratulation!! You have received your first Private Message which has been delivered by GAF in your mailbox. Carefully go through the message to find out what the buyer is asking for. Is he/she asking for more information or requesting you to provide some more samples, or asking for negotiating the rates? In many cases it is found that for new providers the buyer remains slightly apprehensive and asks for a sample specifically created for his/her project. The buyer may or may not agree to pay for the sample assignment. However, you should take the risk and consider this as an investment. If the buyer likes the sample you will win the project. Otherwise, you may consider this as another sample which you may show to your future buyers.

Your communication is very crucial in this stage. The first factor will be promptness. You should get back to the buyer with the answers to his/her queries as soon as possible. If you and your buyer are in the same time zone it is easy. Otherwise, you should reply back to the buyer within 5-6 hours. But do not write messages hastily. Read carefully and then reply accordingly.

In your communication make it clear that you would prefer escrow transfer for the payment. In this the sum both the parties agreed upon will be secured in an escrow account. The buyer transfers the amount into the escrow but it is not added to the freelancers account. Once the assignment is accomplished successfully, this sum will be released following the buyer’s instruction. Only the provider can cancel it. This protects the interest of both the parties and minimizes the chances of future disputes.

Accepting the job

Wow!! GAF just now notified you that your bid for the “Project ABC” has been accepted by the service buyer! Time for celebration…but hold on… there are many more important things to finish first. For example, the very first step would be to accept the project following the link. You must show your promptness in accepting otherwise the buyer may change his/her mind and select someone else.

Once you accept the assignment GAF will send you the email address of the buyer with whom you should contact immediately. Politely show your gratitude and ask him/her for additional information he or she may have for you. Also ask the buyer to set up the escrow so that you can start working on the project.

Once you receive the message that the escrow has been set, confirm the buyer that you are proceeding with the project.

If it is a multi-stage project keep the buyer informed at every stage. This is important!!
Successful Completion of the job and payment

Once you have finished the task you should submit it to the buyer for acceptance. The buyer may either find it satisfactory or may suggest modifications or changes. You must carry out the changes as suggested if it lies within the realm of the proposal. But if the buyer now asks you for something that is entirely different from the initial briefing or description, you should calmly try to make him/her realize your limitations. If it requires substantial rework on your part you should ask the buyer for the additional pay. This type of situation happens rarely as the assignments and their timely completion is important to the buyer as well. And, in most of the cases, the projects are created by the buyer explicitly describing the deliverables and expectations.

In general, once the job is accepted by the buyer, he/she releases the money from the escrow and depending on the membership plan the amount is released and transferred to your account. The buyer in ideal case should place a feedback. Otherwise, you can place a feedback and request the buyer to post a feedback on your service.

When you are working as a full-time freelancer it is more likely that you would be handling more than one project simultaneously. In this case it is very important that you manage them efficiently. Whenever you receive a project prepare a separate folder and name it in a way so that you can locate it quickly. Create a file that will have all the project details, including project description, subsequent instructions, communication, etc. Before starting with the project and during the project also you should frequently visit this document to ensure that you are moving in the right direction.

Hey!! Here comes your second project…… Carry on!

GLOSSARY:

Bid: A formal proposal to the buyer from the freelancer that contains all necessary details so that the buyer can evaluate the merit of the proposal.

Escrow: Escrow is a method of transferring/exchanging money/property using an impartial third party (here it is GAF). When a buyer and a freelancer agree on an amount, the buyer transfers the money in GAF escrow but it is not added in the freelancers account. When the job is successfully completed the buyer instructs the portal to release the amount and it gets transferred to the freelancer’s account. The freelancer only can cancel the payment and the buyer only can transfer the payment. It secures the interests of both the parties.
Featured Project: Projects with higher priorities and buyers receive more proposal in this than usual projects. These projects are free form project posting charges.

Feedback/Ratings: The rating system for buyers as well as service providers in GAF. They are rated by the other on a scale of 10. Buyers and providers with more positive (10 on 10) ratings are perceived to be better than others.

Freelancing/Freelancer: A person who acts autonomously without being associated with or endorsed by an organization or a person who pursues an occupation without any long-term obligation to any one particular employer.

Get A Freelancer: One of the major online marketplaces for freelancers and online buyers.
Gold Membership: It is a paid membership in GAF where the member pays a charge of $12 every month. A symbol with G inscribed in a circle appears beside the name of the provider/buyer. Gold members are perceived to be more professional and better than standard providers in terms of quality. No project fees are deducted in case of gold members.

Job types: Different types of jobs that are posted on online forums like GAF

Nonpublic Project: Projects whose descriptions are not crawled by search engines. This provides safety to the client who does not wish their project description to appear on search engine listing.
Placeholder: An arbitrary amount mentioned in the bid. The freelancer normally places a placeholder bid when he or she cannot decide on the exact amount on the basis of given project detail. In the private message he/she clarifies the amount or specifies any other particular conditions.

Post Message on Project Clarification: This is a messaging board provided by GAF where a freelancer can ask for more detail before placing a bid on the project. Generally, he or she asks for details that would help him/her on deciding the bid amount.

Private Message Board: A platform provided by GAF where the buyer and the freelancer discuss the project and its details before the job is finally assigned to the freelancer. In this stage both the parties interact only through this message board.

Profile: Resume or bio data describing achievements of a person.
Project Clarification board: This is a messaging board where the buyer provides additional information to the freelancers.

Skill sets: Jobs in which a person is proficient or expert.

Status Report: A report to inform the buyer on the progress of a project. The freelancer keeps on informing the buyer on the status of the assignment or any rescheduling that may be needed.

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