Winning Bids on Freelance Sites: Increase Your Chances

Getting work on freelance sites is increasingly becoming a hard thing especially if you are just starting. But, it is very possible to get freelance work if you are a beginner. One of the reasons you have failed to get work is not knowing what to do, not knowing what the clients are looking out for. It is much easier to sell clients when you know exactly how to present yourself and what they expect from you.

Phil Turner from Time Money Problem said, “I have hired freelancers on eLance (Not competition sites) – My first criterion was always the freelancer's English skills. Many profiles have English errors and bids contain many more examples of poor English”.

There are tons of clients out there just like Mr Turner who emphasize on English skills. Most freelance platforms have exams that you can take, and then reward you with a badge upon passing. I recommend you take the English exams considering that most clients (especially on Freelancer.com) now need you to have passed the US English exam.

Passing the English exam and having the badge on your profile is not all. You also need to write a good profile. Make sure you don’t have any grammar and spelling errors. It is important to include all the things you can do in your profile just in case the potential client needs other services.
He also added that, other turnoffs include; feedback relating to non-communication, and lack of basic skills.

One thing I always fight is getting a negative feedback. They can affect your freelance career so badly and getting new clients becomes you biggest problem. So, to avoid that, always make sure you communicate any difficulties, problems, deadline issues to your clients before they get to you.
This does not only build a good working relationship, but also saves your client’s business especially if they were sub contracting to you.

Doyan Wilfred from HowtoGetMoreSalesOnline.com says, “I look into the potential freelancer’s past projects and credentials (if its provided). I try to work with those who are easy to talk to”. She added, “I wish more freelancers would implement a hassle-free sequence of events –may be automate the process to save time, money and energy of both the employer and the freelancer”.
She recommends that every freelancer should include a link to their portfolio website, ask employers to sign up to mail list, and attach a brochure to your welcome email.

Having a portfolio website helps you to easily show your potential employer the work you have done. Look at it like your showroom. Creating your portfolio website can be a hassle especially if you are not into web designing. If you can’t or just want a customized design, you can actually outsource and have someone design it for you on the same freelance sites. But, if you are working on a tight budget, there are tons of free portfolio website themes and templates that you can use.

Make sure to have all the necessary information on your site. Include your rates, what you do and don’t do, and testimonials if you have any. If you have feedback on any freelance sites, snip them and add them as images on your site. You can actually turn all this info and put them in a brochure that you can attach to your emails. Even better attach them to your bids of proposals.

This enables the employer find all they want to know about you and your services in one place hence saving time and making it easy to hire you.
It is also necessary you have a signup form on your site. You should also encourage employers to sign up to your mail list.

This will let you to directly email your employers about any offers or new services you may be offering. You can use MailChimp for this. It is Free for upto 2000 contacts.Allow employers to schedule appointments with you.

Sometimes you miss out on freelance work just because you are not online. It would be easier just to add your other contact details for the employer to use when you are offline but all most all freelance job sites don’t allow you to do that.

So you have two options;
1. To include your online working hours.
2. To allow employers to schedule appointments with you.

This is better because you offer the employer the flexibility to talk to you at the time that is more convenient to them. You can use services like vCita or setmore. Both will sync to your Google )

Getting freelance work is easy once you know how. There is a myth going round that freelance work is now hard to get because more people are on freelance websites. That is absolutely wrong. Actually there are more freelance opportunities because new companies are now thinking of outsourcing and many freelancers are now sub contracting.

If you are just starting, there is no need to worry because a lot of employers are looking for new freelancers. The reason is simple; they want cheap services and established freelancers are often expensive. Just make sure you use the tips above and you will win projects on freelance websites