How To Get Started Freelancing

// July 3rd, 2008 // Uncategorized, Useful&Interesting Discusions

I’ve been lurking in these forums for a few months and have posted a couple of one-liners, but I feel like Digital Point and its members have taught me so much that I owe this community something more substantial than trite comments and zingers.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people ask questions about where they can get jobs and what they should charge. I haven’t been freelancing long so I’m not an expert, but I have built an income of around $1,000 per month working part-time and it only took me a few months to do it. If nothing else, I hope this post will help people who are just starting out.

Here are a couple of tips that helped me get started. Hopefully some of you will find it useful.

Join Elance

I expect a couple of hate posts for this suggestion. I’ve read multiple posts that bash this site for charging a monthly fee and a percentage of earnings. However, I found that this site gives better quality jobs than other freelance sites and I can make 10 times my monthly fee easily.

You can open a free account if you don’t want to spend the $10/month in the beginning, but you only get three connects which are basically three chances to bid on a job. I find that my bid is chosen for around 20% of the projects I bid on. I can influence this percentage somewhat by altering my bidding price for jobs- bringing me to my next point.

Alter Your Pay Rate

I got this idea when I read about a program that changes the price of event tickets based on demand. If there are a lot of people buying the tickets, the program automatically raises the price. When people stop buying, the price falls until the buying picks up again. I thought that formula would apply well to freelance writing.

Since my profile doesn’t have a lot of completed jobs, I tend to bid very competitively. Once I start getting work, I up my bids. The busier I get, the higher I bid. This system seems to work well because it allows you to raise your rates naturally until you find equilibrium.

The system works because as you get busier you’re bidding higher and taking on higher paying clients. When those clients become regulars, your minimum bid goes up because you’re backed up with higher paying work. The unfortunate end is that you may have to drop some of your lower paying clients. However, you might be surprised at how many won’t mind paying you a higher rate.

Conventional wisdom says to charge what you’re worth and stick with it. However, newbies like us don’t have the luxury of turning away work. By raising your rates to match your workload, you can work on getting higher paying clients without going through long stretches without work (and money).

Run It Like A Business

The people who use you consistently are people who need professionals who deliver high-quality content on time. In my mind, the only reason to miss a deadline is if the client is not ready to take delivery. You can find good writers and good business people, but it’s much more difficult to find people who are both. If you write well and conduct yourself professionally, you shouldn’t have any problems finding work.

Article by Randy Laboy

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