Freelancing from A to Z

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1 Introduction

A Freelancer is someone who works by selling his services by the hour or project, rather than
working on a regular salary, and works with multiple clients.

While freelancing is something you can do as an offline business, in this material we will be
focusing exclusively on online freelancing, where you get jobs online and work from home
without meeting the clients in person.

After completing this material you will know:

• where to find jobs

Beside the freelancing experience, I have hired a lot of freelancers for different jobs so I know
the mistakes other freelancers make which you can use to your advantage. This information
helped me winning more jobs and getting paid more.

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2 Where do you find jobs?

The first and most used website is: https://www.upwork.com/

The second one is: https://www.freelancer.com/

You can create an account for free on both of them.

We won't cover step by step instructions on all the validations and specific platform interface,
since they can change. The focus in on how to get jobs and not create a user manual of the
platform.

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3 What kind of jobs can you get?

This is a very broad question, since it depends on your skills.

The jobs everyone can do are in the following fields:

Data Entry

This kind of jobs usually require you to create a list with certain information in a specific format
from a given source.

Example: Search for dog food products on Amazon. Write down the link, title, description and
price of top 50 results.

Another type of job in this category is to actual enter data on a platform.

Example: Provided with a youtube login account, videos with titles and descriptions, upload the
videos to the youtube account with the given titles and descriptions.

Data entry jobs are easy and they don't require any specialized skills. All you need to know is to
use the internet, copy/paste links and text, or follow instructions to enter given data to a certain
platform (like youtube, facebook or other websites).

Web Research

These jobs require you to search for information. They are usually data entry jobs where you
have to search for the data yourself.

Example: Search for 50 entertainment videos on youtube that have more than 1,000,000 views
and are less than 5 minutes in different niches. Create a file where you include the links with
titles, description and number of views for each video.

The difference from the Amazon example presented in the Data Entry section, in this case you
are not given the exact niche and you have to be creative on how to search for the information.

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You will pursue by brainstorming potential entertainment areas like: funny dogs, silly cats, top
fails, etc. After you search for those you might look at the recommended videos from youtube
and discover other niches that fit the job requirement.

Writing Jobs

They include a wide range of possibilities.

Translations is one of them. You can leverage your native language (assuming it's not English)
or just another language you know to find jobs for translating text from English or to English.
Some clients prefer locals and not language majors because they know the culture and specific
jargon of that language, allowing the translations to be more realistic.

Example: Translate our product sales page from English to Spanish. Our goal is to enter the
Spanish speaking market. We require native speaker in order to translate the content in an
authentic manner.

Creative Writing / Rewriting is anything that requires you to write a piece of original content or
rewrite a provided one (or one that you have to search for).

Example: Write 3 articles containing 400-500 words for my health blog where you describe
common health problems and their remedies.

In this case you will have to search for health problems. For example you might choose
indigestion, spring flue and spring fatigue. You will google them, write down what they mean,
their symptoms, how to prevent and treat them and write your articles.

Example: Give these 10 article (links will be provided), rewrite them using different words, in
order for the content to be different and not a direct copy. Rewrite the titles as well.

In this case you will have to rewrite the content using your own words and structuring.

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Virtual Assistant

This means more projects and tasks. Usually it's a mix of web research, data entry and writing,
but with very specific instructions. These clients usually have a well defined workflow and will
provide step by step instructions.

They need virtual assistants to outsource easy tasks, where they already have a well defined step
by step process that it's easy to teach and outsource in order to clear their time and focus on other
aspects of their business that benefit more from their expertise.

Example: An online ecommerce website needing to add 10 new products a day.

The workflow could be like this:

They provide you the links to 10 new products from their suppliers. You will have to log into the
ecommerce website and create a new product listing. You will download the pictures provided
by the suppliers and upload them to the platform. You will write titles for the products. You will
set up the product price with provided prices or rules (for example set the price with 50% higher
than the purchasing price). You will write a short 50-200 words unique description of the
product. You will save all the settings and publish the listings live at 1 PM every day.

Example: Need someone to manage my Facebook page. You should make 10 posts a day. 5 posts
will be links to my website and 5 posts will be funny engaging images you will search for.

For this you'll need a Facebook account. The client will give you access to their page and a link
to his website. You will post daily 5 articles from his website. You will search for funny images
on google, 9gag, facebook pages or other source. You will download them and upload them to
his page.

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As you can see from this example, the jobs are a mix of data entry, research and writing. Another
important difference is that they require to do the same job over and over again.

Other jobs that require specific skills

While the focus here is to get jobs that everyone can do, applying for any job requires the same
process. If you have some specific skills you can get into other areas like: web development,
programming, graphical design, artistic design, maths, etc.

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4 Setting up your profile

While we won't go into specific details of each platform, here's what you need to know about
your profile.

Upload your picture! It doesn't have to be with you in a suit (you're a freelancer not a corporate
employer), but don't use a picture from you at the beach. You want to look casual, but still
professional and serious. A picture with your face smiling in regular clothes is the best.

The "CV"

All platforms have separate fields for your education and previous job experience. Use those
field for that. Don't include that information in the actual description of the profile.

Clients don't really care about your education. They are here because they know it's the place
where they can find people to their job. You will convince them you can do the job when you'll
apply for their job, not through your profile. Most of them don't even check your profile, those
who do, do it to see if they can trust you.

Your goal in the description is to build trust, not to display your academic achievements. That's
the main difference from a CV you usually send to companies for a full time job.

So what exactly are you supposed to write here?

Example: I am determined to over deliver at any project I work on. Why? A happy client is a
returning client. For the same reason I only take jobs where I'm 100% confident I can deliver the
best results in the shortest amount of time. I can do that because I'm well organized, methodic
about how I approach each project and hardworking. Looking forward to doing business
together.

Notice how you present the benefits the client will get if they chose you, even though you talk
about yourself. That's all they care about, what's in it for them if they chose you. They don't care
about your skills or experience, they only care if you'll get the job done (of course you need to

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have the required skills to do it, but there are others who have them so they are interested in
what's extra about you).

Bad Example: I've been a model employee at my current job for 5 years. I'm a loyal hardworking
person with high ethics. I take work very seriously. My academic studies help me deliver the
jobs on time. My skills are: writing, data entry and research.

Why is it bad? They don't care you've been a model employee. You could've been the
troublemaker at your work, if you get his job done it doesn't matter since he doesn't interact you
with in real life. High ethics, hardworking...yeah everyone has those. The skills? Well he already
assumes you have the skills since you applied for the job. Other extra skills? If they are not
required for the job they don't matter.

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5 Bidding for jobs

This is probably the most important part.

In this section we will cover what to write to the potential client and the mistakes most of your
competition does and how you can benefit from it.

We will cover pricing and project selection in the next sections.

Mass biding vs Individual bidding

There are two strategies to bid on project. The first one is to have a generic message and bid to as
many projects as you can.

That's the first mistake!

You might expect that the quantity of bids will turn out to bring you more jobs. But guess what?
You'll probably get none.

I'll tell you my experience as a client. I was surprised at how many bids contained generic
message. They look something like this:

Hello sir,

I'm a freelancer with the following skills: x,x,x,x

My previous jobs were: x,x,x,x

I'm sure I'm a great fit for your project, having all the required skills. Looking forward to
working together.

They use generic messages and they don't read the job descriptions. Why would I want to hire
him if he didn't even read what I need? Yeah, great portfolio, but I prefer someone who reads
what I need and assures me he can complete THIS particular job.

Conclusion: Mass bidding doesn't work. Individual bidding is the way to go.

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Note: If you want to make a test for fun, try mass bidding and see for yourself that not only you
won't get any jobs, you won't even get a response most of the times. You will be instantly
ignored.

Before you start writing your message you need to do the following essential things:

- read the description of the job

- understand the requirements of the job

I know it sounds obvious, but I was shocked that 90% of the bidders didn't read the description
carefully or read it at all.

But that's a great thing for you, less competition!

You should be 100% sure you understand what the job is and 100% sure you can do it.
Sometimes you'll be tempted to read between lines. Don't!

You might not get the job because the client who fully understands what he wants will deduce
from your message that you don't fully understand what he wants. If there's some other bidder
who convinces him right away, he won't bother messaging you back to clear things out.

Or worse, you could get the job and you might not be able to perform a certain task which will
lead into complications like not getting paid, working overtime, getting bad reviews, etc.

Meta things to look for in the job description

Because of the big issue with freelancers not reading the description properly and wasting clients
time, the industry developed some filtering mechanisms. I'm going to explain them to you so you
will be able to bypass them.

1. The most common one is when the client asks you do include something in your message. It's
something random.

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For example, somewhere in the job description you might see this weird line: "Include the word
"happy bird" in your message when applying for this job" or "Start your message with the words
"crazy world"".

Why do they do that?

They can instantly filter out bots that post generic bids (as explained earlier) and freelancers who
don't fully read the description.

Even if you find it weird and might be tempted to ignore it, don't. (I had freelancers bid at my
projects including such a message, who read the description and were fit for the job, but for some
reason they decided not to include the meta words). They asked for it, do it. Don't sabotage
yourself.

2. Another variation of this is something like: "In the first line of your message answer the
following question: What's your favorite color?"

The reason for doing this is the same. I've read that some biding bots are able to search for the
meta words from point 1 and include them in their messages. This second method gets rid of
them.

3. Another variation is when the client asks to bid a predefined price. Ex: "In order to make sure
you've read this description, when bidding use $30 to make sure you've read the job"

Do it! It doesn't mean that's their budget. If they have a fixed budget they will just say that: I
have a $30 fixed budget for this.

Make your bid $30, as asked and after discussing the project you can name the real price you
want.

Now that we got the meta things out of the way, let's continue...

How do you start your message? Hello sir or Hey

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(If the job description asks you to start your message with a meta word, start with that)

You need to understand your customer (in this case the client). They are usually freelancers or
small business owners. They are not from the corporate word where everything is stiff.

While there probably won't be any issue if you go the formal route of "Hello sir", I personally
prefer (and think it's better) to have a more friendly business relationship. The benefit is that the
discussion will work better, there will be more transparency, the communication will be easier
and without tension.

It might not sound that important, but it's a big thing how you position yourself towards other
people you have contact with (in life in general, and in business in particular). A first name basis
approach will fell like you are more like partners who will help each other (the client helps you
with jobs, you help them being more involved in his projects). A formal approach positions you
more as an employee. Everyone knows full time employees usually don't put their 100% best to
work all the time. It might not be a conscious decision but that's how our brain works and first
impressions matter.

I have never had any problems with clients wanted to be called sir.

Now don't get me wrong, you should still be professional and not go into extremes calling your
clients "mate", "friend", "bro". A relaxed business relationship doesn't mean you are pals.

If his name is public you should start with:

"Hello Bob"

If it's not, a "Hello" without the "sir" will do.

Note: I know in many cultures, especially the Asian ones it's common to use the word sir as a
form of respect. Most of your clients won't be from this culture, so make an effort even if it
seems counterintuitive for you.

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The actual message

There is no template here. Each project is unique and each message should be unique.

Let's look at some examples and analyze the elements you should pay attention to.

Example: Search for dog food products on Amazon. Write down the link, title, description and
price of top 50 results.

Message:

I'm very familiar with the Amazon search function since I often purchase from there.

I'll provide you the list of links, titles, description and price of the top 50 results, ordered by rank
in an excel, text file or any other format that's better for you.

I can start right away.

Thanks,

John

The job is very basic and everyone can do it. So why are you better? You are already familiar
with Amazon. (Others probably are too, but if they don't say it, your client's brain will remember
and prefer you).

Reiterate what the job is and say you will do it. This helps because it shows the client you read
and understood the job. (Remember, other bidders won't get so specific in their message. That's a
huge plus for you since it gets the client the feeling you are really involved and serious about his
project).

Add something extra: you offer to order the results and provide it in a desired format. The client
will probably say that when they award you the job. But seeing you have initiative and put a little
extra thought about his job will make him prefer you than others who seem only capable of
following strict orders and not going extra.

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It might not seem like much, being such a simple job. But if they have to choose from competent
freelancers they will chose the one which they consider trusty, capable and over delivers. You
can't really do much more for this simple job, but the impression you make still remains in the
customer's mind and they will chose you.

Example: Provided with a youtube login account, videos with titles and descriptions, upload the
videos to the youtube account with the given titles and descriptions.

Message:

I have a personal youtube account where I've uploaded videos in the past, so I'm familiar with
youtube's interface.

I'm able to start uploading your videos as soon as I receive all the files.

I have on question before my final bid. How many videos do you need uploaded?

First sentence shows your competence for this job. Second one reinforces that you've read the
description.

In the third one there's the new element: asking more details about the job.

Don't be afraid to ask more details. In this case the client didn't mention how many videos he
has. So you can't really estimate how much time you need for the job and what's your price.

Beside the actual necessity of the information, it shows the client, once again, that you think for
yourself and know the implications of the job.

Example exercise: Search for 50 entertainment videos on youtube that have more than 1,000,000
views and are less than 5 minutes in different niches. Create a file where you include the links
with titles, description and number of views for each video.

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Use this as an exercise and try to include all the applicable elements from the previous two
examples.

In the next examples I'll only highlight the new elements that are not present in the previous
examples.

Example: Write 3 articles containing 400-500 words for my health blog where you describe
common health problems and their remedies.

Message:

I've already did a bit of research and found more health problems that I could easily write 500
words articles about. For example spring flue, insomnia, indigestions, spring fatigue.

I can search for more so you can choose the ones that you think are better for your blog before
starting.

What do you think about them?

There's one thing that make clients happier beside getting their job done. A freelancer who
already does his homework and come with solutions before even starting the job.

From this certain client perspective, he will prefer this freelancer because he knows he got the
theme of the articles right. This eliminates a risk for them: that the freelancer might not choose
the appropriate themes. Even though it's less likely to mess up something like this,
psychologically the client is assured that with you he doesn't have to assume this risk.

Note: You shouldn't start doing the work upfront EVER. But if it's something that takes you 10
seconds like in this example, do it.

Notice the final question? It's in our instinct to answer questions addressed to us. Asking more
questions about the job or ideas is always a good think so you can start a conversation. If you
manage to chat with the client, you have a huge advantage in front of the others who don't get a

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response. Why? Because it's in our nature to feel safer and more confident about people we
know, and chatting is the first step of knowing someone.

Note: Do not ask stupid questions just for the love of asking questions. If you're asking questions
about things that are clear in the description that's a terrible thing. You leave the impression that
you haven't read or understand the job. Asking unrelated questions are bad too, because they
create the feeling you'll be wasting the client's time with useless things.

Example: Give these 10 article (links will be provided), rewrite them using different words, in
order for the content to be different and not a direct copy. Rewrite the titles as well.

Message:

I have written original content for articles as well as rewrites. You can see a few samples of my
rewritings here:

link

link

and my original writing here:

link

link

I'd like to receive the links of the articles you need rewritten in order to estimate the time
required and the price for my bid.

When you're starting out you might not have examples of previous work. That's why it's
important to keep track of your jobs and build a portfolio from where you can show examples of
your work.

Only show relevant work to the specific job. Unrelated work is just wasted time for the client,
which is a bad thing.

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Only show work that you consider to be the best. If the job was done so-so, it's better now to
show it.

Notice how I've started with the rewriting examples and not the original content. That's because
the client is interested in your ability to rewrite content. While the ability to write original
content translates very well (that's why included too) to rewriting skills, always show previous
results as close to the actual job.

Asking for the links to the articles shows that you've read the description. Also asking for them
before making your final estimations shows you know what you are doing and how to estimate a
job (denoting experience).

Example Exercise: Need someone to manage my Facebook page. You should make 10 posts a
day. 5 posts will be links to my website and 5 posts will be funny engaging images you will
search for.

Identify all the elements learnt so far and try to write a message.

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6 Importance of reviews/feedback

All freelancing websites have the option to leave a review after the project is completed. These
reviews are visible for everyone.

Every client will look at your reviews. EVERY CLIENT!

If you do the job well you will get perfect reviews most of the times.

But sometimes things don't work as expected. You need to be realistic and understand that
during your freelancing career something negative will happen.

Your internet might go down and you won't meet a deadline. The client didn't give you clear
instructions and they won't get the desired result.

Try to act professionally and resolve every dispute and misunderstanding, if they are reasonable.

If they just want to take deliberate advantage of you and make you do extra work you didn't
agree on just because they threaten you with a bad review, don't fall for it. They will still leave a
bad review and waste your time.

While I'll try my best to explain to you how to avoid such clients, it's inevitable to have such
experiences.

But don't worry, it happens to everyone. Just because you get a bad review it doesn't mean your
freelancing career is over.

New clients won't look only at the bad reviews. And when they look at the bad ones (from
people who want to take advantage of you) they can easily understand what happened.

Getting your first review is the ground braking thing for this business. Even if you have to be
underpaid for your first job, do it. Consider it the cost of business.

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After you get your first review you'll be able to get jobs so much easier. The difference in the
easiness of getting jobs having 1 or 1000 reviews doesn't compare to the difference the first
review makes.

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7 Bidding prices

Everyone values their time differently. $10 has different values around the world.

Make clear goals on what you realistically want to be paid for an hour of your work. Don't go
below that (unless you're just starting out and need that first review, or really love the job and it's
very fun for you).

Don't get intimidated by other smaller bids. They might be from bots that post on all projects or
from people who didn't read the job description. They won't get the job even with their low bids.

Now don't expect to win every project you bid on. That's why it's important to always keep an
eye for interesting jobs and bid to all of them.

Only bid to projects you know how to do.

Only bid on projects you clearly understand and know how much time they require, so you can
place a realistic bid.

If you need more details before placing your final bid, ask for them!

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8 Protecting yourself

1. Only start work after the client has deposited money in the escrow service the freelancing
platforms offer.

How that works? The client sends the money to the freelancing company. The keep the money
safe until the project is completed. After the project is completed the client has the option to
release the money. That's when you get the money in your account.

If for some reason they decide not to release the money, you have the option to create a dispute.
You will send the proof you've completed your work, the freelancing platform will evaluate it
and release the money.

If you don't ask for an escrow, such a client would go away without paying you and the platform
can't do anything about it.

If they refuse to deposit the money, that's a big red flag. If they say they are afraid you won't
complete the job and go away with the money, explain them how the escrow system works (in
case they really didn't know). If they still refuse to do it, ditch that client. There's no risk for him,
since he can create a dispute as well. This mechanism is meant to keep the client and the
freelancer safe.

I have old recurring clients that I trust. The only reason I don't ask for a deposit (if they don't do
it by default, most of them do), is to save time and get things started faster.

But never do that with people you don't know.

2. Fully understand the project details. Ask for all the details before starting the job. Have
everything explicitly stated in the chat you have with your client.

If you don't do that, you might find yourself asked to do extra work. In the worst case they were
deliberately vague in the description so they can force you do to more work and not pay
appropriately.

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Having everything clearly explained helps you win disputes. If you clearly agreed to perform
certain tasks, there's no way they can claim you didn't do your job.

3. Avoid clients who have lots of bad reviews.

You should check clients' feedback too. Mistakes and miscommunication happens. But if they
are a hobbit, that's a bad sign and you want to avoid that client.

4. Clients with no reviews/ first time posting jobs

In reality you should pay attention to all clients, even if they have lots of good reviews. Having
good reviews means there's a higher chance of everything going smoothly.

No matter who the client is, make sure that they agree to deposit the money into the escrow
service and make sure they clearly explain what the job is.

Remember the example with the uploading videos on youtube?

You should make sure they will answer how many videos. If they don't, they could ask you to
upload 100 when your bid was made for the time required to upload 10.

So make sure everything is clear before starting. I can't emphasize this enough!

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Final Cheat Sheet

1. Where to apply for jobs?

https://freelancer.com

https://upwork.com

2. Profile picture: casual, smiling picture of your face

3. Profile description: benefits for the clients

4. Individual bidding (never mass bidding)

5. Check out for meta tasks in the description (words to include in your bid, certain price,
questions)

6. Hi Bob or Hello (if no name)

7. First line: How are you familiar with the task? (Already used facebook, youtube, already
written articles, already did a similar job, etc.)

8. Reiterate the job and explain how you'll do it

9. Include previous RELATED work (if you've done any)

10. Add something extra (feedback, mini upfront research)

11. Ask for more details to make your final bid (if you need them)

12. Make sure everything is clear before starting

13. Only start after they've deposited the money in the escrow system

14. Always bid on jobs you qualify for

15. Don't underbid

16. Get that first job and review

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