3 Tips To Succeed In Elance Or Any Freelancing Site

If you’re new here, I’m James, or “JamestheJust on Elance” as I have tagged myself on just about every blog I comment on. If you’ve found my site, likely you clicked on my hyperlinked name there and already know that’s who I am – let me tell you, I sort of wish I didn’t do that because I’m up to my eyes in work right now. Since I am so busy – and I actually thought this was “normal” for everyone on Elance because I’m naive that way – I figure I’d let you in on a few tips that may or may not have crossed your mind. These are 3 tips to succeed in Elance – or actually any freelancing site. Notice, I didn’t say the “top three” nor did I claim these “guarantee” you’ll make it.

If you don’t like these three tips, then Elance beat me two fold and change, with their post “Win More Jobs On Elance With These 7 Tips” – and they’re solid tips!

Nonetheless, they work consistently well for me and I know there are those who would like to get past the frustrating first few weeks…or months…or whatever the dry period may be. The titles are written from the client-side, which is a tip in itself: put yourself in their shoes. Whatever you are, whatever you do online and whatever category you’ve selected for your services, you need to know that you are at bottom in customer service.

1. You’re One in 6 Billion – Why Should I Hire You?

Credibility gets you everywhere. Pretend you live in Missouri for a second, the “Show Me State.” You’ll need to somehow prove your stuff to your prospective clients. The way you do that is different in every niche, and apart from having a college degree (verify that credential in the profile building stage), you’ll need to be sure that you somehow can show your prospective client that you’ve got the goods.

It doesn’t matter how big you were or are in your home town, no matter that you were the valedictorian or what have you – you are one person in six billion, and your prospect has a finite budget. Why should he or she spend those hard-earned dollars on a perfect stranger, who could be a mighty fine scam artist?

The biggest obstacle to overcome in any business venture is trust. Why should the prospect trust you? Elance takes care of that with tests that you can take to verify your proficiency in your niche, and I’d strongly suggest you take those tests…and re-take them…I personally failed miserably in all things SEO until I found the need to SEO my own sites, now I can test pretty highly on those things. What I did was look up a bunch of Ezine articles and such after I failed in a few areas (I consider a “C” utter failure…despite the name of my blog).

You’ll also be able to verify your credentials for school, employment, etc. Furthermore, you can build a portfolio for your profile. If you look on my portfolio you’ll find *nothing* there, I just haven’t personally had the need to do it yet. Why is that? Because my first few jobs, I *worked for the referrals* practically.

This is important, and boils down to one thing: trust. The #1 objection to getting hired in any setting is trust: why should I spend money on you, if I don’t know you? Why should I trust you? The biggest bet in credibility on Elance is word of mouth. Other employers have trusted me – and I kept that snowball going.

2. How Can You Reduce My Risk?

This is ridiculous. I’m giving away one of my top-secret, ultra-hush-hush, killer weapons. I am also using uber-cheesy language to do so (can you tell I’ve been reading affiliate marketer’s ads again? You know the ones, “How I made $19,703.87 in Clickbank in a month — without a website!“).

I’m being serious here, though – this isn’t something that I think anyone else is doing, or at least not 90% of the field. What do you expect, though – I’ve been trained in sales, and I’ve also been pretty hard-up for cash…so what I have done and still do to further win my clients’ trust during the bidding process is to add this paragraph at the end of my bids:

**Satisfaction Guarantee**
I will write your first 2 articles *for free* and then submit them to you. If you don’t like them, keep them and I will either re-write them to your satisfaction, or I will refund 100% of your escrow. I don’t believe in bad service, and I want you utterly satisfied with what you’re paying for. I will not waste your time or money – and I can guarantee you I’ll give you my best work or you don’t pay.

Mind you, if the package is a 5 article “get to know you” sort of package, then I don’t offer that, I’ll just offer the 1 article up front. I also will make sure I get compensation for all of my work (including these first couple) – but I want to do one thing: win their trust. The bidding process is about one thing: trust. It’s also a risky proposition from the buyer’s side, and having been on both sides of the fence, I wish I could clone myself because *nobody* takes that into account.

So, make a way out for your client and be sure you stick by it. I haven’t had anyone yet take me up on the offer, but wouldn’t die if it happened.

3. Talk To Me

Keep in mind, this is a profession. Sure, you’re a freelancer, you want some extra money or what have you, but be professional and learn to communicate. Talk to people in the “boiler room” or the “water cooler,” answer questions on the Elanceblog or Facebook page if you can, and go there to find out what people are complaining about from the client side.

When you’re bidding on a job, don’t be afraid to use the “Public Message” forum in every bid to pose a pre-bid question. Make sure you also revise your bid once you have learned new information. If you think the bid itself has been left open-ended (i.e.: you don’t have a clear picture of the goal or whatever), then fire off a question. Clarify, and never be afraid to ask, “Is your budget fixed? What price point did you have in mind?” Of course, you want to private message that sort of question – no use in giving your competition the leg up.

You need to keep the lines of communication open and up-front, but I would also suggest you avoid giving out your email address. Keep everything in the workroom, all in Elance – you want records of everything, in a centralized location. Don’t give your email address out because then you’ll possibly mis-communicate something, or forget a detail that was left in the workroom.

That’s it for now, I’ve just given you my super-secret tip…and didn’t even ask you to join a list. You might be wondering why I’m doing that – it’s simple: I want you to succeed. Times are hard for my neighbors, and nobody around me seems to want to learn a new trick and pick up other skills, such as website building or AdSense, etc. So I’ll tell you instead.

My personal goal is to be done freelancing, at least to be done with it as my main source of income. That’s not because I don’t enjoy customer service, etc., I do – but rather I want to build a passive income versus active. I’ve no complaints against Elance or my clients, however – only different goals now. So, take those tips and win some jobs, already!

Thanks for reading.