Online Freelance websites

Mister Man

Hi everyone.

So I've been working as a freelance designer for a good while now. I've started using sites such as Elance.com, designcrowd.com and others, and I find that it's next to impossible to actually get a project out of these sites.

I've tried lots of things, bidding for jobs a slave labour rates (Ok, that's an exaggeration) bidding at normal price, showing past work that is what the client is currently looking for...The list goes on! I've tried everything! (and another exaggeration :P )

Can anyone give me some tips for maybe even getting a bit more interest from these clients? I've tried a few different things, which don't seem to do anything. I've a good portfolio (One for web, another for Graphic design) I also send my .doc CV along with a creative CV (Seemed to be a good way to get attention on a site like that.) but still I get almost zero interest from clients.

I find that 90%+ of the time, clients just close the project and don't award it to anyone, or make up some stupid reason, or pick someone who's offered to do it for €1 an hour and has a terrible public portfolio!

Any advice for this would be great! I'm hoping I'll be able to pick up a few clients from these sites, if I just learn to target them correctly, so again, any help would be great!

I'm ram balling, sorry about that :P

I've looked at these sites myself as a buyer rather than a provider. It seems to me there are three ways to stand out:

• Be really cheap - but it's nearly impossible to compete with providers from some countries
• Be really good - if you get a rep as an expert and have lots of testimonials, you'll get more work.
• Specialise - good Scala, Ruby on Rails, node.js developers seem to be thin on the ground. From a design perspective, responsive design is very hot at the minute, as a niche

One tactic that might help regardless is to work for free/cheap to build up a rep, as a loss leader. If you cherry pick the projects that interest you, you can build up portfolios and experience too.

Liam Byrne

SBS wrote: »

I've looked at these sites myself as a buyer......

One tactic that might help regardless is to work for free/cheap to build up a rep, as a loss leader. If you cherry pick the projects that interest you, you can build up portfolios and experience too.

And when the OP has experience there will be someone else new doing it for free, making it unviable as a career anyway.

I've no issues with people getting work done for fair/reasonable prices, but it sickens me how web design is treated as almost a charity donation by people who need to eat and pay bills just like anyone else.

OP - it's easy to be busy when you work for free.

jmcc

Deleted User wrote: »

One tactic that might help regardless is to work for free/cheap to build up a rep, as a loss leader.

If you don't value your own work then how do you expect anyone else to value it either? Agree with the specialisation point though.

Regards...jmcc

Liam Byrne

Liam Byrne wrote: »

And when the OP has experience there will be someone else new doing it for free, making it unviable as a career anyway.

I've no issues with people getting work done for fair/reasonable prices, but it sickens me how web design is treated as almost a charity donation by people who need to eat and pay bills just like anyone else.

OP - it's easy to be busy when you work for free.

If you don't value your own work then how do you expect anyone else to value it either?

For the record, the odd time I use these sites to outsource something for which I haven't the time or expertise, I pick experts and pay accordingly. I'm asked to work for peanuts/free/share in the "business" on at least a weekly basis, and I'm not happy about it either. I don't use these sites as a provider, because as a generalist, I know I'd be undercut.

Mister Man

I Find that users from other countries get in as low as possible. For the amount of, I find it hard to believe someone, somewhere is willing to do it for such little pay!

I also find, that the "contest" projects and the biggest loads of ****e I've ever come across! I thought it would be a handy way to pick up a few extra euro here and there. I provided good work for the contest, and even a few clients said it was the best, and they liked it, but would then close the contest, so I don't even know if they've just taken my work or not! :mad:

Does anyone have any tips to given picking up a few more clients (Through a alternative site, or other ways) (Could do with a few quid!) apart from SEOing your website, Facebook, Ads.?

Any help at all would be great guys!

Chet Zar

Mister Man wrote: »

Hi everyone.

So I've been working as a freelance designer for a good while now. I've started using sites such as Elance.com, designcrowd.com and others, and I find that it's next to impossible to actually get a project out of these sites.

I've tried lots of things, bidding for jobs a slave labour rates (Ok, that's an exaggeration) bidding at normal price, showing past work that is what the client is currently looking for...The list goes on! I've tried everything! (and another exaggeration :P )

Can anyone give me some tips for maybe even getting a bit more interest from these clients? I've tried a few different things, which don't seem to do anything. I've a good portfolio (One for web, another for Graphic design) I also send my .doc CV along with a creative CV (Seemed to be a good way to get attention on a site like that.) but still I get almost zero interest from clients.

I find that 90%+ of the time, clients just close the project and don't award it to anyone, or make up some stupid reason, or pick someone who's offered to do it for €1 an hour and has a terrible public portfolio!

Any advice for this would be great! I'm hoping I'll be able to pick up a few clients from these sites, if I just learn to target them correctly, so again, any help would be great!

I'm ram balling, sorry about that :P

OP,

Just off the top of my head:

1) Blog. Brilliant for SEO and for establishing yourself as an authority. People will link to interesting and enjoyable articles, and having a link to your site at the end of an article on someone else's site can work wonders.

2) Networking events - haven't actually gone to any of the specific business networking events where people share leads, etc, but any kind of networking is great. Have business cards at the ready, chat to people, pick up contacts.

3) Put a sig in your online profiles - e.g. on Boards. Have a subtle signature that links out to your site. Again, look to be seen as an authority through sharing your knowledge.

4) Family, friends, acquaintances, past colleagues - let them all know what you do and what you can offer. Friends of friends may be setting up new businesses/websites, in fact everyone knows someone who needs help with design work/websites etc - it's a growing field, even/especially in a recession.

5) LinkedIn - join some networking groups, join the discussions, offer tips and pointers and engage with people. Also make sure your profile is up to date and set to public - create a catchy headline too.

6) Quora - something I haven't looked at very closely, but looks like a winner - get on there and start answering questions related to your field of expertise. People can then check out your profile which is obviously linked from each post via your username, and can see what you have to offer.

Plus, make what you have to offer stand out! Why should I hire you? Are you competing on price, customer service, fast response times, excellent support?

Hope that gets some ideas flowing anyway.

Placebo

Do you mind showing us your work? tbh i havent had a problem picking up freelance by just word of mouth. Those sites usually result in just some small change and major headaches.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

I did a lot of work on oDesk.com this year. It's the clear market leader these days, way more jobs than other sites and a way better interface, they just get it.

I did PHP work, Zend Framework, Magento E-Commerce, PHP Scrapers & Android apps.

The money was crap but some of the projects were pretty interesting so I didn't mind. Now I'm getting some real world, Irish work and it pays way more even when some people say I charge too little. So basically it's a race to the bottom on these freelancing sites regarding price, especially in graphic design. I'd only take it on now to get experience.