If you’re a freelancer, it goes without mentioning that it’s a field of its own, with its own unique challenges: working remotely, managing time and keeping clients satisfied. And it’s not for everybody. However, the market is gradually becoming more and more saturated with people leaving their full-time jobs to start freelancing. This has made business quite difficult for veteran freelancers, who are beginning to find it extremely hard to find clients that will pay them according to their respective skills and expertise.
For example, the average rate for a freelance professional content writer is around $10 to $30 (USD) per hour and there was a time when it was easy to find work that paid this much on bidding sites such as Odesk and Elance.
Now because of this recent influx, clients have gotten used to taking advantage of newbie freelancers who are willing to work for $1 an hour, or worse $1 for 500 words of content or even eviler for free just to build a portfolio for themselves in the hope that in the future they can secure bigger deals that pay better. And since they’re new, impressing the client is their primary objective, which usually means somewhat satisfying results that keep cheapskate clients coming back for more.
Due to the competitive nature of this business, it’s in every veteran freelancer’s best interest to stay one step ahead of the rest. And I have decided to share some of my methods of finding work that is interesting, pays more and adds more long-term clients to my list.
New freelancers usually hang around bidding sites and marketplaces such as Odesk.com, Elance.com and Guru.com, but do not delve deep enough to find clients that value quality over quantity and are not willing to lower their expectations or risk their deadlines by hiring an inexperienced person.
While there’s no one way to achieve success with freelancing, speaking from experience: I’ve found that the best way to find work and acquire clients is through a combination of job boards, social apps, bidding sites and online freelance marketplaces.
In addition to all my other techniques, I still use Odesk and it’s still quite profitable if you know how to sum-up clients and choose the right ones to work with.
Here are some of the other places I find some pretty high-profile work from:
TWITTER.COM
Twitter is considered by some, a breeding ground for babbling, time squandering people who have nothing better to do then tell people about how boring they’re day was, or how they made a huge mistake at work etcetera… etcetera. But if you use twitter, you’ve probably already discovered some really intelligent people who actually make every one of those 140 words count, whether it’s by giving good advice, a link to an interesting article, a case study, or their perspective on business, current events or particular situations.
Twitter is considered by some, a breeding ground for babbling, time squandering people who have nothing better to do then tell people about how boring they’re day was, or how they made a huge mistake at work etcetera… etcetera. But if you use twitter, you’ve probably already discovered some really intelligent people who actually make every one of those 140 words count, whether it’s by giving good advice, a link to an interesting article, a case study, or their perspective on business, current events or particular situations.
Due to the fact that a lot of these sensible people are actually entrepreneurs, CEOs and small business owners that are always looking for someone or something that can help them in one way or another; advertising your skills and services there can be quite rewarding. I have personally secured a number of long term clients using twitter and I recommended it to any freelancer that is actually looking for some solid work.
LINKEDIN.COM
A social media app, quite similar to Facebook but geared towards career professionals; LinkedIn lets you add connections and build an online profile quite the same as an online resume. LinkedIn has helped millions of students and professionals find full-time, part-time and freelance jobs. And is one of the best ways to meet new clients and find freelance work. The quickest way to get started is to search for and join LinkedIn groups that provide job listings and help clients meet freelancers and vice versa.
JOB BOARDS
The first place that most people looking to hire new employees, whether full-time, part-time or freelance is to visit classifieds sites and forums. They’ll usually Google for job boards and places where they can post details of vacancies and requirements etc. Over the past couple of years a number of freelance job boards have been launched with freelancers in mind and prospective clients have found success with these sites, since they offer a place where they can communicate with and find professional freelancers.
Here’s a list of some of the most popular freelance job boards (in no particular order), some of which have helped me find long-term work and build rapport with some great clients:
FREELANCE JOB AGGREGATORS AND SEARCH ENGINES
Created for the very purpose of helping freelancers find jobs posted all over the web, these sites allow you to search for and browse through job listings posted by clients all over the world. The most practical way to get started is to simply visit one of these sites and search for jobs that require a skill you possess:
If you have some relevant advice or sites to share, please leave me a comment and I’ll add them here.
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