Post: #551

Been a while since I've done Elance. The Writer's Den recommended against it so I avoided it for a long time. Maybe I'll try it out again.

Post: #552

(05-01-2015 10:32 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  I just lost a job to another bidder because I've been too busy to get back to my Elance messages and did not reply in time.

What was their proposal?

$260 an hour.

The low rates on Elance are simply depressing.

EDIT: Yes, I know you don't see that everyday and that most guys here don't have the skills for it. Just stirring the pot a little.

One day...

I'm currently setting up my own site to market my work and portfolio. It should look nice and I think clients will be impressed.

Post: #553

There will always be low rates on Elance. Freelancers working for little (relative) and clients willing looking to spend as little as possible.

I'm seeing a trend of losing jobs to writers in Bangladesh and India, where their bids were less than 1/5 of what I, and likely other Western freelancers, offered.

Sometimes I go back and check on these jobs, and find clients overwhelmingly disappointed. What else did you expect? Your hire freelancers for those countries for any kind of work that requires English proficiency, you're going to get screwed 95% of the time.

It's laughable to see clients pay $50 for a 20,000 length report and then be disappointed in the output.

Meanwhile, there are clients who pay 10x that budget for a Western freelancer and they couldn't be more satisfied with the result.

Post: #554

I am booked solid with writing jobs for the next three weeks. I have people emailing me wanting to know when my schedule will be open so I can do some more work for them. I nearly lost one client because I told him I would no longer work for less than the minimum rate, he came back and matched my bid within three hours. And I only write fiction. Can you believe this?
Granted I am not making the kind of coin Double B gets, but I feel if I continue to work solid and sniff out the better jobs, my rate will improve.
So the money is out there, lads.

Post: #555

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Post: #556

I'm not sure why anyone would bother with elance, or any of the freelance platforms...

You can put up a professional (not stellar but professional) wordpress site in a couple hours, $100 all said and told.

Follow that up with a 1,000 cold emails to brick-and-mortar companies (read: companies that have money). Even if your conversion rate is just 1%, you've landed 10 new high-paying clients.

You're welcome.

Post: #557

(05-04-2015 12:21 PM)Chick Magnet Wrote:  I'm not sure why anyone would bother with elance, or any of the freelance platforms...

You can put up a professional (not stellar but professional) wordpress site in a couple hours, $100 all said and told.

Follow that up with a 1,000 cold emails to brick-and-mortar companies (read: companies that have money). Even if your conversion rate is just 1%, you've landed 10 new high-paying clients.

You're welcome.

This is what I'm about to do now. Finishing up the site today.

I feel like I've been spending too long on these job sites like Flex and some other job boards. And I say this only after a few weeks of applying to 2-3 flex jobs a day for about two-three weeks, and applying to a handful of jobs on other sites.

Now I wanna do an assessment of how much money the company I want to write for makes (between $1m and $10m), send an email, done. Strongly considering making this my new monthly goal for April. Shifting gears entirely.

Do you prefer personalizing every email/cover letter to each individual company? (fiddle with a sentence or two), or just sending out the same message to all of them?

Post: #558

(05-04-2015 04:45 AM)Dan Woolf Wrote:  I'm off to buy a new keyboard and after I get it, I will sign up to Elance. I need to grind at least 5k in next 5 or 6 months.

I wanna get $5k in two months, haha. I think it's very doable. depends on your market.

Post: #559

(05-04-2015 12:39 PM)WalkingMan Wrote:  

(05-04-2015 12:21 PM)Chick Magnet Wrote:  I'm not sure why anyone would bother with elance, or any of the freelance platforms...

You can put up a professional (not stellar but professional) wordpress site in a couple hours, $100 all said and told.

Follow that up with a 1,000 cold emails to brick-and-mortar companies (read: companies that have money). Even if your conversion rate is just 1%, you've landed 10 new high-paying clients.

You're welcome.

This is what I'm about to do now. Finishing up the site today.

I feel like I've been spending too long on these job sites like Flex and some other job boards. And I say this only after a few weeks of applying to 2-3 flex jobs a day for about two-three weeks, and applying to a handful of jobs on other sites.

Now I wanna do an assessment of how much money the company I want to write for makes (between $1m and $10m), send an email, done. Strongly considering making this my new monthly goal for April. Shifting gears entirely.

Do you prefer personalizing every email/cover letter to each individual company? (fiddle with a sentence or two), or just sending out the same message to all of them?

Personalizing is always more effective.

But I can't be bothered to go through every email changing the name, adding some little tidbit about the company and why we're a good fit.

I'm sure that lowers my response rate. But I only need so many clients.

The key is to position yourself as a specialist in your email and only go after a narrow profile of companies. I'd say about 10% get back to me. And maybe 2% actually end up doing business with me. That's more than enough.

Post: #560

(05-04-2015 03:42 PM)Chick Magnet Wrote:  

(05-04-2015 12:39 PM)WalkingMan Wrote:  

(05-04-2015 12:21 PM)Chick Magnet Wrote:  I'm not sure why anyone would bother with elance, or any of the freelance platforms...

You can put up a professional (not stellar but professional) wordpress site in a couple hours, $100 all said and told.

Follow that up with a 1,000 cold emails to brick-and-mortar companies (read: companies that have money). Even if your conversion rate is just 1%, you've landed 10 new high-paying clients.

You're welcome.

This is what I'm about to do now. Finishing up the site today.

I feel like I've been spending too long on these job sites like Flex and some other job boards. And I say this only after a few weeks of applying to 2-3 flex jobs a day for about two-three weeks, and applying to a handful of jobs on other sites.

Now I wanna do an assessment of how much money the company I want to write for makes (between $1m and $10m), send an email, done. Strongly considering making this my new monthly goal for April. Shifting gears entirely.

Do you prefer personalizing every email/cover letter to each individual company? (fiddle with a sentence or two), or just sending out the same message to all of them?

Personalizing is always more effective.

But I can't be bothered to go through every email changing the name, adding some little tidbit about the company and why we're a good fit.

I'm sure that lowers my response rate. But I only need so many clients.

The key is to position yourself as a specialist in your email and only go after a narrow profile of companies. I'd say about 10% get back to me. And maybe 2% actually end up doing business with me. That's more than enough.

Yeah dude I here you. Another reason why digging into a writing niche saves SO much more time! Thanks for illuminating that fact to me, man!

Post: #561

(05-04-2015 12:21 PM)Chick Magnet Wrote:  I'm not sure why anyone would bother with elance, or any of the freelance platforms...

You can put up a professional (not stellar but professional) wordpress site in a couple hours, $100 all said and told.

Follow that up with a 1,000 cold emails to brick-and-mortar companies (read: companies that have money). Even if your conversion rate is just 1%, you've landed 10 new high-paying clients.

You're welcome.

How long before Indians start looking through an American business directory and cold-calling them with 1/10 the price?

Post: #562

(05-04-2015 10:11 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  

(05-04-2015 12:21 PM)Chick Magnet Wrote:  I'm not sure why anyone would bother with elance, or any of the freelance platforms...

You can put up a professional (not stellar but professional) wordpress site in a couple hours, $100 all said and told.

Follow that up with a 1,000 cold emails to brick-and-mortar companies (read: companies that have money). Even if your conversion rate is just 1%, you've landed 10 new high-paying clients.

You're welcome.

How long before Indians start looking through an American business directory and cold-calling them with 1/10 the price?

When Indians can write a coherent email, then I'll be worried. Or basically never.

Seriously, this "the 3rd world is stealing our jobs" sentiment is unfounded paranoia...

If you're any good at what you do, Indians are not a concern.

Post: #563

(05-04-2015 10:11 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  

(05-04-2015 12:21 PM)Chick Magnet Wrote:  I'm not sure why anyone would bother with elance, or any of the freelance platforms...

You can put up a professional (not stellar but professional) wordpress site in a couple hours, $100 all said and told.

Follow that up with a 1,000 cold emails to brick-and-mortar companies (read: companies that have money). Even if your conversion rate is just 1%, you've landed 10 new high-paying clients.

You're welcome.

How long before Indians start looking through an American business directory and cold-calling them with 1/10 the price?

They are already doing it. The key is not to sell yourself on price.

Post: #564

I can attest to RawGod's comment. They've called to my office asking to "the SEE-EE-OH of the company" when they're just calling a branch.

Post: #565

Just saw a proofreading job for 2500 words settle on for $60, given to a UK freelancer.

This is the type of gig that takes maybe 2 hours at most to complete, especially since the client is also from the UK.

In other news, the 20,000 proofread project I bid on a few days ago was just awarded to some Indian freelancer, for $35.

The client is wasting his time because he's going to have to do another round of proofreading regardless. Watch his second round be hiring someone from the Phils for $40.

Clients are also to blame. The 80/20 rule can be applied on all fronts here. Only 20% of the clients are worth my time (if that). Only 20% of freelancers are actually your competition. Only 20% of jobs may be worth your proposal, so on and so forth..

Be more selective! And improve yourself and sell yourself as much as you can. There are some remarkable projects on Elance with very respectable clients but you have to be in the top tier of freelancers to stand a chance.

Post: #566

^^^ That's the thing.

The clients on those sites who give their projects to Indians for slave wages are terrible businessmen. They try to cut every corner when it comes to price, but in the long run it's going to cost them more.

I've also noticed that cheap clients are also bigger d-bags. The only rating I have below 4.8 on oDesk was from some cunt who paid me a penny a word way back when.

Edit: Something else I plan on doing in the next month or so is getting in contact with my local Chamber of Commerce. Nearly every city and town has one, and from what I've seen it's just older business owners. This means that they could probably use help when it comes to things like web development, social media, content marketing etc. For guys who are looking into the brick & mortar side of things, this looks like a good way to go.

Post: #567

(05-05-2015 09:44 AM)Seth_Rose Wrote:  Edit: Something else I plan on doing in the next month or so is getting in contact with my local Chamber of Commerce. Nearly every city and town has one, and from what I've seen it's just older business owners. This means that they could probably use help when it comes to things like web development, social media, content marketing etc. For guys who are looking into the brick & mortar side of things, this looks like a good way to go.

That's solid advice.

I'm in the process of joining my local chamber myself. These guys tend to be a bunch of old farts, but they're minted and they know the value of what you do.

If you can get a hold of their meeting schedule, just show up and be charming. Bring some business cards for when they inevitably ask you what you do.

Most freelancers don't have the balls to show up in-person to meetings like that. So if you do, you're already setting yourself apart.

Post: #568

(05-04-2015 12:21 PM)Chick Magnet Wrote:  I'm not sure why anyone would bother with elance, or any of the freelance platforms...

You can put up a professional (not stellar but professional) wordpress site in a couple hours, $100 all said and told.

Follow that up with a 1,000 cold emails to brick-and-mortar companies (read: companies that have money). Even if your conversion rate is just 1%, you've landed 10 new high-paying clients.

You're welcome.

Post: #569

(05-05-2015 02:48 PM)Dan Woolf Wrote:  

(05-04-2015 12:21 PM)Chick Magnet Wrote:  I'm not sure why anyone would bother with elance, or any of the freelance platforms...

You can put up a professional (not stellar but professional) wordpress site in a couple hours, $100 all said and told.

Follow that up with a 1,000 cold emails to brick-and-mortar companies (read: companies that have money). Even if your conversion rate is just 1%, you've landed 10 new high-paying clients.

You're welcome.

If other guys are interested, I'd be glad to put up a a-z datasheet on this, including how to position yourself and prospect.

Honestly, I think every guy that's serious about living life on his own terms ought to have their own business. And freelancing/contracting is the easiest way to do that.

If you do it right (and that's not on elance), you can make a very good living--quickly. From there, you can springboard into other stuff like creating your own products, affiliate marketing, etc.

Post: #570

I think you make a good point about most freelancers not doing business in person. Its definitely a huge advantage.

As for the datasheet mentioned above that would be awesome!

This thread is turning out to be a goldmine. I've learned a lot

Post: #571

Yeah, datasheet would be awesome.

Post: #572

Appears Elance and O-Desk have merged into something new called "UpWork". It was probably going to happen eventually. No reason to have two different platforms owned by the same company doing the same thing. All I know is it creates another level of ass pain.

Post: #573

I think it's time for a more generalized freelancing thread.

The "All Things Freelance" Thread
/thread-47266.html

Post: #574

Hey guys, I just released a complete guide to freelancing on my blog. Let me know if it helps you and the veterans our there - if you have any ideas of where I can improve.

Guide is here: goo.gl/oUnigR

Post: #575

I'm freelancing on CL and writing this college paper for some girls. The task was: Talk lightly about a AMA value and give an example, plus an audience excercise. The task was easy and done in two hours. I sent it to them and one of them is not happy and wants me to add examples. Bitch, the examples are intertwined in the story so it's continuous and not monotone! So I do a "Here's the concept, here's an example" format....she emails me mid-way and asks me to stop because her partner wants to add some stuff but proceed to write a "kick ass interaction activity". Dude, that was at the bottom of the word document. Are you fucking blind?