Post: #201

Yeah, some really pissed off people on there.
Can't say I blame them. I have two clients where nothing changes. One I will have to discuss how much more he will have to pay me. I'm concerned about trying to do a side chart out of UpWork platform because those c*cksuckers locked my account once for some stupid and they might do it again.

Post: #202

Fuck that company. I just polished up my upwork profile too and now this happens.

Just learned about a site called Clearvoice but I don't know much about them. Anyone have any experience working on there?

Also- for people looking to boost their portfolios, you can try Catchafire.com. It's all volunteer work for nonprofits and such, so its' a good way to quickly get experience build up your reputation. I'm working on 2 jobs and received an almost embarrsing amount of positive feedback on one. She even agreed to write a rave review on my linkedin page, maybe some paid work down the road. Definitely worth looking into.

Post: #203

Does anyone have experience with Freelancer.com?

I have a new client I found through different site that wants to do business over Freelancer. I've read a lot (and I mean A LOT) of negative stuff about them. They appear to be a borderline crime syndicate, just straight up stealing people's money.

It gets weirder- I tried to create an account on Freelancer order to do this job using my dedicated freelancing email address. Imagine my surpsise when I discover that someone already tried to create an account using MY EMAIL ADDRESS.

Perhaps some stranger typed my address by accident when making their account?

Just for shits and gigs, I clicked "reset password" and sure enough, it went to my email address. I checked my inbox and I never got any confirmation emails in the past. Literally never even heard of this site before today. Makes no sense.

I'm thinking of just telling the client (we talk via skype & email) that this isn't going to work unless we can do it another way. My gut is telling me Freelancer.com is not a trustworthy company.

Am I wrong? Has had positive experiences with them?

Post: #204

Freelancer.com is a huge website, most likely the second biggest after Upwork.

Post: #205

(05-06-2016 03:50 PM)NovaVirtu Wrote:  Fuck that company. I just polished up my upwork profile too and now this happens.

Just learned about a site called Clearvoice but I don't know much about them. Anyone have any experience working on there?

Also- for people looking to boost their portfolios, you can try Catchafire.com. It's all volunteer work for nonprofits and such, so its' a good way to quickly get experience build up your reputation. I'm working on 2 jobs and received an almost embarrsing amount of positive feedback on one. She even agreed to write a rave review on my linkedin page, maybe some paid work down the road. Definitely worth looking into.

No idea about Clearvoice, but it's catchafire.org, apparently. The .com send you to some media company.

Post: #206

I'm thinking about taking my consultancy away from freelance sites (I have some very good contracts but want to take it to the next level).

I would like to know how people go about cold-emailing prospects for business, does that even work in 2016 or should I stick to PPC?

Post: #207

^ It's still a very effective method, but it's also easy to fuck it up and just be another spammer to them. Are you a writer or offering other skills?

By the way, thought the boys of the forum might find this a hilarious peek at the people operating behind the scenes at Upwork:

   

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #208

I help businesses generate leads and sales. I was going to use PPC ads but was wondering if email still worked and how people apporach them.

I get tens of cold emails daily and don't even give them the time of day, so was going with the PPC apporach over cold-emailing.

Post: #209

^ Might be a bit trickier for lead gen because that is definitely a common thing people get spammed about, and I think it's not uncommon for people to have an initial response of "If you're so good at getting leads, why are you emailing for leads?"- know what I mean? Perhaps a flawed reaction but I think it's common.

Writers, on the other hand, have a much lower threshold to cross in this regard.

It's possible you could still do it for lead gen, but you may have your work cut out for you. If I come up with any ideas, I'll let you know.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #210

I've finally gotten around to setting up my Upwork profile, and making a few bids. I know I'm going to have to upload a better picture, re-work my profile, develop a portfolio, and work on making better bids, but it does feel good to have finally started something. Now I just need to keep the momentum going.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this, and other threads of a similar ilk which has shown me this kind of work if possible.

Post: #211

I was able to get a few good gigs at $10/100 words on Elance in mid 2015 but gave it up soon after because it just wasn't worth my while. They've decommissioned Elance since then and turned it into Upwork, which I visited today out of curiosity.

It looks like a goddamn clusterfuck. Have any of you guys who had consistent success on Elance back in the day been able to replicate it on Upwork? I tried to sift through the crap jobs but gave up in disgust after 20 minutes of perusing page after page of third world level price requests without finding a single reasonable job to show for it.

Elance was bad too, but if you knew how to look you could find some decent jobs. This is a whole different level of putrid. Was I just unlucky, or is Upwork really complete shit?

Post: #212

Hey guys, im currently about 3 pages deep in this thread. Some great stuff here.

Can anyone possibly link me to BB's vids that were mentioned way back on the first page? I'm not sure what to search for on Youtube, "Beyond Borders" in the search box brings up a shitty Angelina Joalie movie.

I want to get up to speed and consume, process and apply as much info as humanly possible. I am in between jobs/schools and have a plethora of spare time which gets spent reading manosphere material and working out. I want to put this time to use to make me some spare income.

Post: #213

(05-12-2016 11:40 AM)Afarang Wrote:  I'm thinking about taking my consultancy away from freelance sites (I have some very good contracts but want to take it to the next level).

I would like to know how people go about cold-emailing prospects for business, does that even work in 2016 or should I stick to PPC?

Hey I know this is a very vague question and would depend on services offered, industry, etc.

I'm looking to get into doing consulting. I probably get 10-20 e-mails a day from blog posts and Youtube videos of people wanting to hire me, mainly for building an eBay/Amazon business but also just making money online in general ie Kindle Publishing, Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, etc.

My biggest issue is most of these people want to pay me a few hundred bucks to essentially build them a business which does 10k a month. Obviously not realisitic nor worth my time.

I was wondering if you could touch on some things from how to set expectations, how to charge, as well as what type of info to cover. Do I let them ask questions and let them guide the discussion or do I find out what they want and then put together kind of a mini program designed for them, etc?

I should add these aren't professional businesses but just individuals looking to get into various online ventures.

One other thing that's a big issue. As I touched on, I think many of these people basically want me to do everything for them. I'm looking to be a consultant, not a webdesigner, copywriter, business planner, etc all in one and do every little thing for them. I'm happy to offer guidance and even point them in the direction or recommend a service provider if necessary but I don't have the skillset nor do I think it falls within consulting for me to do every little thing for them.

Any advice you could offer would be great. I could probably bring in a ton of money working with people like this but havn't been able to figure out how to charge, how to structure thigns, etc.

Post: #214

Hi jamaicabound,

Your customer quite honestly sounds like someone I would never want to work one (someone with little cashflow and little idea on what they want).

You won't be able to convince these people to pay you the salary you want, I'd go for businesses who are already generating some kind of cash flow and want to go to the next step. for your current audience you could write an ebook or video course to sell them.

Post: #215

(07-06-2016 01:29 PM)Afarang Wrote:  Hi jamaicabound,

Your customer quite honestly sounds like someone I would never want to work one (someone with little cashflow and little idea on what they want).

You won't be able to convince these people to pay you the salary you want, I'd go for businesses who are already generating some kind of cash flow and want to go to the next step. for your current audience you could write an ebook or video course to sell them.

You bring up a very good point. I know many consultants turn away more business than they take because it's something difficult to scale, ie, there's only so much time you have so why deal with headaches who bring little value.

I was trying to get more into creating digital products so I could teach these things to the masses for a much lower price point. This is also something that's much easier to scale, and is much more hands off.

I had started charging people $200 for a one hour skype call to talk, discuss ideas, get them on the right track, etc but then people started wanting to break the hour they purchased into 10 minute chunks which obviously isn't as good as just knocking out the hour and moving on until they want to pay again.

Do you have any experience with courses, info products, etc? That's something I'm starting to get into but could definatley use some work on what I'm doing.

My other idea and something I'm getting into for these customers is basically selling access so though I may respond to all my Youtube comments or blog comments, its not always timely or that in depth. I was thinking about starting either e membership site or paid forum where in addition to getting materials I'm also selling a bit of access to myself.

I was really hoping I could parlay the coaching/consulting thing into something as I literally get 10 to 20 emails per day basically begging me to take someone on but like you said these people don't have a ton of money and are kind of needy.

The problem with pitching my services to professional companies is the stuff I'm teaching is more geared towards online hustles and are more microbusinesses/muses/hustles than they are fullscale businesses. That said you do bring up a good point, I'm sure there are some bigger companies or brands who aren't yet on Amazon who may be looking for some guidance on going on there.

Thanks for your response.

Post: #216

(07-06-2016 02:01 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  I had started charging people $200 for a one hour skype call to talk, discuss ideas, get them on the right track, etc but then people started wanting to break the hour they purchased into 10 minute chunks which obviously isn't as good as just knocking out the hour and moving on until they want to pay again.

Do you have any experience with courses, info products, etc? That's something I'm starting to get into but could definatley use some work on what I'm doing.

My other idea and something I'm getting into for these customers is basically selling access so though I may respond to all my Youtube comments or blog comments, its not always timely or that in depth. I was thinking about starting either e membership site or paid forum where in addition to getting materials I'm also selling a bit of access to myself.

I was really hoping I could parlay the coaching/consulting thing into something as I literally get 10 to 20 emails per day basically begging me to take someone on but like you said these people don't have a ton of money and are kind of needy.

The problem with pitching my services to professional companies is the stuff I'm teaching is more geared towards online hustles and are more microbusinesses/muses/hustles than they are fullscale businesses. That said you do bring up a good point, I'm sure there are some bigger companies or brands who aren't yet on Amazon who may be looking for some guidance on going on there.

Thanks for your response.

Goodness, you're losing out on a lot of money if you have 10-20 reaching out to you everyday asking for a service.


Create a 60-90 video course teaching people how to make money online. Price it at what you think it's worth, $200-$500 or a monthly charge, and make sure it's detailed and actually teaches people the correct way in becoming successful with online marketing. Don't be like those guys that make a product but only show outdated shit.

Along with the course you should also have a private FB group that every member gets to join and ask each other for help and tips on being successful. I'm a member of an affiliate marketer's program and he has about 1,000 members in his 60 day course that pay $17 a month.

Post: #217

(07-06-2016 05:06 PM)wallywest Wrote:  

(07-06-2016 02:01 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  I had started charging people $200 for a one hour skype call to talk, discuss ideas, get them on the right track, etc but then people started wanting to break the hour they purchased into 10 minute chunks which obviously isn't as good as just knocking out the hour and moving on until they want to pay again.

Do you have any experience with courses, info products, etc? That's something I'm starting to get into but could definatley use some work on what I'm doing.

My other idea and something I'm getting into for these customers is basically selling access so though I may respond to all my Youtube comments or blog comments, its not always timely or that in depth. I was thinking about starting either e membership site or paid forum where in addition to getting materials I'm also selling a bit of access to myself.

I was really hoping I could parlay the coaching/consulting thing into something as I literally get 10 to 20 emails per day basically begging me to take someone on but like you said these people don't have a ton of money and are kind of needy.

The problem with pitching my services to professional companies is the stuff I'm teaching is more geared towards online hustles and are more microbusinesses/muses/hustles than they are fullscale businesses. That said you do bring up a good point, I'm sure there are some bigger companies or brands who aren't yet on Amazon who may be looking for some guidance on going on there.

Thanks for your response.

Goodness, you're losing out on a lot of money if you have 10-20 reaching out to you everyday asking for a service.


Create a 60-90 video course teaching people how to make money online. Price it at what you think it's worth, $200-$500 or a monthly charge, and make sure it's detailed and actually teaches people the correct way in becoming successful with online marketing. Don't be like those guys that make a product but only show outdated shit.

Along with the course you should also have a private FB group that every member gets to join and ask each other for help and tips on being successful. I'm a member of an affiliate marketer's program and he has about 1,000 members in his 60 day course that pay $17 a month.

Yeah I'm leaving a shitload of money on the table although like the other poster said it sounds like the people who want to work with me are not looking to spend a lot of money and are a headache which is in large part true. That said I do like the idea of creating courses to where I can still teach but not deal with every person individually and I can also offer it at a lower price and lastly its scalable.

I did just recently start a forum using PHPP as kind of a place for my audience to interact with each other and where they can get some added access to me.

I have a few digital products although I have the info to create them I'm not really good at the design and layout part of actually packaging the stuff together, having professional edited videos, etc. I did however just recently start a subscription service where I provide info to members for $20 a month.

If anyone on here is into digital product creation I would gladly pay to basically provide someone with some PDF's and videos and pay someone to kind of polish it and put it into a cohesive course. I have a large following of very engaged people probably 15,000 and climbing but am really dropping the ball on monetizing the audience.

Post: #218

Does anyone here have experience freelancing or running their own business in which you primarily work with analytics such as SEO, Google Analytics, Adwords, etc? I heard this might be good to get into for people like me with a math/stats background

Post: #219

Some areas of interest im pursuing at the moment are:

-Innovation in tech. Creating tech products/websites in the social space, crowdfunding/kickstarter projects

-A lifestyle/mens blog around a james bond 007 theme

-International real estate investments blog/promotions

-Offsec and programming, offsec being a hobby and programming being a very in-demand and overall useful skill. Currently learning Go language via Udemy, and Javascript via Kahn Academy (A killer must see website )

Post: #220

An update with my freelance business...

I'm pulling out of coding web and mobile apps for a variety of reasons:

- The pace of technology is too fast for a one full-time dev freelancer to keep up with. Every day I had to learn new languages, APIs, and all kinds of new shit. It's simply too much to keep up with, and it never ends.

- Even when trying to niche down to a specific type of development, each client wants different things and custom solutions. What I did successfully in the last project might not be transferrable to the next project. There is lots of learning, re-learning, discovery, and planning involved... including installing all kinds of different IDEs and tools on my computer without knowing if they will truly help.

- I've tried LouieG's plan of outsourcing some parts of development while being more of a project manager. I have successfully completed a project like this earlier this year, using some Indian developers (who surprisingly did a decent job). But it took so much time and so much back and forth, plus I had to pay the developers, that I ended up making less than minimum wage on it.

- As a sole freelance developer, I was up against stiff competition. Not just with IRT devs who would happily make pennies on the dollar, but also with EE-based dev agencies whose skills blow me out of the water with just about every language. They have entire fleets of developers, each individual having a specialty skill, that they could contribute to the entire project. They can have one UI/UX guy, one backend guy, one front-end guy, one database guy, and three coding guys, all over seen by a project manager. Imagine trying to do all that as a sole freelancer.

- When I come across a persistent bug or things are just not working the way I expect, I yell expletives at the computer screen until my throat goes hoarse. After one particularly bad episode, I had to ask myself -- is this worth all the stress and frustration?

The answer was clear. I've cut out those parts of my business to focus on one singular non-programming skill to serve a particular niche... and just this month, I've already made more money than I spend each month in SEA, including travel expenses.

It was a hard decision to give up coding... but it had to be done. So far, I have no regrets at all.

Post: #221

Ah and one more thing... I've mostly quit using the mainstream freelance job sites.

I've been devising creative ways of generating leads and getting clients outside of those freelance job sites. Jury remains out on this part.

Post: #222

For those of you working in copywriting (or anything, actually)- how did you settle on a niche to focus on?

I've been trying to make it as a "generalist" web copywriter for months, and I feel like I'm banging my head fucking head against a wall.

I know how to to do the actual craft of copywriting. I've gotten fairly good at it. The problem that I realized after so many months is that it is very, very difficult to position and market yourself effectively as a generalist, "I'll do anything" copywriter. I guess this is obvious but since I'm stubborn and wouldn't ask for help I learned the hard way.

Right now I'm taking an inventory of my professional experience, personal interests, and industries I have experience as a customer in, and seeing what I can come up with.

Post: #223

(11-04-2016 05:45 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  Ah and one more thing... I've mostly quit using the mainstream freelance job sites.

I've been devising creative ways of generating leads and getting clients outside of those freelance job sites. Jury remains out on this part.

I'm interested in hearing how you go about this.

I quit freelancing back when it was still elance but if there was a way to get back in to do some part time gigs I would be all ears. I really don't need the money but making dough on your own freelancing is more rewarding than my corporate job.

Post: #224

(11-04-2016 09:27 PM)General Mayhem Wrote:  

(11-04-2016 05:45 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  Ah and one more thing... I've mostly quit using the mainstream freelance job sites.

I've been devising creative ways of generating leads and getting clients outside of those freelance job sites. Jury remains out on this part.

I'm interested in hearing how you go about this.

I quit freelancing back when it was still elance but if there was a way to get back in to do some part time gigs I would be all ears. I really don't need the money but making dough on your own freelancing is more rewarding than my corporate job.

I'll elaborate more once I get a solid track record of this. But I'll say this now -- you have to go to where the best paying clients are.

Not the ones on freelance job sites looking to squeeze as much out of you as they can while not valuing your work, most of them are straight up assholes.

Where you find them depends on the niche you're interested in. Regardless of your niche, however, you have to present yourself as a serious business, not just as a random freelancer. Not easy... but if it were so easy, everyone would be doing it!

Post: #225

I might add that consistency is key. Regardless of your scenario being the web or the "meat space".
If people see your presence everyday and you keep a consistent pattern they will come to see you as reliable and thus worthy of some minimal trust as you are less likely to dissappear cometh morning.

Its a failsafe mechanism that makes sense when you think about it:
"Why will i trust this apparently talented person with a commission other than immediate exchange when I ve only seen him/her once and have no idea if he or she will be there tomorrow?"
Vs
"this person has been here for a while and always there, if anything I know he/she will be there tomorrow. Guess I can go beyond an immediate exchange"