Thursday, November 13, 2014

Starting a Freelancing Career

Hi Freelancers,

Most of the new Freelancers will be in confusion to start a freelancing career. In this post I have explained few points to get started.

First of all spend some time in Freelancing sites to complete your profile. It is important because when you place a bid on a project, the client will check your profile. The client will mainly check your reviews. Since new joiners won't have any reviews they have to concentrate on profile. 

You will have measures in Freelance websites to view your profile status. It will be helpful if you can complete the profile as per the measures. Enter all your Academic details and upload certificates if required. You should choose the fields you are interested like Translation, Web designing, Graphic Design etc.

Make sure that you provide correct Contact Details. Provide details like your email ID, mobile number, Skype ID etc. You should check your mails as frequent as possible. 

Portfolio is very important. It is nothing but the previous work you have done to show case. It will help in attracting clients. Choose the best in your work to show case. For example, if you are a Translator, you can upload a translated document. It will be great if you have a blog or web content link to show your work. Creating a blog is easy. I used to show my Wikipedia articles which I have translated in my portfolio. If you are graphic designer, you can upload the image files you have done. If you are a Video Editor, Create a Channel in YOUTUBE and upload your videos and paste the links in portfolio. You need to spend time while creating your portfolio as it will play major role in show case your skills.

Many of the portals conduct Tests in different fields. It will be really helpful if you can complete all tests relevant to your job profile. Getting a good score will help you. Most of Freelance sites provide Certificates for the Tests you have completed. You will have option to Display these Certificates in your profile. If you are looking for translation related jobs, just complete the language related tests. So whenever you have free time, go for the tests.

Cover Letter will play major role in winning projects. Once you find a post related to your profile, you have to place a bid. As I explained in my previous blogs, Placing a bid is a Crucial part in winning a project. Cover letter is a part of placing bid. Different Freelance sites have different names for this part. In this part you will have a Text box where you can write your comments. Bring your best out to write a good Cover letter. Especially freshers should be careful while writing a Cover letter. It should be simple but brief. Explain whatever you want to convey in simple paragraphs. 

In Cover Letter, you can explain how much you are interested in this project and the previous experience you have in that field. if possible leave links to your work. You can explain your availability. To create some interest you can ask questions relevant to the project. Asking questions will showcase your experience in this field (Only if you ask relevant questions). For example Translators can ask about font requirements and formats etc. 

All of the above points will play their part in bringing projects to your hand. The most important things is Positive Attitude and Patience. Not everyone can win projects in their first bid. It will take time to understand the competition and prepare yourself to that. Spend some time in Reading other's Cover letters before you start. It will help you in understanding the project. If not today, you will definitely get a project tomorrow. Patience and Attitude is all we required. Some Clients will reply you the reason why they didn't select you for the project. Make note of those things and don't repeat any mistakes.

Be Punctual in replying to clients. Clients may ask many questions regarding the project, your skills, deadlines and deliverable. Be quick and smart in resolving their queries. Many of the Freelancer portals have Interview option. If the Client is interested in your profile, he will call you for an Interview. Mostly they prefer Skype or Gtalk. Give your best to impress the clients. Be realistic in requesting for time to complete the project. Don't promise which is not possible to do. Ask questions and get more details on requirements.

Once you win a bid, the game is not finished. In fact it is just started. Try to meet your deadlines. Don't get irritated if the client is asking for status of the project repeatedly. Try to understand their situation as well. All you have to keep in mind that the Reviews you will get. I strongly believe that Reviews are more important than money. Reviews will bring more projects and hence more Money. Reviews works like a marketing team for your profile. Some clients will directly call the freelancers with good reviews to place bids on their project.

Keep these points in mind and go ahead and bid. All the best !!!!!!

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Skill and Knowledge are money - SEO

Hi,

I have explored for quite a long time in Internet to know how to earn money online. It was discouraging initially, challenging after some time and encouraging at the end. The more options I found to make money, the more I grew interested to explore new. 

I believe  that Having a skill might not help you now but will help you some other time in your life". So learning these new skills is always a better practice. Apart from Video editing, Audio editing and Translation I have done some other projects as a freelancer in online. They paid me very less but I come to know their value in long run. 

I used to work as an assistant to an SEO during initial time. I don't know anything about SEO that time but I confidently posted my bid. My client took an interview and selected me. She taught me basics of SEO. However she paid very less comparatively what I am earning from Video work and Translation. I continued worked with my Client because of the advantages I learned from SEO. 

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In simple words it is nothing but a process of promoting one website in search engine results. For example whenever you search for something online, you will type in Google or Bing search Engines. These Search Engines will bring the available results and you will click mostly on links available on first page or second page. Search Engine found hundreds of results, but it will arrange them in a ranking. The Upper rank one website has, the more business it will do. So Website Owners will depends on SEO to accomplish this task. SEO will do their work to bring a particular Website in Search Engine Ranking. 

Search Engine Optimization will be done in many ways. What I have learned from my client is through comments. I have learned this because I want to create a website or blog. Once I create my own website or blog I need this skill to improve traffic to my sites. 

All I wanted to say is Learn new skills online and you don't know when it will help you in future. Because after sometime I have started earning good money online. However I am not satisfied. When I look for other options, this SEO which paid me very less initially become handy now.

Exploring more options in Freelancing - Translation


Freelancing is one of the best income source in online as per my experience. There are many other sources but it is what given me the initial confidence to start. If you explore in Freelance sites you will find a lot of projects which can help us in making good money online. 

Even though my Video editing career is going well, I have started exploring other options in freelancing. Translation is one of the best option I have found. I have read about translation and explored on this work. 

I have explained in detail about Translation in my previous posts and provided links to tools which will be helpful for only Indian languages. You can find tools online for other languages. I suggest translation as a best freelancing Career if you are not confident about any specific skill. If you have good knowledge on any two languages you can be a translator. 

I have got my first translation project in ODESK. In Translation it is easy to get a project because Clients will test your skill with samples. My client have provided the sample work to me and I have done it well and got selected for this project. 

My first Translation project is to translate Web content of a well known online portal. I did well and completed the project. I have got best reviews and great feedback on my work. The initial feedback helped me a lot in next projects. I worked for him for quiet some time and started looking for other clients.

After getting good experience, I got quiet a good payments. Initially I used to translate 800 to 1500 words per day and as I am getting experience I easily translated 2500 to 4000 words per day. Later I got a call from a Translation Company and got selected. The experts in this company helped me a lot in enhancing my skill in Translation. After Six months I have left the job as I am not happy with Salary.

I started my Career again as a Freelancing Translator and I easily made 2 to 3 times more than my salary in that Translation company. I got expertise in different translation fields so easily gained good number of Clients. 

In Translation, the Clients will retain us if we can maintain good quality. I feel Translation is an Art of language. If you take it seriously, you can make a great career with it. 

I can say Translation have paid me better than Video Editing. This is may be my skill is limited in Video editing. However you can make Good money in any field you are skilled.

However in Translation you will be paid for what you have done. The more words you translate, the more money you can make. Continuously working with keyboard and sitting for hours have made me somewhat boring. So I have decided to start exploring for MORE MONEY.

Freelancing Paid me better

Hi There,

Its been a long time I have posted in this blog. During the initial time I have done quiet a good research and posted my experience in this blog. Later I have worked in Freelancing sites which have provided me a real job. I will explain what I done All these days.

I started working in Freelancing Websites which I have mentioned in my previous blogs. I struggled a bit at beginning and later I got good projects. Scriptlance (Freelancer.com) was the best place for me during that time and I got quiet a good projects. 

For some people, it is difficult to decide to select profession. Without a sound skill in that profession it is not easy to get a job in Freelancing world because our clients want to see our portfolio before they assign a job. So I have started with Video and Audio editing as it was a hobby for me during college days.

My first project is a Audio editing project where my client wanted me to edit some audio files. I am always so thankful to him because without any prior experience he has assigned that work to me. I hope the cover letter I have written to him might have impressed him. It took some time for me to write a Cover letter like that. Especially the new freelancers should practice on writing a good Cover letter. 

Using some free online audio editing tools I have completed the task and got my first MONEY. Unbelievable to me for getting dollars transferred into my Paypal Account. The good thing is I got good reviews from my client and one more Audio editing project. Finally money started coming into my account.

I practiced some new Video and Audio editing tools. I started applying to every Video and Audio editing project in Freelance sites and got good number of projects and money. I have worked for less dollars during initial time. As I mastered the Video editing tools, I have started Creating Videos. Now I started Charging more dollars for my work. I got good amount of money from Scriptlance (Freelancer.com) and ODesk.com for Video editing and Creation. 

I didn't observe that I got a good number of Client contacts in my Skype. We used to work directly instead of Freelance websites. I was busy with projects and getting new projects easily as my reviews are better.

The Video editing tools I have used are basic and limited my work and since I don't have proper training, I had some limitations in Video creation. However my Video editing career went very well during that time for small and medium budget projects.