Learn Freelancing

WHAT IS FREELANCING...?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:49:00 +0000

Shoot... I never thought about starting something like my own business...When I was at GIKI,one of my senior and currently my mentor Khalid Bajwa did this workshop about earning money online..He gave us the tips and trick about this billion dollar industry..from then till now what a roller-coaster ride it has been....This blog will teach you about earning money online ....

Freelancer is a self-employed person, who is not employed continuously but hired to do specific assignments and projects. Freelancing is billion dollar industry. There are websites which connect the freelancers to clients. Clients post projects description on these websites and freelancer from all around the world bid on these projects. Client selects a contractor, and when the contractor finishes the project, they are paid through the websites. These websites handle the money and you can withdraw the money to Pakistani account. Few of the websites are Elance.com, oDesk.com, Freelancer.com and many more. ..This blog will teach you how to work on these websites and earn some real money..

If you know anything,and I mean literally anything about any software/hardware,you can work on these websites.Perhaps some of you think that I can not find work online as I am not an engineer or programmer.Anyone and I mean literally anyone can do it.Here are few of the project categories that are available...for complete detail please click Here

    Websites, IT & Software
     Mobile Phones & Computing
    Writing & Content
    Design, Media & Architecture
    Data Entry & Admin
    Engineering & Science
    Product Sourcing & Manufacturing
    Sales & Marketing
    Business, Accounting, Human Resources & Legal
    Translation & Languages
    Other

There are two type of projects on these websites,Fixed price project and hourly projects.In fixed price projects the payment is done after completing the project and client is happy with your work,while in hourly projects payments are made on the hour bases you work on the project.The lowest rate for technical jobs is 5$/hour and if you work 8 hours a day and 6 days a week, you can make 960$ a months and you can increase your hourly rate as you gain more experience.I have around 1 year experience and I am currently working on 20$/hour and I know people personally who work on 60$/hour while sitting in their own comfortable home in Pakistan.There are endless possibilities like you may get an opportunity to work for Fortune 500 companies as their full time employee or you can set up your own agency/company.

Freelancing offers a lot of benefits to freelancers,you can work from anywhere,anytime you want,and on any project you want.Recently I read a blog where a freelancer told that he traveled 17 countries in 2012.Freelancing gives you the opportunity to work on the cutting edge tools and technology.It enhances inter-personal skills.It gives you practical learning experience,looks awesome on the CV.If you want to spend more time with your family,freelancing is the best profession you get.The most important thing is you can have loads fun and some serious money:)

This blog will teach you the following things and much more...

     How to select the right website
     How to make an impressive profile
     How to bid on the project
     How to write cover letters
     Tools and technologies that are in demand
     How to deal with the clients
     How to withdraw money to your bank account

so have some patience and you can be Rockstar :).

You can contact me Here for any help.

PREREQUISITES OF FREELANCING

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:48:00 +0000

‘’Every body cannot be a freelancer, if you are foolish/crazy enough to try once more after you fail, you can be a freelancer”

Before starting freelancing there are few things you should do if you are looking for a long term career in freelancing.

First determine what you want to do in life? If you are: the misfit, the rebel, the round peg in the square hole, one who see things differently, not found of rules, that can work hard, can have sleepless nights, can learn new skills rapidly, and have a broader vision/mission of life, then you can do freelancing. Set a goal for your life : be rich, be famous, put a ding in the universe, do it for family or for a pretty girl/boy:P

Find what are the skills you are good at and you love to work in that area. There may be some skills that are you are good at but you do not like working in that area and vice versa. The important thing here is find the area that you love to work in and then you will excel in that area very rapidly

After you have selected the area that you love to work in, develop some samples/projects (smaller) in that area. The easiest way to develop samples can be many. You can work on projects of your friends, family or nephew--mother-grandmother‘s father. You can pick a project description from Freelancer.com and work on it, calling it “project/Essay for myself”. Your semester projects/Assignments/Reports can be your samples also.

Get a reliable electricity connection, buy some extra batteries for your Laptop or UPS (can also damage your Laptop).Having extra monitor/Display will also increase your productivity. Get a reliable internet connection. If you can afford, get wired and wireless connection both. Find around you cafe’s, restaurants that can offer internet connection if your internet connection fails.

Get an account on all social/Professional networks like Facebook, Linkedin, Yahoo mail, Google Talk, Hotmail and Skype, and set them professionally. This gives the client an opportunity to communicate with you the way he feels comfortable. You should not have non-professional ID’s like JugnuShezada, parifromheaven etc. It literally hurts you stature as a professional .Put as much details as you can. Have a descent profile picture.

Get an account on dropbox.com (iCloud,Box,others can be searched on Google).It will give you space to upload your sample/project files and access them from anywhere on any device. You can collaborate with your fellow freelancers through DropBox using shared folders. You can also get the links to your samples and send it to someone. Sometimes a client will share a folder with you so you can get the bigger files.

Get an account on Teamviewr.com, using this software you can access client desktop or vice versa. You can run programmes, show results and transfer files to clients.Teamviewer also have got more functionalities, play around it.

Get screen capturing software like Camstudio (others can googled).It will help you to capture your screen and your audio comments so that you can show your client the working procedures of the project.

If client says something verbally about the project scope,price and shedule,get it on your contract on Freelancer.com,in this way you can avoid disputes later...

In the next post we are going to make an impressive profile on Freelancer.com

Now you are ready for a roll-coaster ride:)

For any help please contact me Here....

MAKING AN IMPRESSIVE PROFILE

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:45:00 +0000

Step 1:To register on Freelancer.com,please click on the sign up button.

Step 2:fill in the details,choose a strong password,and enter the Captcha on the next page

Step 3: On the next page you will see different membership plans.Different membership plans give you different features.The most popular one is the standard membership plan which costs $24.95/month currently.Have a look at all of them and decide for your self.I took free membership plan at start,when I earned some money and then I took the standard membership plan which definitely gives more flexibility and features.If you are a paid member,the client will see you as a more serious freelancer..

Step 4: After you select the membership plan,on the next page you will see a payment verification process by different methods.Skip this method for now if you want to work on Freelancer.com,you can later do this process if at any point of time you want to hire also.Verify your payment method if want to hire on Freelancer.com

Step 5: On next page you will see the following screen.you can see that the account is 11% complete,you will get 3% more completion if you verify your email.Freelancer.com will guide you through the profile completion phase.Freelancers having their profile 100% complete have more chance to win the project and more reliable.Click on verify your email shown in the red rectangle.Freelancer.com will send you an email to your email account,go to your email and click on the "Verify your email address" ,it will verify your email account and send you to your Freelancer.com profile

Step 6: After email verification you will see the following screen.Now you can see that your profile is 14% complete.Click on the red rectangle as show in screen to add your full name and more details The name should be your real full name.If you add a fake full name,you will have problems while withdrawing money.

Step 7: After performing Step 6,you will see the following screen.Profile picture really shows who you are…you should have a profile picture with that professional smile on your face:). Work on profile picture in Photoshop to get it stand out. Please avoid uploading some marriage/trip/hang-out with friends event picture.

Fill in the details correctly.After filling the details click on "Setup Security Number" as shown in the above figure.After clicking it you will see the following screen,enter your number without the zero for Pakistan.you will receive through SMS a verification code,enter the code and click verify,and then click on Save button.

Step 8:After performing Step 7,you will see the following screen,which shows that your profile is 15% complete.

Set up your hourly rate to make your profile complete by 22%. . Hourly rate should be based on your experience and the category you are working in.Technical jobs are highly paid than nontechnical jobs.If you do not have industry experience and are having experience at college level,you can set hourly rate from $5-$10 in a technical category.For nontechnical category,you can set it from $2-6$ at start.Obviously the hourly rate is not fixed,you can change it later based on your experience.

The first thing that your client will look in your profile is the subheading/tagline. If you bid on a project and your subheading is irrelevant to that project, there are very less chances that client will hire you. Subheading should be relevant to your skills, make it sellable like if you are an Electronics Engineer and you are expert (in real) in Matlab, make it like Electronics Engineer/Matlab Expert

The summary should be professional yet personal. Please show the client what you really are and avoid things like I have gazillion years of experience which you do not have .One trick that I used was to look at the profiles of other contractors in the category that I am working in, look what they have wrote, learn from them and write my own summary. Please do not copy other contractors summary to your profile. The summary should have

-Facts with good marketing tone

-Your years of experience

-Skills that you are good at

-What you bring extra to the table

-How you use those skills to solve the problems

Step 8:After completing the hourly rate,subheading and summary part,Now is the time to add your portfolio projects.Your semester projects/Assignments/Reports can be your samples. Develop some samples/projects (smaller) in that area. The easiest way to develop samples can be many. You can work on projects of your friends, family or nephew--mother-grandmother‘s father. You can pick a project description from Freelancer.com and work on it, calling it “project/Essay for myself”. Upload the sample,enter a title, brief description and a skill related to it.

Step 9: Now is time to complete your resume.It can be found below your profile picture.Add your experience.Experience can be of any thing like you did an internship,later you can change it.Add your education.Add your certificates even if you got it from a workshop held in your university.Publication can be your final year project report published by your university.In all description fields give full details of the education,experience,certificates and publications.

Hurraaaaah...Now your profile is 100% complete..:)

Thanx for you patience..have a bit more patience to get you to the next level...

Step 10:you can see in the below image that your current level is 4 and you need 85 more points to reach to level 5.The higher the level you have,the more you are seen by clients as a professional and reliable contractor.You can see that you have a 351 credits.The credits and level increase with more projects winning,bidding and completing the objectives as shown in the image.Exams are $5 per exam but you can use your credits to buy an exam.One exam is worth 500 credits.Complete the objectives as shown in the image..

Step 11:Read the Freelancer.com terms of service, You will know about the policies and it will save from any problems in future like account suspension etc. Click on the the Exam tab,there are few Free exams,take these free exams and it will increase your level and credits.

If you want to sell your designs,codes and projects,visit the freelancer.com Freemarket section.You can also participate in different contests posted on Freelancer.com. You can have loads of fun and money with Freelancer.com. Play around the Freelancer.com Help section for more information on the whole working of the site.

For any help Contact me Here or use the comments section.

Best of Luck in your freelancing career,in start it would be a bit difficult:)

BIDING AND WRITING COVER LETTER

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:41:00 +0000

Writing a great proposal is the the first indication of a serious freelancer.I used to wonder why people have hard time getting thier firts job,So I posted a project on Freelancer.com.I was surprised to see that most people write a one line proposal,below are the few actual examples.The names of the freelancers have been omitted.

The purpose of this part is to get your fist project,writing an awesome proposal and avoid being deceived.

Search in with your skills key word on Freelancer.com like if you are expert in Matlab,search with Matlab and all related projects will appear. Look at the skills that client is looking for; If you have those skills, proceed to more details of the project. If you do not have those skills, proceed to the next project

Visit the client profile and look for the following things and look for the following things

Is his payment method verified? -If Client payment method is not verified, look for when he joined Freelancer.com.It may be the case that client recently joined and his payment is in process to be verified. Still be careful while working in such situation, if you are beginner, send him the proposal and ask him in a friendly way to verify his payment method.

How many projects he has posted and how many he has awarded? If the award ratio is good, send him a proposal. If he has a bad award ration, and you are beginner, you can still send him a proposal

What is the feedback he received from other contractors?.If he has received bad feedback continuously, try to avoid working with him. There are more chances that working with him would be a bad experience.

Is he fair in giving feedback to the hired contractors?If he has given a fair feedback to the earlier contractors, it would be great experience working with him. If he has given continuously bad feedback, avoid him.

After performing all the above checks, read the project description and make sure you understand it completely. Some contractors do not read the full description, and bid on the projects, which creates problems later in interview. Remember each membership plan comes with a limited project application that you can send, so If you bid on the projects that you do not understand completely ,there are less chances that you will get hired, and you will loose your quota. Sometimes client want you to include a specific word/sentence from the project description in your proposal, so if you do not read project description completely, you are immediately declined to be hired.

When I write my cover letter, I do it in three paragraphs. When client scans different proposals, the proposals appear in short form. He can only see two or three lines of your proposal, so you have to make the first two lines catchy so that he read your full proposal.

In my first paragraph, I will write like ”I have attached a relevant sample to the project…” and give a brief description about the sample and how is it related to the project. If I do not have the relevant sample, I will develop one. If I cannot develop the sample also, I will send him my transcript with the relevant courses to the project highlighted.

In my second paragraph I will present my terms like how much time it will take to complete the project, when can I start, and is the rate flexible or not. For beginners your rate should be flexible. ask him any question in this paragraph…

In my third paragraph I will tell the client how I can be contacted. I will end the paragraph with professional note like “I am looking forward…Thank you”.

One of the trick that I learnt from my mentor Khalid Bajwa is to use generous dose of smileys but in a way that does not hurt your professional image like you can say at the end of cover letter…”Happy Hiring”:)

When the client ask for an interview, first start with like how are you, and then start with the project related stuff. When it comes to decide the rate of the project, get a bit personal using smileys:).Be flexible and be realistic. If you are demanding a high rate, tell him the reason.

For any help contact me Here or use the comments section.

WORKING ON THE PROJECT

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:38:00 +0000

Starting a new project is always hard.Every Project comes with different demands.The most difficult thing is to understand the client requirements correctly.If you have any doubt about any part of the project,ask him immediately to avoid problems at a later stage.Sometimes you have to learn new skills for a project or new dimension of a skill which you already know.

Once you have got the project requirements correctly.Make a plan about the project phases.Most of the time the project is not much difficult but our efforts are wasted solving our own problem in the project.if you are a programmer,you can define the pseudo code,follow the industry standards.If you are a writer,write some bullet points about the article/reports.

Having a good timetable for your time is very important.You should plan your day,week and your month.You should get a proper sleep,give time to you loved ones and friends.If you are not having a proper sleep,it will disturb your productivity and creativity.You can make a to-do list using following formula

Keeping the client in the loop is very important.You should send updates daily about the project and asks him about any changes he want to make.If he says "OK' about anything,you can later avoid disputes if things goes wrong.Give client suggestions about the project improvement.Always be friendly and open.If anything goes wrong or you missed a deadline,give the client a real reason and apologize.The trick here to build a long term professional relationship with the clients so that you get projects continuously from them.

Work hard,there is not a single problem in the world that can not be solved.Always try to add some new skills to your profile.Follow clients on freelancer.com so when they post project,you would know instantly.

For any help contact me Here or use the comment section

GIVING AND RECEIVING FEEDBACK

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:34:00 +0000

Feedback system is very important both to a freelancer and an employer.It gives an overview of a freelancer project completion rate,on budget projects,and employer comments about the freelancer.When you complete a project,ask the client about feedback with a smiley:)

After a project is completed and the you are paid the full amount of your winning bid through Freelancer.com, the feedback system for that project will become available. The Notification Box will display all the completed projects that you need to leave a feedback on your Home Page. Click on the project name to leave a feedback to the Employer.

Completion rate is a measurement based on the volume of project that have been successfully completed within the agreed time, and the extent to which payments for those projects have been made through Freelancer.com's Milestone Payment System.To achieve a high completion rate Freelancers should complete projects on time, and ensure they are paid in full through Freelancer.com's Milestone Payment System.Using Milestone Payment is an excellent way to ensure payments are made in full when the work has been completed, and provides the additional protection of the Freelancer.com Disputes Resolution System.

HOW TO WIDTHDRAW MONEY

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:26:00 +0000

Now is the time to get the reward of your hard work:).There are a lot of methods to withdraw your funds.The list is given below

Express Withdrawal is the fastest way to receive funds - send funds directly to your local bankaccount! This is currently only available for selected countries.Paypal is also not availabe in Pakistan.

Skrill is the method most of people use in Pakistan. Go to Skrill ,get yourself registered,request a verification code at your home address,when you receive the mail,enter the verification code in skrill profile,now your bank account is verified.Now go to Freelancer.com,withdraw your money to skrill account,and then withdraw your money from skrill to your local bank account.The time taken by money to reach your local bank varies,it can take from 3-5 days.You can also use your money in skrill to do online shopping.

Wire transfer can also be used.Go to Freelancer.com,enter you bank account information,and you can use it to withdraw money directly to your account.It will take 5-10 days for funds to reach to your bank account.It also depends on the local bank you are using.

Freelancer Debit card is another option,it gives the following features

You have got the money now Enjoy:)

For any help contact me Here or use the comment section:)

LIFE AS A FREELANCER

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:18:00 +0000

Everybody cannot be a freelancer. Freelancers are problem solvers. They do not ask too many questions. They find their own ways to answer the questions. They work mostly independently in small office with haphazard setting because most creative people in the world are haphazard:). Freelancers are people who think that anything is possible in the world if given the proper resources and time. Freelancers do not like the traditional way of working. They say give us a task and we will do it but do not question our way of doing it.

In start of your career, it would be really tough. You have to get the resources and comfortable place to work .You have to get the working procedure of website that you are working in. There are thousands of contractors in your category and you have to stand out. You have to work on a bit low rates to get the clients. You are your own boss but that brings a lot more responsibilities like time management, learning new skills and be ahead in the competition.

Now let’s talk about good aspects of Freelancing career. You work on the cutting edge technologies you like. You feel that you have changed the world even if it is in a small way. You work with great teams from all over the world. You can lead them if you have multidimensional skills, this increase your leadership qualities. When you get a good feedback from clients, you feel that you have a worth.

You work with great people from all around the world. You get inspired by the level of their skills. You make a lot of friends. You learn a lot from fellow freelancers and clients. You come to know about different cultures. Fellow freelancers can guide you in a specific field.

Money…and loads of it:)…you can earn a lot of money. I know some people personally who make more than $100K a year while sitting in Pakistan. If they sit idle with that amount of money for their whole life, and do nothing, it’s a still a good bet. Obviously money can buy anything in the world. Someone said money cannot buy happiness…yes I agree …But now a days people value other people on five different things like if you have any of these:power,skills,beauty,money and education. People see you a total fool if you do not have money, even if you are talking the right thing. Your thoughts are valued if you are rich person.

Freelancers have a lot of freedom. They can work from anywhere, anytime. If you are a family guy, you can spend a lot more time with your family than in the traditional 9-5 job. You can participate in family events on any time. You can visit a lot of countries and places within country.

Computer technology is really about helping people. I truly believe that Pakistan has so much talent you cannot find anywhere in the world. The problem with Pakistani youth is that they do not have any guidance and a proper direction. There could not be any better thing to give to a person if you guide him in this field and be a source of his family support. You can develop different solutions to the country problems.

One of my mentor told me...take freelancing as a job, work from 8 hours a day.. do exercise, outing with friends and take one weekend day free...after all we do freelancing to have fun..The Greens should not destroy its very purpose of having fun :p

You can contact me Here for any help or comments section.Thx

BLOGS TO FOLLOW

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:13:00 +0000

Following blogs and Facebook pages are very important for your freelancing career.You can interact with your fellow freelancers,know about their skills,the problems they are facing and follow the industry trends.You can also get help if you have any problem.Below is the list of pages and blogs you should follow

Freelancer.com Help
Freelancer.com Facebook Page
Learn Freelancing

The below list is of technology blogs.They share stories related to technology.They give you the perspective of new developments.Techcrunch publishes stories about startups.You should seriously consider a startup after gaining experience of 2-3 years.
Gizmodo
VentureBeat
Techcrunch

For any help please contact me Here or use the comment section:)