10 Tips To Start Freelancing On Freelancer.com

Summary

In this video script, Matt, a top-rated freelancer on freelancer.com, shares his journey from small deals to closing a $500,000 project. He offers free, valuable insights to aspiring freelancers, promising content superior to paid alternatives. Matt covers essential topics like profile optimization, portfolio building, bidding strategies, and communication techniques. He emphasizes the importance of honesty, dedication, and quality in freelancing, and provides tips on leveraging AI tools for profile enhancement and bid customization. Matt also highlights the benefits of joining the preferred program for increased credibility and access to high-paying projects.

Takeaways

• 🚀 Start freelancing with a clear goal and mindset, aiming to outperform paid content with free, relevant information.
• 🎯 Focus on achieving a high ranking on platforms like freelancer.com to increase visibility and credibility.
• 📈 Transform your freelancing journey from small deals to large-scale projects, like closing a $500,000 project.
• 📝 Utilize AI tools like chat GPT for creating taglines and descriptions to stand out in your profile.
• 🖼️ Ensure your profile photo is a clear headshot on a white background for a professional appearance.
• 💼 Build a strong portfolio with visual examples and seek feedback from industry experts to refine your work.
• 💰 Use tools like ruul.io's freelancer rate calculator to determine appropriate rates based on various factors.
• 🔍 Be among the first to bid on projects but avoid autobidding to prevent being reported and banned.
• 📑 Customize bids to show understanding of the client's needs and connect with similar past experiences.
• 🗣️ Develop a winning communication strategy that includes genuine interest, occasional humor, and clear inquiries.
• ✅ Strive for honesty, dedication, and quality in your work to build a successful freelancing career.
• 🌟 Aim for the preferred freelancer status on platforms to get access to better projects and credibility.
• 🔒 Secure excellent reviews by over-delivering on projects and maintaining clear communication with clients.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the video?

The main purpose of the video is to share the speaker's success story in freelancing and to provide free, relevant information to help others improve their freelancing skills and potentially achieve similar success.

What does the speaker promise regarding the content provided?

The speaker promises to make their free content better than any paid content available, focusing on delivering valuable insights and tips for success in freelancing.

How did the speaker's deal size evolve over the years?

The speaker's deal size evolved from a maximum of a hundred dollars to closing a single 500,000 project on freelancer.com within three to four years.

What is the speaker's current ranking on freelancer.com?

The speaker is ranked number one on freelancer.com among millions of users.

What is the recommended starting point for someone new to freelancing according to the speaker?

The speaker recommends starting with edx.org, a free site that offers relevant courses from top schools like Harvard and MIT.

What is the importance of a profile photo on freelancer.com according to the speaker?

A profile photo should be a clear headshot on a white background, as it helps employers connect with a person rather than a logo or a company.

How can AI be utilized to improve taglines and descriptions for a freelancer's profile?

AI, such as chat GPT, can be used to write brilliant and custom taglines and descriptions, which can then be tweaked and personalized by the freelancer.

What is the significance of having a strong portfolio in freelancing?

A strong portfolio is a make or break part of a freelancer's profile, showcasing their work and skills, and can be crucial in securing projects.

What are some strategies for setting rates as a freelancer?

Freelancers can use online tools like ruul.io's freelancer rate calculator to determine appropriate rates, considering factors such as living expenses, taxes, and working days.

How important is bidding strategy in securing projects on freelancer.com?

Bidding strategy is crucial as it helps freelancers get noticed by being among the first to bid on projects, while also ensuring that bids are customized and not autobids to avoid being reported and banned.

What is the significance of the preferred program and verification on freelancer.com?

Getting verified and into the preferred program enhances a freelancer's credibility, provides access to better paying projects, and allows them to receive project offers from recruiters, which can be a significant advantage in securing high-quality work.

Why are reviews so important in freelancing?

Reviews are crucial as they are the primary factor clients consider when selecting a freelancer. Earning excellent reviews can significantly impact a freelancer's success and reputation.

What is the speaker's approach to communication with clients?

The speaker emphasizes the importance of genuine interest, occasional humor, and clear communication to build trust and rapport with clients.

How does the speaker plan to share more insights in future videos?

The speaker plans to share a custom bid-winning formula in a future video, providing a detailed breakdown of strategies and tools used to secure projects successfully.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Freelancing Success Story and Strategy

Matt introduces his journey from a small-time freelancer to becoming the top-ranked freelancer on freelancer.com, emphasizing the importance of free and relevant information over paid content. He outlines his plan to share his success story and strategies, including tips for profile optimization, portfolio creation, and understanding rates. Matt also highlights the significance of subscribing for weekly updates and the promise of increasing value with each new tip. His approach to freelancing is presented as a transformative journey rather than a get-rich-quick scheme, with a focus on automation, reusability of work, and avoiding common mistakes.

05:00

📈 Advanced Freelancing Techniques and Preferred Program Benefits

This paragraph delves into advanced strategies for bidding on projects, utilizing AI for tagline and description creation, and the importance of a strong portfolio. It discusses the necessity of being among the first to bid while avoiding autobidding to prevent bans. The use of AI for analyzing client needs and styles is highlighted, along with the importance of genuine interest and humor in client communication. The paragraph also covers the process of closing deals quickly and the significance of asking for deadlines and budgets. The benefits of the preferred program on freelancer.com are underscored, including increased credibility, access to higher-paying projects, and the advantage of recruiters reaching out with project matches. The importance of earning five-star reviews through over-delivery and excellent communication is also emphasized.

10:03

🏆 Becoming a Top Freelancer and the Power of Reviews

The final paragraph focuses on the importance of reviews in establishing credibility and attracting clients. It provides insights into the process of becoming a preferred freelancer, which involves collecting excellent reviews and meeting certain prerequisites. The benefits of this status include recruiters' proactive outreach for project matches, which simplifies the process of finding suitable work. The paragraph also stresses the value of honesty, dedication, and quality in building a successful freelancing career, suggesting that these attributes lead to additional work and client satisfaction. The power of structured and detailed offerings, as well as the use of freelancer.com's Quote system, is highlighted as a means to impress clients and facilitate project closure.

Keywords

💡Freelancing

Freelancing refers to the act of working independently as a contractor or consultant rather than being employed by a company. In the video, the speaker discusses his journey from a small-scale freelancer to a top-ranked freelancer on a platform, emphasizing the growth and potential of freelancing as a career path.

💡Success Story

A success story is a narrative of achievements or accomplishments, often used to inspire or motivate others. The speaker promises to reveal his 'million dollar success story' as a way to encourage viewers to follow his advice and potentially achieve similar success in freelancing.

💡Free Content

Free content refers to information or resources provided without charge. The speaker distinguishes himself by offering valuable tips and insights for free, positioning his content as superior to paid alternatives, which is a key selling point in his narrative.

💡Project

In the context of freelancing, a project is a specific task or set of tasks agreed upon between a freelancer and a client. The speaker mentions closing a 'single 500,000 project,' illustrating the scale of opportunities available to successful freelancers.

💡Profile

A profile, in the context of online freelancing platforms, is a digital representation of a freelancer's identity, skills, and experience. The script emphasizes the importance of a well-crafted profile photo and description, which can impact a freelancer's attractiveness to potential clients.

💡Portfolio

A portfolio showcases a freelancer's past work and abilities. The speaker discusses the importance of having a strong visual portfolio to demonstrate expertise and secure projects, especially when starting out without previous work to show.

💡Rate Wizard

A rate wizard is a tool that helps freelancers determine appropriate rates for their services based on various factors. The speaker mentions using such tools to calculate fair rates, which is crucial for both attracting clients and ensuring fair compensation.

💡Bid Champions Formula

The Bid Champions Formula seems to be the speaker's proprietary method for winning bids on freelancing projects. It's implied to be a significant part of his success story and is a key element of the strategies he plans to share with viewers.

💡Preferred Program

The Preferred Program is a status within the freelancing platform that offers benefits such as increased credibility and access to higher-paying projects. The speaker highlights the advantages of being a 'preferred freelancer,' including receiving project referrals from recruiters.

💡Reviews

In the context of freelancing, reviews are testimonials from clients about the quality of a freelancer's work. The speaker underscores the importance of earning excellent reviews to build a strong reputation and attract more clients.

💡Communication

Effective communication is essential in building client relationships and ensuring project success. The speaker advises maintaining professional yet casual communication, asking relevant questions, and even using humor to build rapport with clients.

Highlights

Discover the speaker's million-dollar success story in freelancing.

Free content is promised to be better than paid content elsewhere.

Matt's journey from $100 deals to closing a $500,000 project on freelancer.com.

Achieving the number one ranking among millions of users on freelancer.com.

Freelancing is a life-changing journey, not a get-rich-quick scheme.

Creating a profile with a clear headshot on a white background is recommended.

Use AI tools like chat GPT to write custom taglines and descriptions.

Importance of a visual portfolio and how to create one if you lack previous work.

Getting feedback from industry experts to improve your portfolio.

Using online tools to calculate appropriate freelance rates.

Bidding strategy for winning projects on freelancer.com.

Automating bids with pre-made templates and a clipboard manager app.

Utilizing chat GPT to analyze client requests and improve bid responses.

The three-step process for closing large clients in minimal time.

The importance of genuine interest and occasional humor in client communication.

Asking clients for deadlines and budgets to plan resources effectively.

The benefits of being a preferred freelancer on the platform.

The significance of earning five-star reviews for credibility.

The upcoming video on the custom bid-winning formula.

Encouragement to subscribe for more content and a prompt for feedback.

Transcripts

Why are you here? Perhaps because you want to  start freelancing but do not know where? or maybe  

because you know you can do better? If any of that  applies to you, it's time that you discover my  

million dollar success story because I'm planning  to reveal it all. I do not have any courses,  

I don't have any Discord groups, just free and  relevant information. And my promise to you is  

to make my free content better than any of the  paid content you can find anywhere else. Hey guys,  

I'm Matt and I'm about to close a single 500 000  project on freelancer.com, but just three or four  

years ago my maximum deal size was a hundred  dollars one. In those three or four years I  

managed to get from zero to being number one on  freelancer.com amongst millions and millions of  

other users.At the same time I watched countless  freelancing courses and channels and some of the  

things that I'm going to show you have never been  shown before because it's free and for me to keep  

making this content make sure to subscribe and hit  the notification Bell so you can always stay up  

to date this content will be coming out on weekly  basis I'm going to unpack a lot of things here so  

make sure to go over everything at least a couple  of times the value will gradually increase with  

every new tip so be patient with me because first  tip might be a little bit boring but everything  

after that will be super exciting and super  relevant for you and here are the things that  

we are going to cover freelancing Journey profile  Prodigy portfolio possibilities rate wizard the  

bid Champions formula five minutes to close the  Royal introduction quotation book communication  

with clients preferred and verified why and how  reviews a guide to Brilliance if you are new to  

freelancing my absolute recommendation would be  edx.org it's a free site that collects relevant  

courses from some of the top schools in the  world like Harvard and MIT if you already have  

skill let's start with the one that you know  about but it still needs to be covered when I  

started I was bidding 16 hours per day and for  me this is not a get rich quick scheme but an  

exciting and a life-changing Journey however I  made countless mistakes and I will show you how  

to automate and reuse the work and what you can  do to skip the hard part first of all you need  

to create a profile right because most of my  audience knows how to saw or has already done  

it I'm not going to go into that I'm here to  give you motivation I'm a hard worker and by  

following this channel you have more than enough  to be at least as successful as me I will be your  

accountability partner and you can always shoot me  a message when you get stuck we are here to do it  

together so let's do it regarding profiles I know  what works because I heard it directly from the  

member of the freelancer.com team and today I have  this unique opportunity to share it with you they  

told me that based on their data a profile photo  should be a clear headshot on a white background  

and this makes sense when you think about it  right employers would rather connect with a person  

than with a logo or a company for this use a tool  like removal.bg and then if you feel experimental  

go to canva and a different background I still  prefer to stick to white but that might change  

soon regarding taglines and descriptions in the  era of AI it wouldn't make sense to only rely on  

our knowledge right if I were you I would go into  chat GPT and ask it to write brilliant and custom  

taglines and descriptions for myself and here is  how you do it we are a software on demand company  

number one ranked team on freelancer.com and  some of our clients are Rita Ora Sky News Airbus  

Freelancer and many others we like to keep our  communication professional but casual write us a  

60 character long tagline and a 500 character long  description and make it unique most importantly be  

as specific as possible you do not want to rely  only on AI but tweak it and make it truly yours  

I'm going to talk about portfolio section next  which is a make or break part of your profile  

have lots of examples and most importantly make  it visual if you are in a niche that is hard to  

visualize make sure to have either before or  after pictures or some results that can prove  

it these can be divided into two you either  have previous work or you don't in case that  

you do have a previous work there are two things  I would recommend number one ask industry experts  

for feedback because there is always room for  improvement and number two make sure to use  

a portfolio template generator so that you can  produce a unique looking Style on the other hand  

if you do not have a portfolio there are great  sites online like sharpen the design or you can  

go and get a list of project tasks and build one  you cannot fake a portfolio but it will provide  

you with a list of project ideas to sharpen your  skills as the name says and important make sure  

like the first group to volunteer with different  brands and collect relevant experience I will be  

honest with you on this one and let you know that  there isn't a specific answer it can vary greatly  

by your Geographic locations skills what clients  are willing to pay for and numerous other things  

however there are great tools online like ruul.io  and their freelancer rate calculator tool and the  

freelancer rate calculator sheet so make sure to  use one of them these tools count in your living  

expenses taxes working days and many other small  factors when putting together a final rate please  

note that these rates are only suggestions and  it's mandatory that you do them correctly as  

otherwise they will provide you with a wrong  estimate as I have a large team now it's a bit  

different for me but I still use the principle of  price cards bidding is the way to get projects in  

the beginning customer inquiries are rare so  make sure that your bids are fast but custom  

to the client and how do you do that always be in  the first 10 Freelancers that put the bid in but  

make sure to not autobid because your bids will  eventually get reported and banned and here is  

how to automate it and still be safe make sure to  have pre-made templates for every single service  

you provide and just change the introduction  affirm to the client that you understood the  

assignment and connect it to one of the previous  examples that is the most similar to what client  

is after have your templates ready use Clippy or  any other clipboard manager app it is an absolute  

Lifesaver also here is how you can use chat GPT  into your advantage let's say that the client is  

looking for an animator that can provide him with  a style of Brad Bird . editing for to the tool and  

ask you to analyze the style and provide a reply  which covers a few lines on what it knows about  

that style and how you can help them do it in a  similar way. in the meantime always monitor the  

bid insights section on freelancer and make sure  to add those bids into chat GPT and then ask it  

to analyze it and let you know what works and  what doesn't work and then you can simply redo  

it based off of that feedback in the following  video I will break down my bid winning formula  

that helps me win five times more projects than  all of the best Freelancers on the site so make  

sure to stay until the end this one is a bit of  magic which I been saving for later sorry about  

that I've closed numerous large size clients  in as little as 5 or 10 minutes and it comes  

down to a three-step process again you can use  AI to write it for you and here's what I usually  

write in case I was introduced by the preferred  team which I will cover in the rest of the video  

here is what I write hello my name is Matt and  I was referred to you by Joe who is a recruiter  

at freelancer.com how are you doing today if  you're just a regular client pretty much the  

same just appreciation plus introduction plus  inquiry and here is how it usually looks like  

hey thanks for reaching out my name is Matt and  we are happy to have the opportunity to chat with  

you about the project that being said could you  share some more information about yourself the  

project and anything else that you might find  helpful next on the genuine interest plus an  

occasional joke I cannot explain how important it  is to not only show genuine interest but actually  

be interested in the client and their project  spend a couple of minutes ask relevant questions  

and if you're a humorous type of person even  crack a joke or two it will make them relaxed  

and get a bit of trust in it and last one the  close I always always always ask clients for a  

deadline and a budget and how do I explain why  I need it number one I want to understand what  

is the level of quality they are after number  two I want to understand the creativity and  

urgency they want to achieve and number three I  want to be able to plan our resources and that's  

how I explain it to them remember in sales whoever  speaks first loses and you didn't hear this from  

me but in case they speak first there is always  a bit of room for an improvement right clients  

always want to see a structured and a detailed  offering because we're an agency now I usually  

send custom quotes which require a very detailed  breakdowns but do not worry because freelancer.com  

has got you covered here their Quote system is  easy to use and gives you the option to give an  

accurate description of your project and set  out deliverables in the list item section of  

the quote this is great for clients especially  when they have a document to share with the rest  

of the decision makers in their team if it's great  for the client it's great for you as well another  

excellent element of the quote system is the valid  until section it will give your clients a sense of  

urgency especially if you give them a discount  remember the faster you close the better you  

are this one deserves a bid on its own but I  will give you a couple of major points if you  

are planning to build a successful freelancing  career it comes down to honesty dedication and  

quality honesty rather under promise and over  deliver than the other way around if you get to  

a roadblock make sure to communicate it with  the client because it will be so much easier  

to sort it out together dedication always but  especially when starting out dedicate thousand  

percent of your being and your existence to the  project I know it's hard but it will result in  

so much additional work that it's going to be  well worth it and quality this one speaks for  

itself always ask for feedback provide the best  work you can and make sure to make client happy  

it is your moral obligation to give it a short  answer getting into the preferred program is the  

biggest game changer on the platform while getting  verified is more or less just a necessary step in  

the right direction getting verified will give you  higher credibility amongst clients and give you  

the ability to bid on better paying projects at  the same time getting into the preferred program  

has certain prerequisites that you can check on  the link below but you need to to collect about  

10 reviews which need to be excellent and  you are on your way to becoming a preferred  

freelancer and why is it a game changer because  now you will get the recruiters to do the work  

for you instead of browsing through numerous  projects you will have recruiters that will  

send you messages when there is a project that is  matching your skills how cool is that and number  

two it gives you premium credibility and access to  the big bucks from the moment I got my preferred  

freelancer status majority of my clients are from  the preferred program for me that's the big boys  

league in freelancing I've always said that the  review is King it's the number one thing clients  

are looking at When selecting a freelancer  to work on their project and nobody can just  

buy a five-star review you need to earn it when  you are starting out take projects that you can  

actually over deliver and make sure to have great  and timely communication with your client to earn  

a five-star review make sure to put everything  on paper either a contract or a written paper  

Google Docs it doesn't matter so that both you  and the client can sign it off and that both you  

and the client know what will be worked on as I  said earlier it's always better to under promise  

and over deliver trust me guys but it doesn't end  here in the next video I'm breaking down my custom  

bit winning formula so that you know exactly what  I do and what tools I use to make it the seamless  

process it is yours you just need to click here  let me know down in the comments what you think  

about this and make sure to subscribe to get  a lot more of these see you in the next one