Promoting Your Strengths

Until you get experience on Elance, you will be relying on your proposals and profile to get business. This will work fine, it just takes a bit longer. The key is to show how your strengths fit neatly into the job requirements.

Although you will always be promoting your strengths as you market your freelancing business, you have to do more of it yourself in the beginning. You don’t have as much free advertising in the form of the feedback page.

As a new contractor, you have three main avenues for marketing yourself. Think of it as three legs to a stool:

Within each of these you have more goodies, like specialties, references, work experience, training, etc. But you must view each of these steps as marketing opportunities, and they are interwoven like a fine rug. Use the following ideas to promote your strengths in any or all of the three avenues. Be creative, and above all else, fill the client’s need.

Emphasize Your Profile

If you haven’t built yourself a stellar profile yet, go back and read Chapter 4. You need this to get going. Your stool will tip right over if you don’t have this important tool in place.

The proposal gets the prospective client’s attention, and the profile keeps it. The sale is made between those two and your responses and questions in the bidding process. (See Chapter 5 for more steps to take to get noticed after you’ve submitted your proposal, and before the job has been awarded.)

Be sure to ask your prospective client to have a look at your profile. Tell them the truth: you’re new to Elance but have an enormous amount of whatever it takes to get the job done.

TOP TIPS

Emphasizing your strengths is a fine balance. You want to showcase your talents, but you don’t want to put people off by being too pushy. Stick with the facts presented in a clear and confident manner.

If you’ve taken care to really establish your profile and emphasize your strengths, this will impress the client. Be sure to include the personal touches, like a picture and/or YouTube video, to help create a connection.

Your profile is a selling tool. Use it as such. Getting the client to view it will help you make the sale.

Special Talents

Each of us has had unique experiences in our lives. Most of these have taught us valuable lessons, and we have all ended up with special talents along the way. Some are more obvious than others. Many people have special training in an area, or have spent years doing something in a traditional job that can easily be morphed into freelancing.

If you were a graphic designer in the military for 20 years, that will stand out well in your side career as a freelance 3D animator. It might not be exactly the same, but it’s close and you should emphasize it.

However, maybe you’re a CPA in a large firm, and your real desire is to become a travel writer. Obviously, emphasize any writing you’ve done in the past, including courses you’ve taken and publications you’ve had. But working as a CPA you also understand deadlines, overtime (think the weeks before April 15), and following through on quite important responsibilities to the client. These are critical for publishers.

The point is that you have special talents. Recognize what they are, dust them off and shine them up, and put them on display.

Ben Gran is a successful writer on Elance. He began with a single $200 writing project and has since earned over $100,000. He’s a big believer in using a variety of work experiences to showcase your skills. In his words:

Ben’s experience and success are an excellent example of using special talents. (You can find him on Elance under the user name Benjamin Gran.)

Past Experiences

You may not have any feedback or ratings on Elance, but you have your lifetime of experience. As with your specialties, use this information. It seems obvious to say, yet some contractors underestimate the value of what they’ve done in the past.

Direct job experience in your freelancing field is obviously going to help. Post this up front and center in your profile.

But as with specialties, many experiences highlight positive qualities that you just need to point out. Going through a rigorous training course proves that you stick with it when the going gets tough. Learning a second language means that you had a crash course in grammar, and also that you have a deeper level of understanding in that language’s culture.

Ask yourself which of your experiences you can apply as positive attributes to your freelancing career. Again, a fine balance exists. Don’t exaggerate or get crazy ideas about the talents your ant farm brings to the table, but do understand that you may have more experiences worth showcasing than you think you do.

Eager to Succeed

This one factor is sometimes the key ingredient that brings home the bacon. As a new contractor you have the desire and need to succeed. Tell this to your potential client right up front. Don’t be shy about it. It’s a matter of taking what’s perceived to be a disadvantage—new on Elance—and turning it into an advantage.

TOP TIPS

Many clients will start a new contractor off with a test project. They may hire you for a small job to see how you do and how easy you are to work with. Run with these opportunities. Showcase your talent and professionalism, do a little extra and communicate frequently, while also maintaining the healthy boundaries you need for a balanced lifestyle.

When the client understands that you understand her project goal, that you are qualified to achieve it, and that you’re hungry for the business and positive feedback, you become an attractive hire indeed. The key is to get all these pieces together.

Being eager to succeed is good, coming across as desperate is not. Bid your project fee appropriately, promptly follow up on any communication received, and let them know you understand what they want. Then do it again and again with potential jobs. This is eager but not desperate.

Follow Up

If a client asks specific questions in his job posting, answer them. Full stop. Just do it. Some clients will place questions in their postings just to filter out the boilerplate proposals from the real ones. If they get a response that answers the question, that contractor makes the A list. If the question isn’t answered, that contractor gets the D-for-delete list.

As I mentioned in Chapter 5, send a follow-up email the same day or the day after you submit your proposal. In this email you can simply say the truth—you’re following up because you’re interested in the project. You can also add a relevant question or idea you’ve thought of in the meantime. The point is, you’re in front of the prospective client twice in a short amount of time.

Next, you must wait; otherwise you can come across as desperate or just a pain in the backside. But if they respond to your proposal and/or follow-up email—and they will if they’re interested—respond promptly! If they’re in touch with you, it’s because they’re interested. Everything you do is being judged, so see these moments for the opportunities they are.

Many clients are looking for long-term contractor relationships. The first jobs you do with them establish how well you work together. Following up on what you say you’re going to do is key.

Communicate!

This one word can’t be emphasized enough. If you have a question, ask. If you’re asked a question, respond. Don’t dally around wondering if the timing is right. Clear communication will help you win more jobs than perhaps any other quality.

CYBER SNAGS

If you’re working from a much different time zone than your prospective client, be sure to mention this. This way she will understand when you respond at 3 A.M. her time, but are silent during normal working hours.

Time and again clients say that those contractors they are most likely to award the job to clearly communicate that they understand the project and are excellent at follow-up. Listen carefully to these words of wisdom.