Five Useful Tips For New Freelancers

Before I joined a new freelance website goLance, I used to work as a freelancer on all websites available. I'm not saying that I've seen and done it all, but I totally understand how difficult it can be for a new freelancer to break through.

Here are some of my tips, I hope every new freelancer will find to be useful and practical:

• Don’t set the lowest, but the price that makes you happy! This is a risky move, but it can help you stand out immediately. What do you have to do? Well, just don’t settle for the lowest price possible. Feel free to ask for more money for your work. Yes, there are clients who will automatically ignore your proposals. But, these clients who’re looking for the cheapest work available aren’t your target group. You should aim toward the clients who don’t mind paying a bit more. When you have thousands of freelancers with the identical price, rest assured that the ones with the more expensive prices stand out. The catch is to make your clients wonder, is this new freelancer worth paying more than “usual?”

• A profile picture is good, but a video is better! A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a thousand pictures. Don’t be afraid to be the star of your own video. You aren’t going to be an actor, so relax. Your clients will appreciate to see a friendly face and hear a few honest words about yourself. If you don’t feel comfortable about it, then hire a pro video editor to make a nice video about your work. You can either show your portfolio in a video format or present your creative process.

• Your “About Me” and “Why Choose Me” texts are extremely important! If you aren’t a writer hire your colleague who is a professional freelance writer or ask him to do you a favor. Every single word you put in these texts matter more than you can possibly imagine. So, make sure these texts are a small work of art.

• Only a patient freelancer is a successful freelancer! You have to learn how to be patient. Why? Because of the overwhelming competition. So, be patient or you are going to be hurt by your expectations.

• Don't follow the freelance crowd! It's understandable that every new freelancer wants to work on the biggest freelance platform, for a simple reason. The bigger the freelance website is, the better the chances are that you will be hired more quickly. That's not necessarily true. If you just follow the freelance crowd, then pretty soon, you will experience something called the "freelance paradox." Actually, the bigger a platform is, the more difficult it will be for you to break through. On some of them, it will be a true mission impossible to even register and be accepted as a new freelancer. If you don't want to give a chance to a new freelance platform, then how can you expect that a client will do the same for you as a new freelancer? Right?