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Where to Find Freelance Jobs with Less Competition

Cedric Solidon — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:05:49 +0000

If you try looking for a freelance job over the internet, you’ll soon find out that you’re faced with stiff competition. It’s especially the case with more popular websites such as Craigslist or eLance.

Let’s take eLance’s case, for example. When you look for a copywriting job there, you’re most likely to compete with around 15-25 providers for every job. That’s unless the job requires a highly-specialized skill such as the knowledge of a foreign language. Thus, your chances of actually winning a job goes down as more providers bid.

So where will you find freelance work with less competition? Here are a few:

1. The good old yellow pages

Using the yellow pages, you can find businesses who may need your services right now or in the near future.

Cold contacting (cold calling or cold e-mailing) is the term used when you approach businesses and offer them your services. But make sure you’re prepared before you actually contact a prospect. You must be familiar with the company and their business so you have to do prior research (you want to sound helpful, not clueless). You must also have the guts to approach them and to sell yourself to them. And finally, you must have the ability not to take things personally if they turn your offer down.

Competition is less cutthroat here because they aren’t as visible as advertised jobs. But you should sell yourself well to these businesses if you want to get the job. Tell them what you can offer them and be prepared to show them your portfolio.

2. Websites

Aside from the businesses you can find in the yellow pages, also look for websites which you think can use your expertise. If you’re a web designer, for example, you may want to look for sites that could be further improved in terms of design and accessibility. Again, cold contact them and tell them how you can help improve their business.

3. Your former employer

Most freelancers worked normal 9-5 jobs before pursuing freelancing full-time. If you have a good relationship with your former employer, it would be good to tell them that you’re already freelancing and offer them your services.

Your chances of getting a job here is better because they already know how you work and will therefore be comfortable working with you.

4. Your own website

Another way to find freelance work is by having your own website. Having a website reverses the process involved in the previous three items. Businesses will be the one to approach you instead of you approaching them. They will usually find you through search engine results so it pays to have an optimized website in this case (i.e. a website that ranks well in search engines and gives people what they’re looking for). But that’s for another blog post.

Anyway, since they’re visiting your website, you must sell yourself to them before they even contact you. You can do that by stating clearly what services you provide and how different it is from others, a portfolio of your past work, and if you’re fine with it, your rates. You should also provide them with several options of contacting you (e.g. e-mail, phone, IM, etc.).

So if you want to find freelance work without the cutthroat competition, check out the options and find out what works for you. But keep in mind that selling yourself also takes a lot of hard work - hard work that will pay off eventually if you persist.

Got any other suggestions aside from what I’ve already listed? Share them on the comment box below.

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How To Have Something Like A Christmas Party If You’re A Freelancer

Cedric Solidon — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:37:11 +0000

If you’re a freelancer who had a 9-5 job before, you probably know that this is the season for office Christmas parties.

And that’s what you’ll see in Facebook accounts of your former colleagues (or whatever website they upload it to): pictures taken during parties with their officemates.

Now as a freelancer, you don’t go to parties like that because you have no colleagues to speak of. And you probably work alone most of the time. Well unless you are willing to party alone and call that an office Christmas party, then that would do too.

But when you think of it, you didn’t really work alone after all.

You had clients who helped you stay financially afloat this year. More importantly, these are the people you helped in achieving success in their business. They are real people behind the voices on the phone, behind the signatures in their e-mails.

Then there’s your family and friends. Without them, your year would have been empty and meaningless. After all, money isn’t the only thing that makes the world go round.

So what am I getting at here? What I’m trying to say is that even if you can’t attend an office Christmas party like most people, remembering the people who made your year meaningful can more than make up for that.

So send your clients holiday greetings. Tell your family and friends that you love them. They will surely appreciate it. Doing those things can make your holidays more meaningful.

May you have a great holiday, folks!

Image courtesy of pixelbase at sxc.hu

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What Copywriters Should Tell Their Clients About Conversions

Cedric Solidon — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:00:17 +0000

In your career as a copywriter, you will encounter at least one client who would expect you to perform miracles on his/her business.

It is of course normal for your clients to expect you to help them improve their conversions. That’s why they’re paying you good money in the first place. But watch out for those who expect you to turn around their business overnight.

So what would you do if you encounter one such client? You have some things to explain and a few other things to do to show what you can and cannot do as a copywriter.

Clarify What Your Client’s Goals Are

This is an important step before you accept a project. You have to be clear with your client what it is that he/she wants to achieve with the copy. Otherwise, you might be employing the wrong strategies which most definitely wouldn’t work no matter how good your copy is.

Here’s an extreme example just to illustrate the point. Let’s say your client wants to increase the sales of an e-book he/she has written. Now he/she asks you to write a print copy. While it could generate sales for your client, a web ad could be more effective since the product is targeted to computer users who know how to use the internet.

There Are Several Factors That Affect Results

Tell your client that you will do your best to come up with a fantastic copy. Offer revisions that guarantees your client’s satisfaction with the final product. But you have also explain to your client that there will be other factors that will affect the effectiveness of your copy.

For one, there may not be enough demand for the product. So for example if you write a killer copy for typewriters, it might not get a lot of responses because most people prefer to use computers nowadays. Which leads us to another factor.

There’s also the position of the product in the market. Going back to the example of typewriters, the copy will get better response if the typewriters being sold are vintage and are targeted to collectors of these machines.

Then maybe a major event occurs that changes the market’s perception of the product your client sells. Say for example there’s a massive wave of nostalgia wherein it becomes fashionable to write again using typewriters. Then your copy would get a huge response.

So How Would Your Client Know If Your Copy’s Effective?

Your client will know if your copy’s effective only after he/she tests it. There are no guarantees of how effective it is before any tests are made.

If your client wants to tweak it, you could include it in the package or you can charge extra for it.

So the next time your client refuses to pay you for not guaranteeing the results of your copy (it happened to me in one of my very first assignments), explain to him/her how copywriting works. Better yet, come up with a contract or a terms and conditions for the project. It would put clear goals and boundaries on the things you need to do for the project.

How about you, do you have other things that can prevent confusion between you and your client about conversions?

Image courtesy of VinnyPrime at sxc.hu

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I’ll Give You $20 If You Read this Article

I’ll Give You $20 If You Read this Article

Cedric Solidon — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:13:28 +0000

If I said that I’ll give you $20 just by reading this article, you probably would, right? Besides, you don’t have anything to lose by doing that.

Now what if I told you that I lied to you, that there’s no money waiting for you at the end? You’ll most definitely get mad at me, right?

You probably experienced this in some other form several times in your life. Companies selling products that only look good on paper but never deliver what you expected. And sometimes, you have no option of returning the product.

Because of this kind of experience, it’s no wonder a lot of people think of advertisers as liars. You probably do too (especially after how I wrote this post’s headline).

Indeed, some advertisers are guilty of this. However, this is a misconception about advertising in general. Advertising isn’t about lying to your customers. It is about persuading them to buy your product by telling them how they can benefit from your product.

Why Have Advertisers Gotten the Bad Reputation as Liars?

Two words: false advertising.

Basically, false advertising is where you promise features and benefits of a product that you cannot actually deliver. Many companies have been guilty of this in the past. There still those who are today.

One of the most recent cases of false advertising happened with Apple’s iPhone 3G.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the United Kingdom received several complaints about Apple’s exaggeration of their phone’s speed. An advertisement of the phone showed it downloading web pages in a fraction of a second. Because of this, the ASA ordered Apple to revise the ad.

The same thing happened in the United States wherein a woman sued Apple for false advertising, stating that the company failed to deliver its promise of a phone that’s “twice as fast.”

Why Do Some Companies Resort to False Advertising?

Advertising is all about persuading people to buy your product over the competition. The stiffer the competition in the market, the better your persuasion techniques should be.

To garner attention, some companies make big promises that they cannot deliver. What happens then is that they leave their customers dissatisfied, and feeling they were robbed of their hard-earned money.

That’s why some countries have laws against false advertising. The United States, for example, has the Federal Trade Commission Act that protects consumers from deceptive forms of advertising.

What You Can Do as a Freelance Copywriter

If you have a client who wants you to exaggerate some details of the copy to attract more customers, remember that there are things you can do to prevent it. You can explain to your client (nicely, of course) the potential drawbacks it may have on your campaign and the possible legal hurdles that you might encounter.

Another thing you can do is stress the unique benefits that your customers will enjoy by buying your product. If they find real value in it, you wouldn’t need to promise them the moon just to persuade them to part with their money.

If your client gets your point, well and good. Otherwise, advise your client to look for another copywriter who might be in for the job. You should do that if you care about the welfare of the consumers more than the paycheck you could have earned with the project.

Still think advertisers are liars?

If you’re a copywriter and have experienced this kind situation with a client, how did you handle it?

Share your thoughts on the comment box below.

Oh and I promise never to lie to you again. Friends?

Image courtesy of Splenetic at sxc.hu

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Thanksgiving Day Post: What Are You Thankful For?

Cedric Solidon — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:45:47 +0000

I come from a country that doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving Day (I’m from the Philippines). However, since a lot of great things have happened this year, I might as well list them down here. They’re of course related to the work that I do.

1. I’m thankful for learning - more often than not, the hard way - of how it is to work as a real freelancer. How to deal with different clients, how to get the job done right and how to keep myself afloat during lean months.

2. I’m also thankful for the people who helped me keep my head above the water when the going got tough. Without them, I wouldn’t have survived those cold, hungry months (alright I’m exaggerating a bit here. LOL).

3. I’m thankful for the good clients I have and still have. It’s always great to know that there’s a real person behind those e-mails and IMs that you exchange with each other.

How about you, what are you thankful for?

Image courtesy of Cieleke at sxc.hu

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Tips on Making Money from Blogs Beaten to Death

Cedric Solidon — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:06:48 +0000

It’s a sad day today in the blogging community as it mourns the passing of the Tips on Making Money from Blogs.

According to reports, the Tips suffered from heavy beating from bloggers who wanted to milk every penny out of it.

The Tips on Making Money from Blogs is a popular topic on the internet. And some bloggers speculate that its popularity actually caused its death. Some even went as far as comparing the Tips to John Lennon, saying that they were both victims of their own celebrity.

One blogger noted that he was quite surprised about the news. “I saw it coming, but I didn’t expect it to happen too late.” He added that he hoped that the Tips for Making Money from Blogs is resting peacefully now, away from the hands of unimaginative bloggers who beat it to death.

The perpetrators, meanwhile, are still on the loose. Once caught, the blogging community will punish them with low readership and low pay-per-click income.

Image courtesy of sloopjohnb at sxc.hu

Random Posts

The Barack Obama Guide to Winning a Campaign

Cedric Solidon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:42:23 +0000

By this time, you probably know that Barack Obama already won the US presidential election. And it wasn’t just by a small margin, but a decisive mile.

Now whether you are running a political campaign or a marketing one, there are things that you can learn from how Barack Obama’s campaign team helped him win the election. I’m listing a number of my observations here.

1. Know your audience/market and sell to them. Seth Godin is an advocate of this, that is, marketing aggressively to those people you know will buy your product. It’s actually an old marketing advice but it’s something that a lot of marketers tend to forget.

I observe this at local malls where real estate agents hand out brochures to random people, even young ones who most likely cannot afford to buy houses yet. It’s a waste of money and energy because these agents cannot be certain of the amount of response they will get.

Therefore, the key here is to know who your audience is – the people who you know will actually buy your product – and sell to them. It’s more effective in terms of costs and results.

Barack Obama knew that the majority of his audience comes from the younger crowd as well as those from ethnic minorities. So he sold himself to them and it worked.

2. Don’t forget those who are still undecided. Not because you didn’t get the response that you want the first time doesn’t mean that people are not interested in your product. One reason for the lack of response is that people are not fully aware of it yet.

Marketing takes time and you cannot convert everyone the first time you make a marketing campaign. So what you do is create awareness until people get it into their consciousness and become convinced to buy whatever it is you’re selling them.

Barack Obama knew that there’s still a good chance that John McCain will beat him in Florida. So what he did was visit that and other states that still needed more convincing more frequently until he won most of them over.

3. Know the best way to communicate with your audience. You know that good communication is key to effectively selling products. But more than that, you should also know the best way to deliver it. Barack Obama’s campaign team knew that a huge chunk of their voters come from the Internet generation, so they made good use of it and talked to them there.

4. Make new technologies work for you. Coming back to the Internet generation as Obama’s market, his campaign team knew how to use the medium of the Internet to their advantage.

But more than that, they understood that the Internet generation’s way of thinking is different from that of the previous generations. So instead of appealing to big businesses for campaign funds, they made use of the Internet and its American netizens to chip in whatever amount they can give to help in the campaign. Which leads us to another point.

5. The little things count. Yeah sure, $5 is not a lot of money when you look at it. But multiply it several times and it can reach hundreds, thousands and even millions of dollars. And that’s another thing that Obama’s team understood and executed perfectly. From the little contributions from his supporters, he was able to collect a significant amount of funds compared to McCain.

You can apply that when dealing with your customers. Marketing is all about them and fulfilling their needs. That is why they appreciate every little good thing that you do for them. Whether it is the ease of returning products they do not like or building websites that let them easily find what they’re looking for, customer-oriented service wins. And it will show in your profits.

All in all, it’s about knowing your audience and learning to effectively sell to them. But that’s something that’s easier said than done. That’s because selling also takes a lot of patience, persistence and careful planning in order to become successful.

How about you, what do you think were the marketing techniques used by Barack Obama’s team to win the election? How can you use them to your own marketing campaigns?

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The Curse of the Unlucky Freelancer: How not to Find Success Working at Home

Cedric Solidon — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:41:30 +0000

Howdy? The Halloween’s over and I hope all you guys had a great time. As for myself, I was contacted by spirits during the holiday and gave me the power to read other people’s minds. Want me to prove it? Alright, let’s get started.

I can see that you are an unlucky freelancer, looking to win some big projects and earn a lot of money. But unfortunately, you notice that some things are not working for you. You do not win the projects you bid on, your clients never call you back and you’re far from attaining your financial goals.

Let me tell you why.

1. You have not crafted your proposal well. All you did was send potential clients cookie-cutter proposals that they have seen a lot of times already. That’s because you believe that your proposal for a lifestyle website will work for a site that focuses on heavy industries. Doing this shows that you haven’t studied your client’s needs well. So you fail to win the contract.

2. You nag and nag and nag your clients. No, not only your significant other or your mother-in-law knows how to nag. Apparently, you do a good job at it as well. You spend every hour of everyday asking your client when he or she will pay you even if your client already said that it will arrive at the end of the month. Keep on doing that and you’re sure not to hear from that client again.

3. You don’t give them updates. The frequency of updates depends on your set-up with your clients. But if you only give updates as often as the sun rises from the west – which is never – then you’re sure to have one unhappy client waiting for you at the end of the project.

4. You fail to live up to your promises. It’s great to impress your clients so that you can win a contract. But if you keep on doing this even if you know you can’t deliver, well good luck. That’s all I can say to you.

5. You undercharge. It’s nice to be modest. People like people who are modest. But if you’re charging too little simply because you think it’s what your competition charges, then you’re on the wrong track, my friend. As Jenn Mattern always says, you are selling your services in the wrong market.

Oh, wait. I can feel myself being drained of my mind-reading powers. But before it goes away, let me share with you a piece of advice the spirits told me. You should reverse the freelancer’s bad habits I listed to reverse the curse of the unlucky freelancer.

I know you’ve been possessed by the Halloween spirits too. So can you share other things that make for an unlucky freelancer? What do you think should they do to reverse the curse?

Image courtesy of sundstrom at sxc.hu

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Information Overload? Compartmentalize!

Cedric Solidon — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:00:58 +0000

When I was just starting to learn playing guitar solos, I was often stumped by the technicality of playing them and the amount of time I had to spend perfecting them.

But it was not until I came across a lesson from one of my most favorite guitarists, Paul Gilbert. He said that if you’re learning a particularly difficult musical passage, you must divide them into separate sections. It would be much easier to play the entire passage if you have perfected every section of it.

So how does writing figure into this? As a writer, it is your duty to help people understand what you’re trying to say. And by compartmentalizing your work into easily-to-digest sections, the easier it would be to achieve this.

How do you compartmentalize your work? Here are a number of suggestions:

1. Make Lists – making a list is widely used by writers especially on the internet. The reason for this is that lists help visually separate the entire piece into smaller and easy to understand sections. It is useful when you’re writing about something that contains several elements (such as this article you’re reading). Lists are easy on the eyes and help your brain process the information much faster.

2. A Different Paragraph for a Different Sub-Topic – paragraphs are used to separate a general topic into several sub-topics. Again, the piece is much easier to understand if it is written this way. And yes, there’s also the visual element. A piece that is divided into paragraphs is easier on the eye than a block of text.

3. Separate Them into Chapters – for an especially lengthy piece, it is not enough that you make a list or separate them into paragraphs. Books are a good example of this. They are divided into chapters to separate one topic or one part of the story from the others. It helps make the entire book easy to digest if it can be read one part at a time.

Image courtesy of sundstrom at sxc.hu

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Working at Home and Alone

Cedric Solidon — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:00:18 +0000

As a freelancer, you have your own reason for choosing to work at home and not in an office (well, unless it’s your own home office). Some of the most common reasons include being in control of your time, to spending more time with your family, to saving gas or money in commuting to the office.

Whatever your reason is for being a freelancer, one thing that comes with the territory is the huge amount of time you spend working alone. In my case, I often prefer this especially when I’m in my working ‘bubble’ where I tend to focus entirely on my work.

But it can be lonely too, right?

The feeling of seclusion is one of the challenges of working at home.

In the long run, working alone can be as difficult as working in an office when you’re not in the mood to work. But unless you want to be a freelancing hermit, you must have devised some ways to overcome this feeling.

Personally, here’s what I do:

1. Talk to myself.
2. Listen to music.
3. Distract myself by either watching TV, playing the guitar (only during 10-minute breaks of course ).
4. Watching Rick Astley videos.
5. And when I’m done distracting myself, I talk to myself some more.

But seriously, it’s about distracting yourself occasionally to refresh your mind when you go back to work.

How about you? What do you do to overcome the effects of seclusion when freelancing?

Image courtesy of kendoll007 at sxc.hu