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How well do you know yourself?

For example I’m a left-handed male in my mid-forties; I’m a Meyers-Briggs INTP, Astract-Sequential, Visual Learner who prefers compromise to conflict.

That all sounds really wonderful, but what does it mean?  To some people it doesn’t mean anything, and to others it means a lot.  I could also have thrown in that I’m a Libra, which would mean something to some people and not to others; or I could tell you I was born in the Year of the Rabbit.

All these descriptors have one thing in common:  me.

So what do all these things about me have to do with you?

Quite a lot actually.

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One thing I’ve noticed with a lot of new freelancers is that they don’t quite know how to close a deal effectively. They know how to apply for a job, but anyone can do that. They can get an interview, but a lot of people do that. There’s only one …

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So you got the interview:  Congratulations!

Now all you need to do is get past the interview and start working.

If you’re like some people, the interview may be the hardest part.  Let me tell you a story about one of the biggest interview mistakes I ever saw.

I used to be involved …

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We try to make this blog useful to all freelancers, whether you use oDesk or not.  Freelancing is freelancing, regardless of which site you use, so some tips are going to be applicable to everyone.  So most of our posts are about things that relate to all freelancers.

This one’s just about oDesk.

For those of you who’re oDesk providers I strongly recommend that you take the time to regularly check out “What’s New on oDesk.”  That’s where any new features and policy changes are announced.
May’s big announcement is the “oDesk Readiness Test.”
It’s important, especially for those of you who are just starting out on oDesk, or are using this blog as a way to help make up your mind about whether to join.
Here’s the deal:
If you haven’t billed hours recently you are going to need to take this test if you want to apply for jobs after June 4th, 2008.  It’s that simple.  Anyone without recent hours will have their application quota set to zero until they take this test.

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Each freelancing job is unique in some respects and we are constantly dancing with new partners. It’s one of the reasons we like freelancing; the variety keeps it fresh and interesting. A consequence of the variety is the initial back and forth we do for each job while we are coming to grips with this buyer- their particular expectations and requirements.
Getting a handle on a new project quickly is important. Relevant questions help, and they accomplish two goals. They frame the job as clearly as possible and they show buyers that you are a focused professional.
If you don’t ask meaningful questions and get good answers, you and your client are left without concrete milestones and objectives. We are writers; we are communicators; soliciting key information from your buyer is the first chance you have to show off your skills.

There’s one other side to consider- the buyer’s perspective. They are as much in the dark about you as you are about them. When you ask good questions they can see you are taking the project seriously. This instills confidence. It’s happened to me more than once: I asked questions on the message board to narrow down a job’s scope and landed the job before placing a formal bid. The buyer could tell I was interested and focused on the problems and specific needs of his project.
Buyers appreciate that you need some essential information to bid accurately and unless they are experienced at posting jobs on oDesk, they’ve probably left something out of the description. Here’s the top five questions I need answers to before I start work:

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You probably can’t help but notice that we’re now selling an eBook.  It’s right there on the front page and even in the upper right corner of the page where you’re reading this.  Before I go any further I should mention that while I did not write the eBook I did edit it.

Anyway, I’m not here to talk about how wonderful an editor I am, or any of the other ways in which I’m wonderful.  Instead I want to talk about the eBook.

When I accepted the job of editing the eBook, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect.  I knew the subject, but I wasn’t familiar with the text.   So the first thing I did was sit down and read the manuscript before starting to edit.  I was already familiar with most of what was in the book, but I found I was looking at it in a different way than I had before.

One thing the book focuses on is your profile, and as I was working I started thinking about my profile on oDesk, and on some of the other freelance sites.
That’s when I decided to do something:

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Clean the wax out of your ears! Yes, I said, “Upload feature.”

Like any busy yuppie–wait, I live in the suburbs. I guess that makes me a y’suppie. Anyway, like other y’suppies, I like to unwind. One of the things I do to unwind is to find a nice, quiet spot outside to sit and contemplate the philosophical implications of dental floss. However, the neighbor’s dog had dug under the fence once again, and it was yapping away while shooting me that evil eye with the clear intention of disrupting my zen-like state. Seriously, I don’t know how many times I’ve gone over there to tell my neighbor to keep his poofy house-mutt in the house. Clearly, he needed to be reminded in a manner that would make it stick in his memory.

So, as I was taping a lighter to a can of WD-40, I thought to myself, “Hey, my other neighbors have dogs as well. How can I make this problem a non-issue without having to run through cans and cans of aerosol spray?” I knew that I needed to plan ahead. You can melt one neighbor’s face off, but what if he doesn’t know the other neighbors well enough for them to be invited to the funeral?

That’s where I decided to become proactive. Instead of unleashing a torrent of Canned Death ™ every time I am interrupted, I could rain fire and brimstone on the immediate problem while using my free hand to document the ordeal via camcorder. Then, all I have to do is send a copy of that video to each of my neighbors with a letter explaining the virtues of keeping Fido quiet.

As a freelancer,  you can take a lesson from this story.

What? You want me to tell you what it all means? Okay. Well, fair enough. This article is actually about being lazy to achieve better results, so I guess that’s the point. Here’s how you can use that uploading feature (AKA that Attachment box you pass by every time you click the I agree to oDesk’s blah blah blah box on an application) to give yourself an edge over the competition.

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When I go on oDesk I often look at other providers’ profiles. It not only helps me get a better picture of the competition, but also lets me see where my profile can be improved.

One thing I can’t help but notice is that almost every provider rates their English skills at 5/5; I don’t think I have ever seen a lower rating on any provider’s profile. That’s good isn’t it? Besides, I’m mostly looking at writers’ profiles so they should be good at English: That’s their bread and butter.

Unfortunately, some of these profiles didn’t seem to reflect a 5/5 level of English. Many were rife with spelling and grammar errors; some would alternate between ‘I’ and ‘i’ as a personal profile. I was seeing some of the same errors I see in my daughter’s writing — and she’s in kindergarten.

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I was reading the oDesk community forum when I came across post I didn’t agree with. According the post author, the biggest problem on oDesk is that there are too many providers. You can read his argument here, where he explains there are “too many fish in the pond.”

I disagree.
It doesn’t matter how many of the wrong fish there are in the pond.
Not everyone on oDesk is going to do well at every job. Programmers, designers, and writers are all going to be looking for different jobs. That takes out the majority of the “competition” (other providers) right there. All it leaves are members of your own category: In my case other writers.

I’m not in competition with all of them either.

Some of them are going to be looking for completely different jobs than I am.  They’re looking for things that I wouldn’t want to do, so there’s no competition there.

But what about the people directly competing for the jobs I want?

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You’ve done what you said you would do. You took a few low-ball projects and got some decent feedback. You’ve taken some tests, posted a nice picture, and filled out your portfolio with examples of your best work. Time to raise your rates.
Inertia is your enemy
Remember when you first started out? How hard it was to get into the groove? Well, you are in a new groove now. And it’s time to push yourself a little.

One of the hard and harsh mathematical truths of freelancing is that we have a finite number of hours to sell. If you aren’t getting top dollar for your time you’ve got a lower paying job than you ought to have. But, having regular work is a comfort. It’s nice to relax into the routine and let inertia just carry us along.

The way to see inertia as your enemy is to recall the last plateau you were on. Before you climbed up to the plateau you are on now. You wouldn’t conceive of sliding back to the ‘before’ and you won’t want to go back to where you are now– once you make the next little climb.
Consider this
You’ve already demonstrated you can do the work and do the work successfully. Buyers should have little doubt that if they hire you, you will get the job done. The income bottleneck isn’t with the buyers, it’s with you.

Here’s some info to wise you up. From the 2008 Writer’s Market:

e-mail copywriting: $73 (these figures are all hourly averages)
Web page writing: $83
Technical writing: $84
Online editing: $58
Web page design: $90
Ghostwriting: $70
Rewriting: $63

That’s per-hour averages. That’s what writers are getting paid to do what you do. There are plenty more categories I didn’t list. I couldn’t read through my tears.

So, the excuse that you aren’t worth it is bull-dooky. You are worth it.

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