How To Make Money As A Freelancer & Build a Business Using Freelancer.com

I have a lot of people ask me if I know where they can make money for their particular skill or if I need any freelancers and other similar questions. The answer is, yes, I do know where and how they can make money by freelancing. And no, even if I don’t need any freelancers at that particular time, I still know where they can go to easily pick up freelance jobs. The answer is, of course, Freelancer.com.

Now, before I get too much into how easy it is to make money as a freelancer with Freelancer.com – they really do have a wonderful system set up – I must go into full disclosure. I’m writing this article as part of an SEO contest that they are putting on. Contests are just one of the ways to make money there, but like I said, you can make money as a freelancer on Freelancer.com.

Now, for those of you who are interested in the SEO part and how I plan on getting my entry ranked, I’ll show you (most of it) via the video at the bottom and tell you where I learned many of the techniques from. I expect that some of my competitors will copy me, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and since I know my stuff works (as evidenced by the success of our clients) I don’t need to get all secretive and protective about it. The results speak for themselves.

Now, back to Freelancer.com. The layout is pretty sweet. You can fill out your profile, enter your resume, skills, certifications, education and even upload portfolio examples. In short, Freelancer.com provides you everything you need to showcase your talents as a freelancer in your particular field (and there are a lot of fields).

After you finish filling out your profile, which is helped out via a handy dandy step by step reminder at the top of the screen, the easiest way to find work is to click on the “Browse Projects” tab right in the middle of the dashboard at the top. From there you can browse by category, featured projects, fulltime work, contests and a few more. Freelancer.com even highlights for you the categories that you’ve indicated in your profile that you are skilled in. Convenient, I know. An added bonus: Freelancer.com will email you when new contests and projects come up that are for your skill areas. They’re literally throwing financial opportunities at you. Hard to beat, right? Well, it gets better.

You have complete control over everything that you could possibly need: messaging, project tracking, finances, invoice management, currency conversion, affiliate tracking, dispute resolution, even an API for folks that want to create applications. Heck, if you don’t feel you’re getting to look at as many jobs as you want, you can even advertise.

Here’s a brief video walk-through of the site so that you can see what some of it entails as far as opportunities and capabilities for freelancers looking for work.

 

Now, back to the SEO contest part. You’re probably curious about it too, at this point. So, let me tell you a little bit about what I’m doing. I must give credit to where credit is due. I’ve learned a lot from several different folks which has gone into this and my strategies. Kate Buck and her Lets Get Social Academy has been huge for learning the ropes. Likewise, Ryan Deiss has a lot of great strategies for SEO that he teaches that work over the long haul and while I’m using some of them, due to the short time constraints, I can’t use all of them. That being said, he has good stuff and is worth checking out. I haven’t been disappointed with anything I’ve ever gotten from him. Likewise, Brian Moran with Get10000Fans.com has taught me some fantastic strategies and tactics that have been very successful for some of my clients. I’ve also picked up some great tricks for social media SEO here and there along the way. Also, Brendan Burchard with Expert’s Academy has given me some great business ideas, some of which I’ve been able to transfer to the SEO world. He’s written quite a few books, any one of which I would say is worth getting. Now, for full disclosure, I have no financial ties or interests with any of these folks. Their stuff simply works, I’ve benefited from it, and I want to give credit where credit is due.

Now, since I don’t have the time to go set up the tradition network of sites to bounce URL’s back and forth with links to my site, and I don’t have the time to try and shepherd them through the Page Rank (PR) levels to something worthwhile, I’m going to simply take existing PR10’s and use them to my benefit. See the video below to see how I do a lot of it.

 

 

 

Yes, I fully expect some of my fellow contestants to read my entry and probably copy some of the techniques I’m using. That’s fine. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Ok, back to Freelancer.com. If you don’t have a website, Freelancer.com will provide hosting. How cool is that?

The profile tab is pretty extensive and allows you to provide enough information to give anyone visiting your profile a good look at who you are, what you do, and how well you do it. This includes your completion rate, how often you’re on budget, on time and how often you have repeat hires. Your profile also provides feedback on your skills. This is important for two reasons:

1. Advertising successful projects
2. 3rd party credibility

What you say is infinitely more believable if other people say it about you first. Then you’re not just blowing smoke in the mind of the viewer, you’re now someone who knows what they’re talking about. In the mind of someone looking for a contractor to do some work, this is invaluable. That means it should be invaluable to you as well.

Another added benefit is the Tycoon Talk Forum. You can talk with other freelancers about what’s working, what’s not and about trouble shooting problems on different topics like html, social media,  affiliate marketing and many others. It’s a never ending source for adding to your knowledge base and skill set. Freelancer.com is pretty much all you’ll ever need to find work, stay busy, and learn more. You can find us on there as SingleTree. Feel free to look us up and say hi. There’s really only one thing left to say…