1. Complete Your Elance Profile
Yes, go through everything; including the exams (which are free anyway :)), the phone verification and even identity verification where they call you and take a photo of you via Skype.
Being that it is a professional site, the best clients value freelancers who have a complete profile and a good portfolio, even if you’re a new freelancer so make sure you take this painful, one-time step and you won’t regret it.
Note that Elance support is usually awesome, equipped even with a live chat option. Therefore, if you get stuck anywhere, just contact them and you’ll have a quick answer to get you going.
2. Take an Exam
I know I’ve already mentioned this point…but one funny thing I’ve realized is that sometimes people take a point more seriously when it is put in its own heading. So, go ahead and take an exam.
3. Add a Portfolio
This is another important part of your profile. Make sure you have a great portfolio. For example, if you are a writer, no matter how confident you are in yourself, allow someone else to check out some of your favorite articles and let them inform you which ones would best fit into your portfolio. In short, put a lot of thought into what you add to your portfolio.
4. Don’t Quit Your Job First
Whether you do a day job or are a freelancer in other platforms such as iWriter, Freelancer etc., don’t quit first. This is because you don’t want to get into Elance totally hungry and desperate. It is better to join this site when you already have something else running but want to up your game.
5. Send Numerous Proposals
Elance gives you 40 free Connects per month. Most proposals will cost you one Connect. Therefore, make sure you use all your 40 Connects each month. I advise you do 2 proposals a day but give careful thought of what you put in your proposal. Make sure you put something professional and persuasive in each.
6. Don’t Start Too Small
Whenever I advise people to join Freelancer, I tell them to start small.
The same advice goes for Elance. However, one factor to consider is the fact that you’ll be dealing with professionals who will also expect you to be professional.
A very low bid may show desperation and some people may not choose your proposal, fearing you are not serious, you give low quality work, you don’t respect deadlines or just have some hidden flaw that is making you bid so low.
7. Ask for Escrow or Use WorkView
This is self-explanatory. To protect your payments, make sure you ask your clients to fund an
escrow for fixed price jobs. For hourly jobs, it is hard to get scammed so just use their Tracker and send accurate timesheets in good time. I always warn freelancers not to work outside Elance or any other site for that matter since working outside will get you less protected and make it easy for you to get conned (take it from me, I was conned off a lot of cash this way when I was still green in online business).
8. Have a Brilliant Proposal
Don’t just wake up and do a proposal.
Make sure your proposal is well thought out. Feel free to bounce it off someone else to make sure its convincing enough to the clients. Note that this is one of the most important parts that will enable you to get good jobs.
9. Always Use a Sample
This is sort of an unwritten rule in all freelancing websites; Elance is no exception.
Make sure you use your best samples when you send out proposals. For example, if you are a graphic designer, use 2 or 3 of your favorite graphics.
A little secret that always works for me is I choose a sample that fits the client’s niche. If the client wants a writer to do weight loss articles, I pick 1-3 of my best weight loss articles and use them as my samples.
10. Be Patient
Patience is a virtue that many people don’t possess. We love sites like iWriter where you get in now, write a quick article and get paid.
Unfortunately, all quick things have their flaws e.g. iWriter will keep banning you and it has the highest rejection rate compared to other freelancing sites. Additionally, there are many times when there are no articles in the queue for you to write, therefore wasting your time and potential earnings.
On the other hand, if you land an Elance job like the ones I have, you have a guaranteed number of articles that you can write per day and ALL of them get accepted depending on how much your clients believe in your work
In short, be very patient in Elance. Note that even experts sometimes send proposals for weeks before they get their first jobs. The good thing is that when you start getting jobs there, you can easily forget about other sites.
$500 Per Month Plan for Freelancers in Elance
I’ll use the example of writers.
From my personal experience, there are many clients in Elance who are willing to pay between $4 and $8 per article. Therefore, you can use $4-$8 as your minimum proposal amount.
Once you get your $5 per 500 words job, make sure you write 5 articles a day. Assuming you work 5 days a week, that will give you $25 per day, meaning $125 per week and $500 per month.
And that is how you can make $500 per month on Elance.
Of course you should strive to work more than 5 days and do more than 5 articles per day. Additionally, always deliver quality work, otherwise, none of the above will work.
Bonus Tips
You can link your Payoneer card to Elance and use it to withdraw Elance cash for negligible fees. Since Payoneer is the best withdrawal method from online sites, make sure you take advantage of this.
Some clients may ask you to print and sign some Non-Disclosure Agreements or other contracts then upload them. These are the best clients there so don’t hesitate to do this.
Unlike Freelancer, you can withdraw your cash any day. The Payoneer card (or Elance card) requires a minimum of $20 USD per withdrawal but if you have the card and want to withdraw smaller figures, you can still withdraw to PayPal and then withdraw from PayPal to your US Payment Service by Payoneer. I still advise you just wait till you hit $20 and withdraw via Payoneer.
Never leave your day job or other freelancing jobs till you’ve secured one or two good clients on Elance.
In freelancing, never depend on one site only; make sure you still work on other sites such as Fiverr and iWriter, just to make sure you have backup earnings.
Avoid writing unpaid samples – unless the client requires one general one. For example, if a client asks you to write a sample on “5 Foods That Kill Fat”, turn it down since they may use it and never pay you for it. But if they say, “Give me a 300 word sample on any topic so that I can see your writing skills”, feel free to give them that sample.
Elance Takeaway
$500 per month is less than average pay on Elance. If you follow these 10 tips, you can easily start earning this amount through your freelancing efforts. So go ahead and sign in to Elance and apply the above tips. Make sure you also do your own research to get more tips on how you can increase your Elance earnings.
