Freelancer is a person who performs work without concluding a long-term contract with an employer. Most often he has to offer his services through the Internet, newspaper ads, personal connections. Sometimes you have to become a regular at various forums. How can you offer your services with maximum efficiency?
Instructions
Step 1
Designers, copywriters, directory runners, and other freelancers appear daily on various freelance forums and exchanges to offer their services. But, unfortunately, very few of them manage to get orders.
Step 2
What does a copywriter usually do when he / she wants to take an order to write materials for filling a website? He finds a forum on a specific topic that potential customers visit and offers his services based on his portfolio. Of course, the experience gained in this case is of no small importance. But experience is not always enough for success.
Step 3
Each individual forum is an independent community, which has its own authorities and outcasts. However, the latter may be quite respected people in another community, but for this forum, third-party positive recommendations are practically irrelevant.
Step 4
How can you earn the credibility of a professional performer? One of the most effective ways will be to write on the selected forum a certain number of messages that are adequate to the topic and content of the forum. In this way, you can gradually earn a reputation as a person who understands the issues discussed on the forum.
Step 5
Some forums offer the opportunity to give members points for the so-called reputation. The objectivity of such assessments, of course, does not always reflect the actual state of affairs, but for a potential customer, reputation can serve as a kind of guideline in choosing a candidate.
Step 6
Customers also pay attention to the registration date, which indirectly testifies to your experience. Therefore, if you plan to work in a certain direction and offer your services as an independent specialist, it makes sense to register in the relevant thematic communities.
Step 7
You can also take proactive steps to build your reputation. To do this, you can open a topic where you explain the essence of your services. Offer free (or heavily discounted) work execution.
Step 8
Some freelancers have a negative attitude towards completing assignments for free for a potential client. Their arguments are approximately as follows: “Why should I, an experienced specialist, waste my precious time on performing test tasks? After all, everyone can independently familiarize themselves with the samples of my work or the reviews of those with whom I had to cooperate. But this approach is often shortsighted and can lead to the loss of potentially lucrative orders.
Step 9
Of course, the specific conditions of the test task are important. Such conditions are not always reasonable and acceptable. One thing is a free test article, quite another is a voluminous philosophical treatise that you are offered to complete to assess your skills and abilities. In the second case, it may be worth giving up and looking for another, more realistic employer.
Step 10
You should also not hesitate to ask for a positive review of your work in case of successful cooperation.
Step 11
What if, for some reason, you could not meet the customer's requirements? It should be borne in mind that the customer, as a permanent member of the community, is probably more authoritative than you. Therefore, most of the participants will undoubtedly listen to his opinion rather than to yours.
Step 12
If during a conflict situation you are unable to resolve it in your favor and defend your own point of view, then it makes sense to recall one of the rules for maintaining a brand, which says that it is easier to create a new brand than to restore an old one. Since you have been called a non-professional performer, it may be wiser not to enter into exculpatory discussions, but to start building your reputation again by registering again under a different name.
Step 13
There is no need to discount the passive way of finding a customer. To do this, in the signature on the forum, you can leave a link with a description of your services and continue to just communicate competently, following the professional presentation of your thoughts during the discussions.
