We are truly in a globalized world when one does not have to leave their house to work with people from all over the world. This cannot be truer than now. People with all skills in life will be able to trade their skills for remuneration.

Who is Freelancing for?

In today’s era, freelancing is for everyone. The best part is; it’s not limited to geolocation, age, education or any such factor. Anyone with any skills can get started with freelancing & with time you keep getting better.

Freelancing is an excellent way to start off life in business. If you are too averse to risk, but still want to do something on your own, then freelancing is the way to go. Say you are a designer and want to travel the world while designing, then freelancing is a great opportunity.

If you are a mobile developer and want to work on your project, but you need to make ends meet, you could freelance every once in a while to pay your bills. If you have writing skills, and you are free over the weekend, you can immediately jump on a platform like this and make a good side income and put your weekends to use as well.

The Truth about freelancing Platforms to make money

From what I’ve noticed about platforms like Truelancer, Upwork and Freelancer are the sooner you enter, the better you can reap the rewards of the platform as there is lesser competition. When there is lesser competition, it is easier to get noticed when you pitch yourself and also, your zero rating when you start off isn’t taken that seriously. When you are in a saturated (Too much competition) environment and you start off, it’s very hard to stand out, and only the ones with the established rating keep getting projects and are trusted.

When you are in a saturated (Too much competition) environment and you start off, it’s very hard to stand out, and only the ones with the established rating keep getting projects and are trusted.

So, if you have been holding yourself to start making money via freelancing, today is the day when you can start your freelancing career. I will be giving an overview of Truelancer (A popular Indian freelancing site by Dipesh Garg) & how to get started. I will also share tips and strategies on how to stand out and will also show you how Truelancer is different!

Tips to be an outstanding freelancer on Truelancer.com:

Let’s start with creating your account on Truelancer. Follow this link & register yourself at Truelancer.  I’m not going to spend too much time on the Sign up process because it’s pretty self-explanatory and an expected process as well. But I’ll get into the Profile page and talk about how to spruce up one’s profile because this is a very important component of getting projects on any Freelancing website.

 Post a great picture

We are deep into the Social Media’s Influence on the world. It’s a crime these days, if you do not have a good quality picture. A good photo can boost your credibility manifold.

Dont’s

1. Do not post a random picture that is not your face
2. Do not post a picture of you, which is of low quality, the one that you’ve taken from a webcam.

Do’s

1. Make sure your picture is high quality
2. Make sure you are dressed professionally. Why? Although platforms like Truelancer are a bit casual, you have to portray professionalism to convince the client that you are the person for the job. So if you can, wear a nice shirt that would probably help.
3. Make sure your face is clear in the picture.

Let’s cover the different options that Truelancer provide that aid people in making money.

Self- Intro

This is another Important aspect when setting-up a profile. You have to promote yourself the best you can, and you shouldn’t have generic statements like “I am passionate, and I love to code”. This does not matter. Think of your Self-Intro section as a Resume and imagine what you would put there. Here are some items you can consider for the Introduction section.

1. Mention clearly the area of your expertise and the kind of work you have done.
2. Mention the years of experience that you have.
3. Mention the companies that you have worked with and how your work has helped them grow.
4. Mention any articles or publications that you’ve written in other blogs or any other websites
5. If you’ve worked with big brand names, use phrases like “Worked with <XYZ> company which is a multi-million dollar firm in India.”
6. If you are from popular cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, mention that you have worked there as well.

Note: When someone is searching for freelancers on this platform, he/she will be able to see only first 2 line of your bio. So make sure your first two lines are most effective & seductive enough to grab attention. You can refer to above screenshot for inspirations.

If you are starting from scratch

What if you do not have any credentials?

If you do not have any work experience or any credentials, you should be in one phase and that is the building phase. Build your portfolio of work, experiment with some work, work with a friend etc. Write articles in the topic of your interest and publish them. Make sure the portfolio building work that you are doing is pushing the boundaries and gets people’s attention. That’s the only way to stand out.

Kind of Projects on Truelancer

Truelancer is an amalgamation of many services combined. They do have the traditional bidding system of Individual projects as well as two other styles that are clones of other popular web services’, which we’ll cover below.

Bidding on Projects:

This is common among all the Freelancing websites in the world. Where the freelancer gets to see a list of projects and they can bid on the ones where they have an expertise.

One feature of the freelancing websites is the option to Send Proposals. This is where most freelancers lose to other seasoned freelancers. When you want a project, you need to show expertise; you need to show commitment; you need to show that you are capable of handling, you need to show that you are professional.

Most common mistakes made by 95% of freelancers when bidding for a project. When you learn from these mistakes, you’ll be able to beat 95% of freelancers out there.

1. Read the description properly.

Most freelancers see the gist of the project and just bid directly. A lot of clients put in a code in their descriptions to filter out the ones who have read their descriptions fully from the ones who haven’t. Only if you understand the requirements of the client completely would you be able to do justice to the project?

2. Customize every proposal. Remember it’s a pitch!

Many freelancers do not customize their texts according to the project. And they just use generic lines like “Hey, I’m perfect for the job, and I guarantee fast work”. For every project that you bid on, please take at least 5 to 7 minutes to craft a reply that focuses on the following

1. You’ve understood the project
2. You have worked on projects like this before
3. Why are you the right person for the job
4. What you can do for the client.

One of the best parts about the proposal form for Truelancer is the “Add relative files” option which let’s you go to the next level by adding your file. You can spend 10 to 15 minutes on each bid and come up with small solutions for the client that will show value in your bid!

3. Bid for the Low-hanging Fruit. Getting a project and ratings in your priority. 

When you are starting out; you immediately have to start doing a few things to give yourself a chance for the long-term in the platform. First of all, do not try to bid for the best projects that are available because

1. It’s hard to get noticed among the other experienced freelancers who have better ratings.
2. A no-rating, no-review profile will not get you any attention

To counter this, aim for the smaller projects that bigger freelancers will not bid on and where the competition is low. Try to get a few projects under your belt with decent ratings. Do not bid too low because that is not considered being of high quality.

Buy Services

Remember the point I mentioned about how in saturated platforms it’s difficult to stand out? Well, Truelancer just countered that thought by adding a feature called “Buy Services” that is underlined in the Image above.

Buy Services is literally the clone of Fiverr, where people offer services starting from $5. It’s a great gateway price, which a lot of people will not think twice about paying. Truelancer offers the same service, which gives a different dimension to the Freelancers as well as the customers.

In your profile section, you can add the services you provide. This is a better form of expression for Freelancers because, people with fewer ratings in the bidding section of the website get their sections where they control their Imagery, their copy and the services they provide. I think this is what separates Truelancer from other websites, where people will give up when they do not get any projects.

Contests:

This is what makes Truelancer a truly meritocratic place. Contests is just like 99 Designs where a person posts a project and many designers all over the world, create the designs and the client chooses the one she likes.  This is crowdsourcing & very effective for recruiter in many ways. I have already spoken about it earlier over here.

In the above image: 6 Entries were received for a contest.

This is for those of you who trust yourselves and can back it up with fabulous designs. The good part about contests is, you do not have to have any credentials, ratings or anything of that sort your work speaks for itself. Another positive is, you’ll be able to gauge your work compared to others in the business and see if you are good or not and the areas you can improve in. Even if your work does not get selected, it gets added to your portfolio of work, which you could showcase to other clients.

Truelancer also has an Android app (Download here) that would be useful for someone who is looking for freelancing work while having a full-time job.  Overall, Truelancer is a very good website with a good mix of options. I’m sure a lot of you have free-lanced, let us know about your experiences in the comments below!

If you are already freelancing or planning to start your freelancing career, this is the right time.

Create your free profile on Truelancer

If you know someone who want to start working from home & earn money, do share this article with them. It might change their life & you will be rewarded with gratitude. If you are an existing freelancer, why don’t you share your experience, tips as a freelancer in the comment section below.

Here are few pre-created tweets for your profile:

Here are few hand-picked articles that you should read to make money:

• How to start your freelance writing career: A real-life case study
• 8 Top Web sites to start your freelance writing career
• 7 Highly effective strategies to grow your freelance career
• Is online freelancing a right career choice for you? Find out here

I’m sure a lot of you have free-lanced, let us know about your experiences in the comments below!