Can I use Freelancing Websites to do business?

6 replies
Well I am quite good in few service and I have skills and client's review as well as portfolio to show possible clients! Is it wise decision to join Freelancing websites such as oDesk and eLance and others?
#business #freelancing #websites
  • Profile picture of the author bkkmma
    Yes, I mean... It's free to join, and you'll never know if it's a good fit for you unless you give it a try. So give it a try! It might not work out, but that's the only way to know for sure, right?
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  • Profile picture of the author JerrickYeoh
    Ofcourse you can give it a try . Whenever there is a opportunitie , just go for it but make sure the time and the money spend is worth and ROI.
    If it works then you can spend more time and more money on it to grab higher ROI. If it not working as expected then try to find a correct ways or try up other marketing plan .
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  • Profile picture of the author almiller
    That's great to heard, I was concern about test and some upgrades on those sites but yes I have happy customers base so I will surly try my luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mohsin Rasool
    Originally Posted by almiller View Post

    Well I am quite good in few service and I have skills and client's review as well as portfolio to show possible clients! Is it wise decision to join Freelancing websites such as oDesk and eLance and others?
    Yes, getting clients from any sources is good for any freelance business.
    I suggest you add your listing in Warrior4Hire section also, it will surely help you get
    Warrior clients also for your service.

    Regards,
    Mohsin
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  • Profile picture of the author webss
    Its a great choice if looking for work, weather it be full time or just side jobs. You can build long lasting relations from time to time with certain clients.

    I would suggest elance over odesk, the jobs seem to bring in a bit more money.
    Make sure your portfolio shows your work and also make sure you have all your credentials and the rest of your profile completed.

    I would suggest bidding on a few smaller jobs to get your feet wet when jumping in to elance to see how the system goes.
    Also, dont undercut what your worth bidding on jobs just because you see others throwing in low low bids.
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  • In my experience, many service buyers (read: not all) in these freelancing sites and Web forums like this one pay among the lowest rates in the industry and still expect stellar quality.


    Most of these service buyers just need short term "per order" projects, which is good as a small department to invest in if you have a creative labor servicing company, but this could exhaust your time and resources if you're a one-man operations, because you'd need to invest time and resources in constantly finding new clients and waiting for new projects from existing clients, and many of those who say they will continue to use your services will just have projects here and there, but not constant work for you.


    What I recommend, if you're going to depend on your service selling venture as your main sustainable income source, is to search for local or international corporations and companies that operate in industries where you have specialized skills, knowledge and expertise in, particularly those that have recently launched products.


    They have deep pockets for their annual marketing campaigns to promote their newly launched products. They pay much better than many of those service buyers in those freelancing sites and in Web forums like this one (yes, you can find manpower sourcing personnel of some corporations and companies in those freelancing sites and in Web forums like this one, but they're a rarity in those places). They can sign you up for a longer contract as their homebased/telecommuting subcontractor. Their businesses are more stable than most of the businesses of many service buyers in those freelancing sites and in Web forums like this one. Plus:


    They can provide you with better opportunities to possibly expand your service selling venture into a full blown brick and mortar business, without any startup cost, because you may be able to negotiate contracts where their upfront payments can accommodate the costs for the resources you need, i.e. Office space, manpower sourcing/hiring/training/orientation/supervision/management, monthly overheads and so on.


    Here's another recommendation: Zone in on startup corporations and companies that do not yet have an affiliate program for their newly launched products. Tell them you can set up an affiliate system for them, so they can get more people promoting their newly launched products for commissions per sale. Also tell them you'd be interested in signing up as their affiliate, so you too can earn commissions per sale that's generated by the materials you do for their onsite and offsite marketing campaigns. This way, you could have an active sustainable income source that can potentially become a passive sustainable income source for you.


    I'm not saying this because I just read something like this and similar things in different threads here and in other Web forums and sites, unlike many members you'll see here who do this, especially ones who have ridiculous claims of success and earnings (a hilarious example is the guy who claims to earn half a billion dollars per year with article marketing), but contradict themselves since they live way below their claims of success and earnings as well as do not have any proof that can be substantiated with verifiable evidence.


    What I'm saying here is exactly what I did when I was just starting out late 2005, and I now own and operate a 6-year old ICT outsourcing company with a corporate department, a non-corporate department and a per order department (which gets problematic most of the time, for the very reasons I mentioned above regarding doing business with most service buyers in freelancing sites and in Web forums like this one, but I aim to continue testing and improving this per order department until operations become as smooth as our corporate and non-corporate departments) here in Manila.
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