How does one break into the freelancer market?

The answer to what you're basically asking is the fundamental purpose of marketing. How do you get people to take notice of you? How do you get them to choose you over the competition?

This is what marketing does.

I'm not a big fan of those freelancing sites for the reasons you described. I've done very well for myself over the years and I've never bothered using them. Fiverr is a bit different, I've used that and had good luck with it but I never saw it as a source of serious freelance work.

To set yourself apart, I would suggest a couple of things:

Brand your service
A brand can be your name or it can be a brand name you create. Doing this sets you apart from the legions of people who are only promoting themselves personally. A brand creates more perceived value because it won't seem like someone is hiring a freelancer as much as they're hiring a brand.

Brands are also good for positioning.

Build a website for it
You should build a website with your brand name as a .com URL. A lot of people rely on freelancing sites, others rely on free hosting. Both of these are far from the best option

It's important to have your own .com website. It's also important to make it look nice. Just use WordPress and a nice theme.

Promote it directly in the right market
Figure out who your target customer would be and then figure out what markets they can be found in. Don't fall into the trap of only marketing to other IMers. No matter what service you offer, there are probably a number of different markets that will be interested.

Promote your services directly. Paid ads can work but, as a service provider, you're going to want to build a relationship with your clients. The goal isn't to get a huge payout for one job. The trick is to build client loyalty to encourage repeat business. Many of my clients didn't pay much for one job but over the course of our relationship they have given me many thousands of dollars.


If you can do these three things, you'll be pretty well armed. There are tons of services out there so you need to be unique. There has to be something special about you that your competitors don't have.

To get any deeper into this I'd have to start a dissertation on marketing so I hope that helps!

Freelance Writing is hard to break into. Everyone has already covered it above but Tutorials will only get you far. As A Freelance Writer, I can tell you that you'll learn after some months.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

Hi,
I am a full time freelancer and worked on top 4 freelancing website

Elance

Odesk

Guru

Freelancer.com

Here is my easy tip to start your freelance career

(1)Bid only on projects which you can really do .

(2)Bid according to client's budget and promise a good timeframe

(3) Cost - It is general conception that lower bids get projects easily .But it is not always true .Quality is king always and same rule follows here , provide quality work to get good price of your work.

(4) Communication is vital part , so please maintain proper communication with your clients .Understanding their exact requirement can do real magic.

(5) Project Management is also necessary part so please keep track of project and respect timeframe .

(6) Do not blindly bid on projects , work with good clients and generate life time work.


Enough advice ,i need a coffee for it