Lesson #12 An Elance Pro Shares Her Secrets Part 1 of 2 Winton Churchill Barefoot Consultants

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Irene Hood
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1 Lesson #12 An Elance Pro Shares Her Secrets Part 1 of 2 By Winton Churchill Barefoot Consultants

2 NOTICE: You DO NOT Have the Right to Reprint or Resell this Report! You Also MAY NOT Give Away, Sell, or Share the Content Herein If you obtained this report from anywhere other than you have a pirated copy. Please help stop Internet crime by reporting this to: mailto:support@barefootconsultants.com Copyright Barefoot Consultants, Inc. All Rights Reserved This resource guide contains proprietary content and must not be duplicated or distributed without permission. No portion of this material may be shared or reproduced in any manner under any circumstance whatsoever without advanced written permission from Barefoot Consultants, Inc. No portion of this material is intended to offer legal, personal or financial advice. The information contained herein cannot replace or substitute for the services of trained professionals in any field, including but not limited to, financial or legal matters. Under no circumstances, including but not limited to negligence, will Winton R Churchill, Churchill Method, Inc., Barefoot Consultants, Inc., or any of its representatives or contractors be liable for the implementation of the materials, information, or success strategies communicated through this seminar, these materials, or any services provided following the seminar, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Winton R Churchill, Churchill Method, Inc., Barefoot Consultants, Inc., and any of its representatives or contractors hereby disclaim any warranties, express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability or of fitness for a particular purpose. This material, and all content, is provided AS IS. Results from the implementation of these materials may vary. You alone are responsible and accountable for your decisions, actions, and results. By using these materials, you agree to hold Winton R Churchill, Churchill Method, Inc., Barefoot Consultants, Inc., and any of its representatives or contractors, harmless for any such decisions, actions, or results based upon these materials, regardless of the time or circumstances involved. For permissions requests, contact: Barefoot Consultants, Inc. 500 N Michigan Ave Ste 300 ChicagoIL60611 Page 2

Her interview clearly illustrates the importance of persistence. Foreword I have an interesting tale to tell.

3 Winton s note: I conducted this interview to help you learn from a woman who is an Elance superstar. As you read it, you will see why I was so excited. She overcame many challenges and tells you exactly how she did it. Sadly, I ve learned over the years that most people give up just before their success happens. Her interview clearly illustrates the importance of persistence. Foreword I have an interesting tale to tell. Imagine this: an experienced writer/journalist finds herself penniless, living in a tiny farming community in the middle of the African semi-desert without any hope of earning a living. That was me three years ago. It was not only me that needed to be cared for. There were three human dependents, three cats, and one dog. I had left the city and vowed never to return, and I was determined to survive in the boondocks. In my previous life, I had been a copywriter for public relations and advertising firms, a video scriptwriter, a news reporter, and a features writer. I suppose you could say I had a successful career following my graduation with a degree in communications. But here, in the middle of nowhere, with the wind blowing through the sparse bushes and the empty sky, how would I earn a living? I had a laptop and an unreliable dial-up internet connection, so I started to investigate the possibilities of working at a distance from my old media stomping grounds in other words, working Page 3

virtually or remotely as it is now called.

that avenue. Fast forward to today, we now have wireless internet in our area. I work in a spacious home office with a large monitor. I bought a new PC last year with my freelancing proceeds.

The snowy mountains are just nearby, to the north, and the coastal belt is just across the mountains to the south, with some of the best beaches in the world.

4 virtually or remotely as it is now called. I found that my old clients in the media world in South Africa were, for some unknown reason, reluctant to commission me if they couldn t see me at the other side of a desk, so I stopped pursuing that avenue. Fast forward to today, we now have wireless internet in our area. I work in a spacious home office with a large monitor. I bought a new PC last year with my freelancing proceeds. Outside, the wind move the eucalyptus trees and a male ostrich booms far away like a lion roaring. The air is pure, the water is crystal clear, and the nights are quiet. The snowy mountains are just nearby, to the north, and the coastal belt is just across the mountains to the south, with some of the best beaches in the world. My little daughter is in a wonderful village school, and I play a variety of sports. On weekends, we go to the ocean to swim and dive, or to the hot springs on the plains nearby. This is where I want to live, and it s how I want to live. Would you believe all of these became possible because of Elance? My Global Earning Safari A couple of years before, when I lived in the city, while surfing the Internet for freelance opportunities, I had come across Elance, which I had read about in a newspaper. At that point, it looked amateurish and was not at all user-friendly, so I skipped away from it and forgot about online freelancing. Now, years later, I took another look at Elance and found that it had changed significantly. While it was still cumbersome, it was clear that a lot of work had been done to improve the interface. I read all the information for buyers and sellers. The one feature that really interested me was Escrow. Page 4

The buyer pays the agreed sum into his or her escrow account on Elance. Once the funds are there, the buyer can t get the funds back without going through a dispute process involving Elance personnel.

5 You see, at the back of my mind, I was worried about being assured of getting paid for my work if I managed to find freelance writing work online. It is hard to get money out of an errant debtor who is hundreds or even thousands of miles distant. Escrow was a new concept to me, and what a lovely idea it is. The buyer pays the agreed sum into his or her escrow account on Elance. Once the funds are there, the buyer can t get the funds back without going through a dispute process involving Elance personnel. But the way it usually works is that once he or she is satisfied with the work done, the buyer releases the funds to the freelancer. In three years of solid work at Elance, using Escrow, I have not had to file a single dispute. This is the core of Elance, in my view, and it was that feature alone that made me sign up. I decided that if I ever managed to get work from my old clients in the city, I would insist that they work with me through Elance just so I knew I would get paid. The First Step to Get Set Up on Elance If you didn t know this already, without a credit card on the Internet, you are as good as dead to start with anyway. Fortunately, I had a credit card with enough juice in it for a basic membership. Actually, the lowest level membership on Elance is free (which, arguably, it shouldn t be as there are so many non-active members signed up, and that just muddies the water, in my view). Anyway, I instinctively realized that I was going to have to spend some money to make money here, so I took the lowest paid membership option on Elance. I did not want to have a photo of myself in my profile image, so I had a friend of mine knock out a simple, bold logo, and I pasted that. Then I wrote a couple of lines about myself for the profile and decided I had done way enough preparatory Page 5

work (half a-morning.) I wanted to start work. I didn t even post a portfolio. I decided to send individual samples to each buyer, depending on the project description.

started right away to bid for jobs on Elance.

6 work (half a-morning.) I wanted to start work. I didn t even post a portfolio. I decided to send individual samples to each buyer, depending on the project description. I could have applied to Elance to have my university degree verified or done some skills tests, but by the time all this had happened, I would, I reckoned, be bleaching bones lying in the sand, so I started right away to bid for jobs on Elance. Deciding on the Area to Work in It should sound like a no-brainer that I would work in the Writing & Translation category of Elance, but when I set out to bid on jobs and saw the jobs listed, I wondered if I hadn t made a mistake by signing up with the service. I didn t understand what most of the jobs were. There was this mysterious thing called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and people were clamoring for SEO articles and other web content. I got on the phone to a techie friend in a distant city. Via Skype, this kind chap, who had learned SEO in the UK, gave me a brief outline of SEO writing. He sent me an ebook, and I found out more online. I decided to be bold and bid on as many job as I could, even jobs I only half-understood. Why? Because there was no other category remotely related to my skills, so I knew I just had to make this category work for me, SEO and all. I put in about one hundred bids in two days, determined to get a job, and get it soon. Page 6

Will you immediately succeed? I landed my first job on Day 2, writing web content for a website owner in Hawaii, USA. I had to write about 30 SEO articles about vending machines.

It turned out that even with my brief training in SEO, and although I had sought clarity from the client on his requirements, I had made some basic mistakes.

great feedback. It may also have been that he felt sorry for me as it was my first Elance job. This brings me to feedback.

7 Will you immediately succeed? I landed my first job on Day 2, writing web content for a website owner in Hawaii, USA. I had to write about 30 SEO articles about vending machines. I did so in record time and submitted them. It turned out that even with my brief training in SEO, and although I had sought clarity from the client on his requirements, I had made some basic mistakes. However, the client was wonderful (most clients on Elance are) and although he was not one hundred percent satisfied with the product, he agreed to fix up the copy, paid me the full fee and gave me great feedback. It may also have been that he felt sorry for me as it was my first Elance job. This brings me to feedback. Because of the essential difficulty of working with people that you never get to meet, there has to be some way that buyers rate providers and vice versa. As has become common practice all over the Internet, feedback is the way it is done. The system is a bit silly and messy sometimes (people praising others to the skies or insulting them needlessly or making blunders because they do not understand the scoring system) but on the whole, the feedback rating works. By working assiduously and fast, and maintaining close contact with clients, I have managed to keep my feedback scores high from Day 1 (Day 2 actually). Yes, I had immediate success on Elance. I would like to say it was because of my charm, my experience, my energy, my skill, my talent, but I don t believe it was. Do you want to know the secret of my success on Elance? I will tell you. For the first six months, I worked for next to nothing. If there was a bidder (generally from the Philippines or India or Pakistan) bidding a pittance, I simply bid even less. I was working for peanuts, and I was enjoying the taste and getting great feedback. Page 7

Perhaps it sounds obvious that this should be the way to start on Elance, but my freelancing experience on Elance (and latterly, my intense experience as a buyer more about that later) has convinced

It was made a little easier for me than for most freelancers in that I lived in a country that had a slightly weaker currency than most Western countries (this is no longer the case) but I forgot

8 Perhaps it sounds obvious that this should be the way to start on Elance, but my freelancing experience on Elance (and latterly, my intense experience as a buyer more about that later) has convinced me that this is why most people who sign up on Elance, or any of the other freelancing websites, never get anywhere. They have inflated ideas of their own monetary worth. It was made a little easier for me than for most freelancers in that I lived in a country that had a slightly weaker currency than most Western countries (this is no longer the case) but I forgot about my geographical location, my feelings about my own value and simply tried to get awarded projects. This worked wonderfully and, soon, I was working on four or five projects a week blogging, articles, ebooks, sales copy, you name it. Earning in Elance I knew that if it was at all possible to earn money on Elance, I would be getting awarded jobs immediately. This was because I understand marketplaces. In all marketplaces, all things being equal and on the web things are pretty darn equal buyers go for the lowest bidder. I was to discover that lots of fellow freelancers on Elance just hate providers who bid low. They behave like hawkers in the marketplace who are getting undercut by the hawker on the next corner. They get really insulting and want to tear your clothes. It s embarrassing to see. They act this way because they do not understand marketplaces. Needless to say, none of these freelancers work on Elance anymore. Page 8

I had great feedback and had learned a lot, but it was time to move to the next level, so I could start working better hours and earning more.

9 When Will You Truly Start Earning After about six months of cut-throat bidding, I was tired. My eyes were tired so tired that I invested in a monitor so that I would not have to strain to see my laptop screen. I had great feedback and had learned a lot, but it was time to move to the next level, so I could start working better hours and earning more. I realized that I must build on my growing reputation by bidding higher. I raised my bids, realizing that I would get less work. I certainly did get less work, but I made up for that by bidding on more projects. It cost money to bid more, but it was worth it. Soon, I was getting fewer jobs, but better paid than before. Something else came along with the better paying jobs better clients. I started to find repeat work on a scale that I did not know existed. Today, 70% of my income comes from repeat clients. How soon will you to reach a steady, comfortable earning? I would say it would take about a year to two years to have a steady, comfortable earning in Elance. Fixed Price vs Hourly Rate For me, as a writer, an hourly rate when you are working far from your employer is a lot of nonsense. I know how long I am going to work on the job and that is my own business. All that should matter to the buyer is what he wants to pay for a job, not how long I work. And how is he going to know how long I work anyhow? Believe it or not, there are some freelancing sites where they want you to fix a little webcam to your PC so they can see you working. How ridiculous. You might be sitting at the PC, but who is to say you aren t placing FreeCell or chatting Page 9

10 on FB or tweeting? Ridiculous. I bid a flat rate, even when the bidder requests an hourly rate, and it always works out perfectly. There is a gadget on Elance called WorkView, but I would never get involved in that, not for writing. It is really a visual device so that people doing Web Design, Graphics, and so forth can share their progress in real time with the buyer by posting screenshots, etc. That is really not suitable for the act of writing. The next lesson will conclude this interview with more exciting, insider clip to add to your arsenal of tools for beating your competition. This Week s Assignment 1. If you haven t started already, begin bidding. Many Elance superstars suggest bidding a lot. Initially, you might only win 1 in 20 bid, but with practice, you should be able to bring it down to 1 in 3 to 5 OR BETTER as you hone your skills. 2. Continue to review new postings every day. Expand the range of jobs you can comfortably bid on. 3. Continue to work on your certifications and verified history so that prospective buyers can purchase with confidence. Best Wishes For Your Barefoot Lifestyle, Winton Churchill Winton Churchill Publisher, Barefoot Consultants, Inc. Page 10

11 Previous Lessons Lesson #1 Click Here to access Lesson # 2 Click Here to access Lesson #3 Click Here to access Lesson #4 Click Here to access Lesson #5 Click Here to access Lesson #6 Click Here to access Lesson #7 Click Here to access Lesson #8 Click Here to access Lesson #9 Click Here to access Lesson #10 Click Here to access Lesson #11 Click Here to access Lesson #12 Click Here to access Page 11

How To Explode Your Visibility and Chances for Success Using Project Board Aggregators

Lesson # 11 How To Explode Your Visibility and Chances for Success Using Project Board Aggregators By Winton Churchill Barefoot Consultants http://www.barefootconsultants.com NOTICE: You DO NOT Have the