Lesson # 11 How To Explode Your Visibility and Chances for Success Using Project Board Aggregators By Winton Churchill Barefoot Consultants http://www.barefootconsultants.com
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Foreword It can be a long, tedious path to get your first profile posted! You feel like you ve run the gauntlet lots of new things to learn, do, and observe. Well, I ve got some good news and some bad news The good/bad news today, there are over 175+ project boards on the Internet and they do seem to be multiplying like rabbits. Having just finished your first profile, you are probably not relishing the thought of putting your profile on 175+ other new boards! The visibility would be great, the number of jobs you could bid on would soar, the competition is less on newer boards but the hours of work posting your profile on each one brings on thoughts of rage More good news You are about to learn about aggregators Introduction Turning on your project work RADAR One of the challenges of working on any network is that you never know where a job is going to appear. For most people, working on two or three networks can be an effective way to find enough business to make a desired income. But somebody very specialized, or someone who wants to make a large amount every month and stay very busy requires a broader reach than just a single or a handful of registrations. Enter the syndicator/aggregator Page 3
These two terms described the process by which certain websites go out and look at all the current job postings on a variety of websites. They then reformat them and post them on their own website. The idea is that you can go to their website, type in your favorite search terms, and see the jobs that you might be interested in across dozens of different job sites. FreelanceJobSearch.com The first site we ll take a look at is freelancejobsearch.com. As you can see from the screenshot below, there is a listing of a number of projects you can work on, the budget, the time posted, and more importantly, maybe most importantly, the source of that job. You also want to note that in the banner of this website, up at the top in orange, the word Beta. This means that the website is operating on a trial basis. There may still be a few bugs in the software, and certain pages may not display properly. But for the most part, the site is very functional. Take a look at the screen and we ll go into more detail: Page 4
A little controversy For the most part, the way that these sites work is to scrape screens. That means, they go out through computer software, and look at all the job posting networks, and then pull the text related to those jobs off the sites and move them to their own site. I'm not a lawyer. But the way I understand it is this practice is considered illegal as material posted on a job or project site is the intellectual property of the owner of that site. Unless the aggregator has permission to do the scraping, it may be illegal. As of this writing, there have been a number of aggregators who have come and gone for a variety of reasons and that could be one of them. The good news is there is certainly a demand for this kind of service, and, over time, I hope the legal wrangling gets worked out so this service continues to be available. Where Do They Get the Jobs? The jobs come from a variety of different project boards. The 80/20 rule applies here in that 80% of all jobs come from 20% of all job networks. So the provider does not have to consolidate jobs from all 175+ sites to show you most of the jobs. Page 5
As you can see from the screen capture, this site is pulling jobs from Elance and Craigslist among others. So if you've been checking any of the sites on this particular list, you can come here and see all the relevant project work. Update Frequency You'll notice in the graphic below that this site updates their information eight times per hour which is pretty darn good. You can be assured when you come here that you have very current information. A note about time management... Of course, you will NOT want to be checking this eight times a day as it falls into the category of hamster cage activity Checking once a day will assure you ll find the projects that will be of greatest interest to you. Page 6
You want to remember the people who post jobs usually leave them open for a period of a week or two. Yes, some are quick 24-hour turnaround, but my experience is that if you build your life providing that level of service, you lose any serenity you might have. Searching In order to search for the type of job you want, it's as simple as going to the top center of the page and entering your preferred search term. As we mentioned earlier, if you know the people still proofreading two different ways "proof reading" and "proofreading" you will find double the number of projects over using just one search term alone. It is best to keep a list of the search terms that you find and pull up the projects you want. That will save you time when you do your daily search. Interpreting the Results of Your Search When you do a search, you get a long list of prospective projects. It is usually best to scan down the list and use a certain view criteria to eliminate many of the jobs from further investigation. Take a look at the example below: Page 7
As you can see, there are some ads for skilled writers in the Philippines. In my experience, these are organizations that are typically looking for the absolute lowest cost. Although you can do work for them, they aren't the best places to work because the pay is so low. You want to look in the budget column and see projects that have a reasonable budget. You want to look for specialized requirements like the one job there that shows medical professionals needed. You'll also want to scan across and make sure that there is no location required since some of these jobs are limited to being done in a certain city because the client wants to meet with you face-to-face. And then, finally, you want to look at the source. This means understanding where the project was originally posted. If you find projects that interest you quite a bit, it would be worth your time to go to the sites that those jobs come from and post your profile there. Page 8
There are also projects that involve customer service, sales, and a host of other interesting occupations Not just proofreading, writing, and editing. Using Twitter to Stay on Top of Your Project Search Twitter is what I would consider an advanced tool. It does represent a way to stay on top of project activity if you're sitting at your desk most of the day. I recommend this somewhat apprehensively because Twitter is another one of those "tools" that can become a massive time waster And keep you in an unnecessary state of hyper-vigilance, something we at Barefoot Consultants would like to help you avoid. That being said, many of the project sites that consolidate projects let you follow them on Twitter. Depending upon what kind of Twitter tool you use to manage your Twitter messages, you can screen out again for just the search terms you want to see. You'll see a little message pop up every time your search term comes across the Twitter feed. This can be especially useful if you do bid on jobs with short turnarounds. Page 9
Below, you will see a sample screen from a job board and get an idea of what their Twitter scroll looks like: Another Resource in a Similar Vein I'd like to bring up another stray source that can be a way to have your work and your skills identified by people looking for talent It's called Qfolio. One of the good things about Elance is that it lets you post a portfolio for helping buyers determine the quality of your work. Page 10
Unfortunately, not all services like Elance have the portfolio option... Enter Qfolio. This is a site where you can post your portfolio and use it to send a link with your response to buyers on project boards other than Elance. It's a convenient way to upload your portfolio just once and then have a link that you can pass around no matter what project board you re bidding on. Page 11
Aggregators The following list and set of links will immediately take you to sites that might be good aggregators for you. I invite you to explore each of these sites and run some of your key search terms through them to find out which site might be best for you. http://www.freelancejobsearch.com/ http://freelancer-marketplace.com/ http://www.superlancers.com/ http://www.freelancers.com/ http://www.freelancejobopenings.com Don t be afraid to dive in and uncover the massive demand for what you already know how to do! This Week s Assignment 1. Review two or three of the project sites listed in this lesson. 2. Select one and follow it on a daily basis for the next seven days. 3. As you follow it, make a list of keywords that produce the sort of projects you'd like to do and make sure that you have a profile on those sites that produce your favorite kinds of projects. Page 12
Congratulations! Our next step is getting you ready to step on the global earning stage and, for that, we will see you in 7 days and we will learn more about the bidding process! Best Wishes For Your Barefoot Lifestyle, Winton Churchill Winton Churchill Publisher, Barefoot Consultants, Inc. P.S. Remember to take advantage of the monthly consulting even if you only use it for a month. It s like putting your process on steroids (but safe)! http://www.barefootconsultants.com/innercircle.html Page 13
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