So, You Want To Be A Freelancer?

I try to answer most of my emails quickly and directly, but that isn’t always the case. There are times when I’m under a deadline or an emergency pops up and I’m just not able to tackle an inquiry immediately.

Sometimes, I’ll simply tweak the person’s question and post it to this blog as part of my mailbag series, leaving off the person’s name as most people would prefer anonymity. Then, I send a note thanking the person for their inquiry and supply the link to where they can find their answer.

The most frequently asked question lately seems to center on starting a freelance business, particularly as a writer. Many of our fellow bloggers hold down full time jobs and are exploring whether pursuing freelance work is right for them. Granted, I cannot give anyone a specific yes/no answer; instead, I try to impart my knowledge and leave the exploring up to them.

It seems that I am not alone when it comes to freelance inquiries as I have found a spate of posts from other freelancers who are also fielding similar inquiries. For a sampler, why not visit the following blogs to see what these freelancers have to say:

All Freelance Writing — Jennifer Mattern suggests that writers should choose a specialty when seeking a freelance career. The reasons? You’ll be much more knowledgeable about a subject and be able to command more money.

The Writer’s Manifesto — Monika Mundell shares her thoughts about freelance writing rates, discussing the disparity between article mill jobs and offline assignments. Yes, there are jobs out there that pay more per word than what some people pay for an entire article.

A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye — Lillie Ammann is at it again, offering a new article series, this one discussing how to become a freelance writer. Lillie always thoroughly covers a subject so check out her blog to follow this series as it unfolds.

I always encourage people to follow their passions when it comes to choosing any career and that is the same bit of advice I offer to prospective freelancers when pursuing a writing career. If you know that this is something you must do, then follow it with all of your heart. If not, then don’t.

Freelancing can be difficult, especially for the person whose sole bit of income is garnered from their clients. Up and down times will come and not everyone has the intestinal fortitude to stick with it.

My freelance career started in November 2002, but it wasn’t until Spring 2005 that I made the decision to stick with writing and jettison the web design part of my business. The transition was tough, but I’m now getting good paying jobs and have the luxury to cherry pick assignments.

There was a time when I said I wouldn’t work for someone full time again, but I’m not sure that’ll always be the case. Yet, where I am at this point in my career is fine with me with still loftier goals within site.

Related Story: Should you follow your passion?

Let Your Negotiating Skills Turn You Into a Money Making Outsourcer

By Lior Levin

If you are looking for a great online business with hardly any startup costs and a great market then you need to become an outsourcer. No special education is required, and the only skills you need are to be a good negotiator, middleman, go between or whatever you want to call yourself, although my name for it is the “outsourcer”. Here are some tips to get you going. First though a brief explanation of what an outsourcer is.

The Outsourcer’s Job

There are tons of individuals that offer freelance services to clients. For example, writing web content, directory article writing, press releases, transferring domains, trouble shooting, or transcribing and this is just a few examples. The outsourcer becomes the jobber. He will go and find clients that are in need of these types of services. Then ultimately he will act as the go between for the freelancer and the client.

In summary both of these parties have now become the outsourcer’s client. So the outsourcer will offer to do the job for $50. for example, then will turn around and hire a freelancer to do the job for $35. So the outsourcer has made himself $15. for just being the middleman. Sounds like a good plan doesn’t it? It is, but it does have it quirks.

The Outsourcer Workplace

Freelancing Sites

These are sites that provide the meeting place between freelancers and clients. Now clients or freelancers do not have to go though a middleman (outsourcer), they can deal direct with each other. However, there are individuals being the outsourcers, who will bid on these freelancing jobs and then hire the freelancers to do the work for them. The focal point for all this to take place is on these freelancing sites. Some sites are better than others, and although they all offer the same type of service they do differ.

ScriptLance.com – This is a freelance site that often is considered as a beginner’s site. This means for individuals that are just starting into the freelancing business. Outsourcers will often use this site because they can pick up the services of new freelancers who are not established and will work for low pay.

Freelancer.com – This site works on the same premise as being a freelance directory but is a step up in respect to scriptlance. Here the freelancers have a little more experience although many of the jobs are low paying. A lot of this has to do with the fact that there are a lot of outsourcers that use this site as well. Most of this is based on the premise that many of the freelancers do not have English as their native language therefore they will work for very low wages. This gives the outsourcer the opportunity to capitalize on hiring these individuals at a low rate and still meet the average price the clients will offer.

Elance.com —  Both the freelancers, clients and outsourcers conduct themselves in a more professional manner here. There is a mixed group in that many projects are conducted directly between the clients and the freelancers, but there are also many outsourcers that use this as their working foundation as well. What makes this site different is several factors.

The clients are willing to pay more for higher quality work. Their expectations are far greater however compared to clients on the other mentioned sites. The freelancer is willing to produce much better caliber work because they are getting paid well for it. The outsourcer here does well but often will favor bulk work or large volume contracts.

So why an outsourcer?

So the big question is why in the world would a freelancer go through an outsourcer when they have the opportunity to go directly to the client? Good question, but there is a sound answer for this. Freelancers are good at what they do, but many of them just want to do their job without the extra tasks of having to deal directly with the client. They make their money doing their job not at the admin. part of it. So really the outsourcer is looking after all the administrative type duties for them.

He is the one setting up what the job entails, how it is suppose to be done, the deadlines, the approvals and ensuring payment is made. This can be time consuming for the freelancer and many times it is much easier for the freelancer to deal with an outsourcer as opposed to the client. In addition to this, with freelancers many times it comes down to a lack of confidence or poor presentation skills and they are not able to land the jobs, whereas an outsourcer is a pro at this.

So now you have the basics of becoming an outsourcer, so how about it? Are you a negotiator? If so then it can make you money.

Author Information

Lior Levin is an owner of a SEO company working with a nursing wear brand called Milk Nursingwear and also working with a task management start-up.