How to stand out from the crowd as a freelancer in the freelance marketplace
As a freelancer, it’s essential to stand out from all freelance workers when trying to land jobs on freelance websites.
But how?
If you think you can highlight a few pieces of your work and your profile become stronger, you are mistaken.
These days, so many people turning to freelance. Reports show that there are around 60 million freelancers in the united states, constituting 36% of the US workforce. It's more competitive than ever especially on the top freelance platform such as Toogit, Fiverr, and the hardest part is usually landing that first gig.
In a regular job interview, you can tell a story with careful usage of body language. But in a freelance platform, you have only a freelance profile to showcase your work and your personality. So you need to try harder or strategize for creating the perfect freelance profile to stand out from the crowd. Because if you don’t, someone else will.
There are two parts to get any freelance job search and attract more clients:
1) Your public profile
2) Your job proposal
Here I show you some tips and valuable information to create an outstanding freelance profile and job proposal that will allow you to achieve your goals.
Your Public Profile
Choosing a freelance career instead of a regular 9-to-5 job might feel like a leap of faith, but being a niche specialist who knows how to create a standout freelancer profile will help you succeed.
1) Pick a niche
You can also stand out from the crowd and be a leader if you are a specialist in your niche, so pick a niche and excel at it.
The trick is to write honestly, list of your strength, list of your weakness, the lesson you had to learn to become conscious of them, and what you did to work on them, it made you a better person and attract more clients.
Before selecting any freelance niche you need to find out the market value of that skills. You can use Google trends or browse top freelance websites to see what services people are looking for.
Once you have decided your freelance niche, don’t leave it at that. Narrow down your focus skills and choose the specialty inside. It helps to build a more specific freelance profile and pitch to the right clients.
2) Use engaging profile title
Profile title is one of the first things that prospective clients will see. Make specific, informative, professional, and eye-catching profile title to attract more clients. Your profile title should give a sense of your expertise, and express to the client that you will take their project seriously.
Your profile title includes:
- What niche you serve
- Which type of project you do
- Words like an expert, specialist, professional, or certified
3) Use the right profile photo
Your face is a real identity. Along with your profile title, your profile picture will be the first impression any client will have. It is important for the overall credibility of your freelance profile.
Use a smiling, clean, professional, or real photo to showcase a real person behind your profile, avoid busy backgrounds.
It will help people put a face to your name to form a more personal connection with you.
4) State your added value in the introduction
Using the introduction section you can grab the attention of potential clients.
The introduction is the most important element of a freelance profile. If anybody is intrigued by your profile title and photo, He/she go to the introduction section before doing anything else. Because this section introduces the freelancer and showcases the freelancer’s personality.
Your introduction on a freelance site shouldn’t be your life story, it should be about your client. Use this section to mention your work experience, and when you do, at least one paragraph to the lesson you’ve learned while gaining it in conversational writing style. Keep it short and include your headshot. Make sure it’s relevant to the client you are pitching.
5) Use relevant keywords
In the first step, you choose your niche or skills to serve, mention that skills as keywords based on which the recruiters can find you. Because many potential recruiters use the freelance platform as a search engine for finding new talent.
Many potential recruiters use a word or phrase like “blog writer”, “virtual assistant”, or “web designer” in search engine and going through the results that come up.
You should focus on trending keywords related to your core skills. Search a few key projects in your niche, and find out what specific keywords are highlighted. Use those keywords and create your freelance profile based on that keywords metric.
6) Highlight your work sample or create a strong portfolio
Best freelancing websites encourage freelance workers to fill the portfolio of past work and showcase their strength and work experience through it. Because potential client wants to know the professional strength and experience of the freelancer.
This is your chance to show potential clients how professional and experienced you are. You must highlight the projects that you are most proud of and start reaching for potential work in those areas.
“Put Your Best Foot Forward.”
If you are a content/SEO writer, don’t forget to add your writing sample to your portfolio. If you are UI/UX designer or web designer, add a link to the websites that you have created. But don’t include anything that doesn’t fit your actual knowledge and experience.
If you still don’t have any experience in the field, write about something that you learned.
Your Job Proposal
If you bid a stunning job proposal will make your chance of getting the client. Because of a lot of freelancers out there who put no efforts into job proposal. By getting strategic with your proposal writing you can grab the attention of potential clients!
1) Read the job description carefully
Before writing a job proposal, you must read the job description carefully to understand the project, its goals, what kind of services, and what kind of professional is needed.
For the most outstanding proposal, you must reference a few points or about project requirements in your proposal to show the client that you have read the job posting. Because the client accepts only those proposals who address anything from the job posting.
2) Identify the clients’ needs and goals
NEEDS and GOALS are the most important factors because every potential client is interested in it. So focus on these two things while creating a job proposal.
Once you read the job posting and identify their need and goals, it would help to describe the project objectives or issues, so the client knows you’re serious.
You could match those objectives with your scope of the project. It will represent you as an experienced professional knowing how to do your job.
3) Link your portfolio website or repository
Apart from writing great proposal content and including the essential elements, it’s also important to link your past work to grab the client's attention. The most effective way to do this is by linking portfolio websites or your work sample repository with your job proposal.
Link your portfolio in your proposal is a great way to showcase your personality and demonstrate the complete array of your work. Along with showcasing some of your best work, make sure it’s relevant to the project that you are pitching.
Explore the above helpful tips to connect with the people who want and need to work with you. Apply for top freelance jobs to begin booking more clients and building your freelance business.
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Last Modified: Nov 1, 2020