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Got my first job as a freelancer.

Anything considered a "hustle" and not necessarily a CENTS-based Fastlane

daftypunk

Bronze Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
129%
Mar 29, 2020
94
121
Asia
Today i got my first job as a freelancer.
After countless hours of submitting proposals, browsing the internet and learning stuff i finally did it.

Its a $5 job but it means a lot to me. There were times i lost hope and stopped submitting proposals. Got tired, but i kept on going, and i am proud of myself for it.

I was competing with top freelancers - a lot of them had over 200 reviews while i had none.

All i did was tell the client that i had his work ready and will send a sample to him. He messaged me, I asked him what he wanted and sent the sample in the next 1 hour and i was hired!

I hadn't done the work, but i told him i had and it worked. Don't do this but do something similar.

Have a similar sample ready before writing a proposal. If the client messages you ask them questions. They won't mind if you send it a bit late as long as you have done what they needed. I sent it on freelancer.com where its a mess and clients aren't specific about what they want neither do they give a lot of information. I consider myself lucky.

Just give people what they need and they will hire you. Offer Value.
 
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amp0193

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
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Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
444%
May 27, 2013
3,637
16,157
United States
Today i got my first job as a freelancer.
After countless hours of submitting proposals, browsing the internet and learning stuff i finally did it.

Its a $5 job but it means a lot to me. There were times i lost hope and stopped submitting proposals. Got tired, but i kept on going, and i am proud of myself for it.

I was competing with top freelancers - a lot of them had over 200 reviews while i had none.

All i did was tell the client that i had his work ready and will send a sample to him. He messaged me, I asked him what he wanted and sent the sample in the next 1 hour and i was hired!

I hadn't done the work, but i told him i had and it worked. Don't do this but do something similar.

Have a similar sample ready before writing a proposal. If the client messages you ask them questions. They won't mind if you send it a bit late as long as you have done what they needed. I sent it on freelancer.com where its a mess and clients aren't specific about what they want neither do they give a lot of information. I consider myself lucky.

Just give people what they need and they will hire you. Offer Value.

Keep going. You'll get faster at submitting proposals, and figuring out works and doesn't work.

First sale always feels good!
 

Black_Dragon43

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
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Read Fastlane!
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Value/Post Ratio
337%
Apr 28, 2017
2,069
6,964
‍☠️ Eastern Europe
Just give people what they need and they will hire you. Offer Value.
There are two ways to work Upwork/Freelancer. Both can work.

The Numbers way.

This way focuses on writing out a personalized template for a specific kind of job. Then you create a filter on Upwork to only identify jobs that meet your criteria (such as budget, etc.). For each application, you only have to tailor a sentence or two based on what the client wrote in the proposal, everything else will be the same, including the examples you provide.

Then you just look for projects that fit your criteria, and apply every day.

This way is fast and can be done by anyone. It can even be outsourced. But it will take you like 30 applications to score a project. For big agencies, this is not an issue. Better 30 applications to score a project than hiring a Gary Halbert to write out applications.

And then there's the High Conversions way.

Here you write every application based on going out of your way to empathize with the client and provide upfront value to them. Tell them how you will do the project, what they can expect, and make sure that you tailor this to their exact needs. Go above and beyond with the degree of care that you invest in your application.

Because of your effort, you'll get much better conversions. So probably for every 3 applications, you'll score 1 client, but it takes MUCH MUCH longer to write one such application. Also this method is hit and miss for rare, expensive jobs, where many people are looking for dirt cheap freelancers who will do $500 worth of work even though it's really worth $5000.

You will see these two ways in any kind of selling too. People have different styles. Often the second method gets touted around the forum here (that's also what @Fox used to teach if I remember correctly back when he was running his web design company), while the first often gets ignored. This seems to be "popular" with the crowd nowadays, and for good reason: it works. The other method also works but in a different way.

Call it strategy vs hustle.
 

Pavan M.

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
95%
Dec 3, 2018
21
20
Today i got my first job as a freelancer.
After countless hours of submitting proposals, browsing the internet and learning stuff i finally did it.

Its a $5 job but it means a lot to me. There were times i lost hope and stopped submitting proposals. Got tired, but i kept on going, and i am proud of myself for it.

I was competing with top freelancers - a lot of them had over 200 reviews while i had none.

All i did was tell the client that i had his work ready and will send a sample to him. He messaged me, I asked him what he wanted and sent the sample in the next 1 hour and i was hired!

I hadn't done the work, but i told him i had and it worked. Don't do this but do something similar.

Have a similar sample ready before writing a proposal. If the client messages you ask them questions. They won't mind if you send it a bit late as long as you have done what they needed. I sent it on freelancer.com where its a mess and clients aren't specific about what they want neither do they give a lot of information. I consider myself lucky.

Just give people what they need and they will hire you. Offer Value.
Congrats Brother...
 
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