While bidding sites such as Elance attract many low paying projects, some Elance providers are making $100 per hour (especially in sales writing), and it's quite doable for a new writer here to make $20 a day.
You can start with a free membership, and a paid membership for an individual is less than $10 per month.
You pay by the month, and there's no set up fee.
Also you needn't wait weeks for a check.
You can complete a job, be paid within a day or two and have the funds in your bank or Paypal account in a few days or on your Elance Mastercard within 24 hours.
The three keys to winning projects at Elance are:
- Your Profile (including your portfjolio)
- Your Feedback
- Your Proposal and Bidding Strategies
Do take your time getting started here though.
Winning decent freelance writer jobs at Elance all starts with a good profile.
You want this in place, so that when you bid on a job, the prospective buyer will be impressed.
Plus buyers who invite writers to bid often find them by searching the profile pages.
Also creating your profile will help you write better proposals because it will get you thinking about the skills you have to offer.
The first thing to do is register.
You will be asked to choose a user name.
Choose it wisely because this what buyers will see in the bidding and on all Elance communications.
If you're stumped, a search for providers in the "Writing & Translation" category will spark some ideas.
If you intend to specialize in one area or subject, you might work this into your user name, but remember your user name sticks - unless you open a new account.
You are allowed more than one account, but you must start each anew without feedback, etc.
Once you've registered, you can go to your profile page and fill it out.
Your profile should grab attention and tell prospective buyers what you can do for them.
Don't say in the introduction to your profile what sort of work you want, etc.
Instead, just like with any good promotional copy, focus on the prospective customer and the benefits you offer.
Then back that up with information about you and your skill set.
To get some ideas on how to create your profile page you might want to check out the of providers who are having success in the areas you want to write.
Don't be too wowed by their reported earnings though before checking to see if this is a team leader or an individual provider.
Elance offers skills tests and posts your ranking here also, but many providers feel the tests are off the mark.
For example, the one sales writing asked far more questions about the inner workings of an advertising agency than actually writing copy.
This may be something Elance is working on.
Skills tests are now all free.
And if you don't like a score you can try again after 14 days.
You can also opt to rate yourself.
More than few successful writers here do so.
If you have any samples of writing you have done that are relevant to the types of projects you bid on, make sure you have uploaded them to your portfolio.
You can also attach a few to your proposal, but if they are in the portfolio, prospective clients browsing Elance can find them and may invite you to a bid on an "invitation only" project.
If you don't yet have any samples, you can wait till a project comes up that you think you have a good chance of winning and create a sample or two for your proposal and add to your portfolio.
If the project is for article writing, consider writing a couple articles for a website like Helium or a directory like EzineArticles.
If you're going to also market from your own website, you can link from these to your site, making the articles work double-time for you.
Once you have your profile in place, it's time to start looking for projects to bid on!