How to find good jobs on freelancing sites

Question

I've recently got back into doing freelancing jobs because I needed to get activity on a payment method in order to get private loads reactivated.

I am using freelancer.com and even when I made about 1k in the last 30 days, I find it a little hard (or time consuming) to fing good jobs to bid on. I usually go to work > project with my skills and search keyword from project I most enjoy working on, for example, PHP, JQuery, Chrome Extension, Wordpress Plugin, Web Scraping, etc.

My problem is that it's quite hard to find a good project I am intereted in (have in mind I always try to provide a demo even before the project is awarded to me). But most of the project I find are things like:

• Create a PHP script (with no extra details).

• Please visit this site and click top ad to see why it's not working as it should (indians trying to get people to click on a spammy website ads).

• Send XXX to skrill and I send you YYY here (scam).

• Same project posted twice once with bids from 10-30USD, another with bids 30-250USD.

• I need a copy of google.com for 30USD.

• I need to do this impossible task and only pay 10USD for it.

• Build a website. I need to build a website.

• Work from home.

• Need this (1584 bids)

How do you find good projects to bid on on freelancing site without spending so much time?

Answer 1

When you say freelancing, are you talking about working part time from home, or working for a period of weeks or months possibly on the clients site?

I've been a contractor/consultant since 1994 and based on my experience, more money and more work is available if you are prepared to work on a clients site. It will also pay considerably more. I've been in management for about ten years - my last development contract was PHP,Javascript and a little MySQL back in 2004 or 2005 and doing a 40hour week my invoice was around 10,000 to 12000 GBP a month.

Where to look? I see jobs on stackoverflow, linkedin and jobserve.

I think you are US based and I wrote an answer to a question that might interest you here: https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/how-to-build-a-startup-freelance-software-qa-in-the-us/8585#8585

If you have grand ambitions, you could provide solutions at a price which includes support payments (so you are on-call but collect money long after the project has finished) https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/8613/process-for-implementing-support-contracts/8615#8615

Best of luck!

Answer 2

I have been a part time freelancer for the last 6 years. Nowadays it is very hard to get new work. Recently I started using this chrome extension, which is very helpful for me to get new job notifications instantly from guru.com. So that I can place my bid before someone else applies for the same job. And it saves me time because I don't want to refresh the pages for each new job notification.

Answer 3

You should be applying for fewer jobs.

It's not about the quantity of jobs available. You need to find the jobs which suit your skills, your experience, and your expected rates - and then focus more on your applications for those jobs.

Here's what I would do:

1. Go to several of your favorite freelancing sites and setup keyword searches.

   • Don't just browse aimlessly.
   • Search only for the skills you have (or are learning), with clients of a decent feedback score and budget.
   • Review these once per day only.

2. Spend more time on your applications

   • From the shortlist in step 1, don't try to apply to everybody.
   • Only focus on those where your skills would be an excellent match for the client. Ignore the rest.
   • Craft a well-written application - show that you understand their requirements, share your portfolio, demonstrate how you can solve their problem. Check this for spelling mistakes, grammar errors, don't commit basic mistakes like saying "Hi John" when the client's name is "Martin".

3. Respond quickly

   • Clients will usually ask questions to assess how responsive you are, and how well you have understood the job requirements.
   • Respond as soon as possible, and communicate well. This is a test.

4. Focus your profile

   • State clearly what you are good at, and what you offer.
   • Charge a decent rate. Increasing your rates will attract higher quality clients who offer quality pay for quality work.

Answer 4

I was freelancer for more than 7 years. From my experience I can tell you 3 secrets of getting freelance job. They are:

1. Bid on small or low budget project - for first few projects. First 3 projects should be for  advertisement only. Don't expect money. But, don't do it for free.

2. Bid on projects as early as possible

3. If any client or employer contacts you, reply instantly.

To learn more details you can visit http://webindream.com/getting-freelance-job/

Answer 5

Quality over quantity.

Instead of browsing all jobs or putting some vague search term be specific. This not only filters out most of the junk but it has the added benefit of showing you better quality jobs because the client has actually bothered to add decent requirements.

Answer 6

I would try looking on multiple sites if you are having trouble with Freelance.com. Opening yourself up to a larger pool of jobs will help you land the ones right for you that get you the most money, and you may even find that on other sites, people are willing to pay more or offer more work for a more consistent salary.

Answer 7

I had used freelance.com some time ago, but recently I had joined UpWork (upwork.com). It is better than Freelance.com, you can have a feed delivered on feedly, for example, with your personalized search. There is another site that I've joined called Workana (workana.com).