hi today we’ll, be talking about freelancing platforms. Now i’m, pretty sure you might have heard about financing platforms like fiverr, upwork, uh freelancer. All of these fancy platforms out there and i’m, pretty sure you might have seen a lot of youtube videos recommending these platforms.
Now even i recommended these platforms in the past, but today i’m, going to tell you why i hate these freelancing platforms and why i have never used these freelancing platforms when i was doing my freelancing now long time back you know, upwork was Started in 2015 and back then it was called elance odesk, and the purpose of these freelancing platforms was very simple.
If someone, if a client wants to get their work done, they go to these freelancing platforms, put their gig out and then freelancers can bid on that project and a lot of people got jobs. A lot of people were able to connect with clients and everything was going smoothly, but then came the over saturation part right.
Every time you find a way of finding clients. There will be supply and demand and soon over time, especially in 2020, when a lot of people have lost jobs, and there are so many students and unemployed people out there.
Everyone start flooding these freelancing platforms and here’s. The thing there was a lot of supply, but very few demand. So what that meant was every time a client posted a project. You’ll, have hundreds of people applying for these projects, and it will become very difficult for the client to decide to whom this project should go to.
I’ll. Give you an example a couple of years back. I think two years back, i put out a gig on freelancer about a graphic design project and i got more than 50 bids in a matter of few minutes. That’s, how many people who apply to each project so the next time you’re applying on one of these freelancing platforms.
Remember that you’re, not the only one applying there are hundreds of others who are applying to this to the same project at the same time, so many people from india, pakistan, bangladesh flooded on these freelancing platforms.
Now the question is with so many people on these freelancing platforms. How do you stand out and you can stand out using two ways? The first one is reviews and the second one is a solid portfolio. If you have a really good portfolio, then the client might trust you, but something that’s.
More important is reviews on these platforms. Now a a client would blindly trust a person who has say 100 reviews versus a person who’s. Just getting started with zero reviews now here’s, the issue that most of you guys would face.
You would go to one of these freelancing platforms. You would apply for the gig and then the client would never respond because you have zero reviews. Why would the client trust you, because you’re, very inexperienced, so it’s very rare for people to get these opportunities, especially when you’re starting out.
They would rather trust a very experienced person versus someone who’s just starting out and uh. You know. If you want to tackle that issue, then you ‘ Ll have to frame a really good bidding message.
Saying hey! I’m just getting started, i’ll. Do it for a really cheap price? Do trust me and, secondly, have a solid portfolio right? I’ve, seen so many people who have never done anything in photoshop and they call themselves graphic designers like the.
If you’re, a low quality freelancer, and if you’re applying in one of these freelancing platforms, then the chance of you getting a job is almost nil. Right, so remember you need to be very skilled. You need to have a solid portfolio, the moment people look at it, they should be like wow and then using these two skills.
You’ll have to start applying to get more reviews, and this is where it gets tricky, because even if you have a really good portfolio, there are chances. You might never get a job because you might exhaust all your bids and then you know the client would never respond back and that’s.
Why? I hate these platforms? You might be skilled, but because of the competition, you might never get a job. The solution to this is approaching people directly right. Ask your friends and family: ask your relatives, ask your friends or friends.
If they know someone who might require your services, ask your linkedin connections. Ask your college alumni. Ask your colleagues at work or use platforms like crunchbase and angel list and glass store to see which startups have recently raised money and which startups are hiring so that you can apply to those jobs or even freelance for those startups, because they have cash to spend.
Also, keep an eye out on techcrunch in your story to see which startups are getting funded so that you can strike the eye and when it’s hot and approach them at the right time when they might need your services.
I feel having a really good understanding about how the industry works, understanding which new startup is coming up, which new business is popping up, which business actually requires your services being active on social media is a better way of knowing where demand is and then going and Supplying it’s, a very simple thing: wherever you see demand just go and supply the problem with freelancing platforms.
Is that there’s? A lot of supply, so demand is less. I’m, not saying that upwork and freelancer and fiverr don’t work. It works for a lot of people. A lot of people earn a living using these platforms.
You just have to try it’s. It’s, a very long process, but the best way of doing it is to stay on these freelancing platforms and, at the same time, try approaching people directly. Another thing to keep in mind is that in most of these freelancing platforms like upwork and freelancer, you’ll mostly have small businesses who are on a very tight budget.
They might not have a. They might not give you too much money for doing their work. You won’t, have huge glamorous startups and companies coming on freelancing platforms. It’s, pretty rare, but you can sometimes find really high quality projects, so keep an eye out for that as well.
For those of you who are using upwork and one of these financing platforms, one of our friends sumra dutta – is a professional freelancer. He mostly gets clients by directly approaching them, but at the same time he has gotten few clients through upwork as well.
Here are a few tips that he has to give to people who are using freelancing platforms. Do give it a watch so first client miller. I will be very practical and very honest. First client minila is very very hard.
Lot of my friends have very good portfolio, but they they don’t. They are not getting clients, she was from singapore uh, okay uh, so she was looking for a wedding video, edit uh. That was jaipur themed right, so so many messages and i know the taste of indian weddings and how things go around.
So that way, my message was much more personal and it was a differentiating factor because she said me that they were from usa and other places. Pakistan and places so that way i got my first job so differentiating you from others is really important because it’s, a very saturated market and once you get the first client, the other clients are not a problem, because i kept getting some requests.
Also from some clients to get you know, photography, kellyanne reading so uh that’s. How god that’s, how i got my first click. Uh i mean being patient, is really important like it’s. Not time like you know like you need a lot of time to uh get your first client, so it’s better.
You be patient and keep applying and therefore advise you, like i mean just don’t, give up because it’s very difficult to get a first client. I was also like mirko bilagathaki. I have so much so many online uh offline clients like i was getting other clients from facebook and other startups and like that and through linkedin.
But i was also thinking like yeah. I like clients, because you can see a lot of projects hundred dollars two hundred dollars. Fifty dollars. Kick it the sensory projects, easy edit salesman. So i will think how about this, but getting the first line is really difficult.
I i won ‘ T really lie, you have to be really patient and you know uh also keep working on your portfolio and keep telling keep letting your community know that you do do this work yeah, because i have a youtube channel also – and i have uh this uh instagram thing.
So so i keep posting my stuff and tell that i do this kind of things or messages service death. If people don’t know that you provide the services. So how will they so that way also they can connect you through a book like offline.
So that way, you can convert your offline offline clients to your online clients, so that is also a very good way. If you already have a existing client base, that’s, pretty much it guys. I hope you like this video and if you did please mind, subscribing um and also share this video with your friends who are getting into freelancing or trying to you know, monetize on their skills and that’s, pretty much it.