You've Registered on Freelance Job Site - Now What?

In my last article, I introduced you to freelance job sites. I mentioned one such site that I'm familiar with - Get A Freelancer - but many others exist and most operate in a similar capacity. I briefly explained how freelance job sites operate and provided 3 compelling reasons why you should be taking advantage of all that these sites have to offer.

I'm going to assume that you've already clicked on the link provided and signed up as a service provider at GetAFreelancer. If you haven't taken this step yet, go ahead and do so now because this next series of articles offers you tips and instructions on using this and other similar freelance job sites. Are you ready?

Browsing all those projects

The first time you see all those new projects listed on GetAFreelancer or any of the other popular freelance job sites, you're going to feel like a kid in a candy store. With visions of lots of money dancing through your head and a Cheshire cat grin on your face, you'll dive right in. Thoroughly reading each project description, you easily lose all track of time.

After what feels like a few minutes of reading every detail, you realize that you've actually been reading for hours and in all that time, you've only read a few bids. "Wow", you think; "Time really does fly when you're having fun!"

Then a new realization starts to sink in and it's stark. Although you've been reading bids for hours, you've not yet made any money. Even worse, you haven't even placed any bids! It doesn't take a genius to figure out that before you can make money, you've got to start placing bids and you've got to win some too!

Slowly you begin to realize all that's involved before there's any positive movement in your bank account balance - browsing bids, placing bids, winning bids and then working on those bids you've won. Sadly, your huge smile begins to fade because guess what? You don't get paid a penny for any of the time you spend on these time-consuming but all-important tasks.

Now what?

Well, you've got to roll up your sleeves and get going! It doesn't matter what line of work you're in, or whether you're a freelancer or you work for someone else, new work rarely falls into your lap. You've got to aggressively chase new work and unfortunately, a lot of the work you chase will get away.

Several times a day, you have to look at the newest bids only that come in and decide which projects you'll bid on and which ones you'll pass up. The reason I say several times a day is because the people who place those bids work fast. Oftentimes they'll post a bid, select a winner and escrow the funds all within the same day! If you're not staying on top of the bidding, new work will come and go and you won't even know it.

Next time, I'll offer tips to help you decide which jobs to bid on and which you should pass up.