Comments on my vWorker Review had to be closed because the arguments were not leading to anything fruitful. But then I thought that maybe a few developers did not like to disclose their identity in comments because they still wanted to use vWorker for earning money doing freelancing.  Perhaps they felt they had done hard work and felt the arbitration team did not support them. I asked Ian Ippolito (CEO and founder of vWorker.com) why not have an article where we can clarify common issues that come up with the workers and I am really thankful to him and his team for this wonderful article about how to become vWorker Arbitration Champion.

vWorker has also released (may be it was always there but I just found now) list of workers who has won each and every arbitration they initiated and I am in that list as well . Search for CoderShabbir if you want to see my name in the list.

Over to Ian and his team Ajay Bathija, Jim Coutu, Rafeek Kulkarni and Tim Yates

On a recent blog posting on this site, a few workers claimed they had lost vWorker arbitrations because the site always rules against workers. In truth, many workers win arbitrations every day (such as those on this list). And some workers are even more successful. Like undefeated sports champs, these workers win each and every arbitration they initiate (click here for the list).

So what’s the difference between the constant winners and the constant losers? And how do you make sure you’re one of the “champs” in arbitration and not one of the “chumps”? Fortunately it’s very easy, with the following tips.

Part 1 of this article talks about how the best ways to do work before the arbitration even begins. Part 2 discusses how to conduct yourself once arbitration begins.

Part 1. Pre Arbitration

80% of arbitrations are decided based on something that happened before the arbitration itself ever started. So the most important thing you can do to win an arbitration is to work professionally and competently with the employer. This might seem obvious, yet we see the same mistakes being made over and over again. Here’s how to avoid making them.

Clarify vague contract terms

• Ask questions: If you don’t understand something in the contract – Ask. Ideally, you should ask before you place a bid on the project. If a contract term is vague and you have already accepted the project, you are putting yourself at risk. That vague requirement could get clarified to be a lot of work, which you did not anticipate. Also, asking questions is a great way to show employers that you have read their requirements and want to meet their needs.
• Pros and Cons: If there are multiple possible implementations for the requirement, then inform the employer about the pros and cons of each. Don’t just pick one (such as the easiest, cheapest or the one you’re most familiar with). If you do then you take a big risk. If your choice causes problems for the employer, you will be responsible in arbitration. You may have to redo your work, or could even lose the arbitration. The employer is the one paying for the project, so make sure you give them the choice they are entitled to.
• Don’t underbid:The more you clarify the requirements, the better you can accurately estimate the time and effort the project will take. And that is the only way to accurate estimate how much to charge. Don’t get in a situation of underbidding just to win the project. Workers who do this often get demotivated because they are working for too little money, and don’t do their best. If you do this and get into arbitration, the arbitrator won’t accept it as an excuse for sloppy work or not delivering to the contract. You are responsible for estimating and bidding properly. If you have a continual problem estimating, then consider switching to pay-for-time projects so you can avoid this situation.

Explain copyright when using 3^rd party or open source materials

Disclose it

If you use 3^rd party components of any kind (or in the case of graphics projects – third party images) it is your responsibility to explain:

• What in your deliverables will be 3^rd party.
• What are the copyright consequences to the employer of what you intend to do
• Get the employer to agree to it (onsite).

If you do those things, you will be covered.

If you don’t, you will lose the arbitration. Why? Employers expect to own full copyright to what you produce (and the standard legal wording gives them that). If you skip doing one of the above steps, they are not getting what you promised to. Worse, perhaps they are going to resell the work. They can end up getting sued for your actions, and not even realize it.

So that’s why doing the above is important. It’s also why you can lose your account if you don’t do it.

Example

Let’s say you want to use open source libraries. So you inform the employer: “I am using the 123 graphics library, which uses the GNU Lesser General Public License. I’ve included a copy of the license.txt file in case you have questions. Please let me know if this is acceptable.” If you do this, you are covered on all three steps and fully protected.

However, if you just say “I am using the 123 graphics library” or “I am using open source”, there will be many employers who don’t realize that this action has legal/copyright implications. You are the one selling the product, and are responsible for informing them of this. So make sure to follow all three steps to fairly inform them, as well as to protect yourself.

Handling employer requests for additional work

If an employer asks for additional work that is not in the contract, you have several choices:

• Accept the additional work: You can do it for free, or ask for more money. Remember that when you agree to implement something for free, you have amended the contract. That new thing is now a part of it, and you must complete it. And if the deadline comes and you haven’t delivered it, then you are just as responsible for it, as if it were a paid item that you missed. So don’t agree to something for free, unless you really intend to finish it on time.
• Decline the additional work: Inform the employer politely that this is additional work and you would need either additional time and/or additional money to complete this task. If the employer won’t accept it, then vWorker will step in on your behalf to clarify the scope of the contract. Place the project into arbitration for “contract clarification” and we will help determine if it is or not.
• Do nothing: This isn’t a good choice, but unfortunately some people do this. If you are not going to do it, then say it explicitly on site. If you ignore it, your silence may come across to a competent person as implicitly accepting it. And if so, it will become part of the contract and you will be responsible for it. For example, let’s say your project is to design a logo and no mention is made of where to put the log. While you are working, the employer says, “Oh, I need you need to place the logo on all my web pages too, because I don’t know how”. If you just respond with “Everything is going great and I’ll let you know when everything is done”, then a competent person would believe you were implicitly accepting the new term. You then become responsible for it. To avoid this, make sure you explicitly reject anything that you disagree with it.

Manage your deadlines properly

When the employer stops you from meeting a deadline:If you are waiting on the employer for an answer to a question and the deadline is approaching, notify the employer that they are preventing you from completing the work (and what they need to do to correct this). If you do this, you are covered and not responsible for the deadline. But if you don’t do this, then you become the one at fault for the missed deadline…not the employer. Always give the employer a reasonable amount of time to respond to your requests.

Upload, upload, upload the deliverables: As a good customer service habit, you should be uploading the deliverables regularly to the vWorker site regularly (at least once a week). But you absolutely MUST upload 100% of them to the site before each deadline/milestone.

We cannot emphasize this strongly enough! If you don’t upload work, then you have no proof that you delivered to the contract. We can’t let you upload later, because a cheating worker could use the extra time to do additional work. So you will lose the arbitration.

We send out numerous informational messages about this and alerts as well, and yet still see this problem over and over again. Don’t make a dumb mistake that unnecessarily costs you money. Upload your deliverables.

Non uploadables: Please note that if you work directly on your employer’s server, that does not mean you can skip uploading to the vWorker site. A cheating worker might miss a deadline and then use the extra time in arbitration to fix something on the employer’s server that was broken before. So even if you work direct…upload to vWorker too. Otherwise you will lose arbitration unnecessarily.

If you are doing something (such as a server configuration) where there are no deliverables, then tell the employer to switch it to pay-for-time instead (where we take screenshots of what you are doing and you don’t have to prove delivery to get paid).

Respond Promptly to employer questions and provide status updates

Communicating with the employer can really prevent a lot of bad situations. For example: Let’s say you know you are going to miss the deadline for a personal reason. If you tell the employer 4 weeks in advance, this gives them plenty of notice. They have time to adjust the expectations of their customers and many are willing to work around the issue and extend the deadline. However if you say nothing (or wait until the last minute to tell them), they are going to be caught in a bind. Most are not likely to give you an extension.

Part 2. In Arbitration

In second part of this article, we will discuss how to handle the remaining 20% of situations that happen during arbitration.

We discussed how to work professionally and competent with your employer. Once you’ve done that, you’re usually in very good shape to win your arbitration. However there are still some important things you need to do to make sure you don’t “blow it”. By following the below tips, you can make sure you an arbitration “champion” and not an arbitration “chump”.

Upload all work files at the start

Upload 100% immediately:As described in part 1: You need to uploaded 100% of your deliverables onsite before the deadline/milestone arrives.However, let’s say there was no deadline…or it has not arrived yet. How do you protect yourself in arbitration in that case? In that situation, you need to upload 100% of your deliverables to date to the site once you start the arbitration (or get a notification of it).

We send out an email reminder telling people to do this, but many people ignore it. That’s a big mistake. If we need to look at the deliverables, you will lose the arbitration. Again it’s a simple thing to do. So just do it!

Upload it all: Make sure you upload everything needed to verify you met the contract. If you are working on a graphics projects, the source files need to be uploaded as well.

Insult

You may be very upset at the other party when the arbitration starts. That’s normal and okay. But it’s not acceptable to express that upset by insulting the other party or threatening them (or do this to your arbitrator). Doing this is the fastest way to lose your arbitration. You will also probably forfeit your entire account. Would you want to be verbally abused by someone else? Of course not. No one wants to talk with someone who can’t behave professionally. So don’t be that person.

Some people think they can get around this rule by disguising insults as an opinion. For example, they might say “In my opinion, the other party is the lowest kind of liar in existence”. This is not fooling anyone. Expressing this kind of opinion is a fast way to lose the arbitration. So don’t do it.

Provide accurate information

Lying in arbitration

You would think this wouldn’t need explaining. But unfortunately some people think that the best way to win is by lying in arbitration. If you tell a lie, you are just delaying the inevitable. If you say “I did the work” and you didn’t, we are going to test it and find out that you didn’t. Then instead of getting a 3 rating, you’ll receive a -3 for failing testing and have a great chance of forfeiting your account.

Everyone makes mistakes. If you messed up, just be gracious and admit it. Not only is this the right thing to do, but you make it easier on yourself. Lying only makes it harder on yourself.

Answer the flaw list accurately

If the project goes for 100% completion testing, the employer will be filling out a flaw list. You will be given a list of possible responses to each one. For example, you might have a choice of: Yes, it is a cosmetic flaw or No, you will not see this flaw in the deliverables.Choose the most appropriate option from the flawlist wizard.

This seems obvious to most people.  However, there are some workers who always choose Other (none of the above apply)so they can write the text response that comes with it. Perhaps they feel they are so persuasive, it will better improve their chances. Regardless…picking the wrong choice just so you can write text about it, shows that you cannot follow instructions (which is already a strike against you). It will also cause you more work, because the arbitration will then make you do it all over again correctly and choose the correct answers. It also delays the arbitration unnecessarily and doing so more than once can result in forfeiture for that.

So answer it accurately

Answer direct questions with direct answers

If the arbitrator asks you a “yes” or “no” question like is “Is the work 100% complete as per the contract, or not” then respond with “Yes” or “No”. If you have to respond with Responding with “Yes, but…” or “Yes, except….” forces the arbitrator to assume what you are trying to say.

Respond in a timely manner

Employers and workers are given three business days to respond to questions. If responses are not received in that time, you are given a one-time, three day exception. If another response does not come within the 3 business day deadline, you will forfeit the arbitration. So respond on time to avoid an unnecessary loss.

Don’t continue to argue after you’ve already lost the point.

Continuing to argue, not following arbitrator instructions and other inappropriate behavior may result in being forfeited from the arbitration. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep your emotions in check. When that happens, just ask yourself, “Would I do or say this if the person were a co-worker and standing right in front of me”? If the answer is “no” then you should think twice about it.

More Related Posts:

1. RentACoder to vWorker – A vWorker Review
2. Top 10 Advantages of Freelancing
3. Top 5 Ways to Turbo Charge Your Freelancing Career

One of IMTips blog reader Animesh asked a very interesting question about freelancing after reading my post about Freelancing in India. His question was

What is that one thing you would like to change if you were starting out on freelancing today?

When I was replying to the email I actually wrote the email couple of times and before I could finish writing the answer to the question completely each time I realized that something else was more important than the one I am writing about and if I could change that, it would be much better for my freelancing in future. I thought I need to give this question really nice thought before replying and it is then I realized what is one thing that every freelancer should focus on because it is one mistake that probably every freelancer knowingly or unknowingly makes.

The mistake is to understand what your services mean to your client – An Asset or an Expense?

When I started I also encountered few clients who simply viewed my services as an expense, a service they would purchase once or may be twice simply to get the things done quickly and on time. However, there are clients who are with me for a long term business relationship.

As of today 8th Nov 2011, if I look at the list of projects I am working on, I am working for clients who have been sending me work regular work few years now. These are the clients I should have been working for all the time because they have also invested in me and rely on my way of getting things done for them.

I have also wasted lot of time trying to adjust the view of the clients who saw my services as yet another cost. There are very few clients as well where I failed to convince that if you are paying for hourly tasks the time I spend to understand your requirement should also be paid and do you think these clients can be long term clients?

Today I am not working for clients who consider me as an yet another expense but if I were to start today I think I would focus on building long term clients rather than focusing on clients who would pay me more (or even few times the pricing) once or twice.

Share your freelancing mistakes in  comments below.

More Related Posts:

1. 7 Personality Traits of Successful Freelancers
2. Why I Make $10,000 Doing Freelancing And Now You Can Too
3. The 3 Most Effective Ways Ever to Finding Clients

Online freelancing is not considered as a career option by college grads in India and still remains as a personal choice of being a freelancer. There are lot of questions in the mind of the college grads as to how to get into online freelancing. So I will try to answer such questions so that Indian college grads can think about freelancing as a choice of career.

I started understanding online money making game especially freelancing in 2002. I wanted to get myself educated about stuffs I can do online in my spare time.

I am member of Elance since August 2002.

I am member of vWorker (RentACoder at that time) since October 2003.

In December 2003 I completed my first homework help type of project and earned my first $$ from RentACoder online when I was still in college. I could not get the money in my hands because at that time PayPal did not allow withdrawals in India but what it did was it made me to believe that money can be made online doing freelancing.

As of today Freelancing is very small percentage of my total income online but still I don’t give up freelancing and have no plans to give up as well because for me it has more advantages than disadvantages. Yes you can say that freelancing has changed a lot for me in the given scenario. I started freelancing doing homework help type of jobs in C-C++ and as of today I mainly work with vBulletin, WordPress and AWeber and also provide consultation for Internet Marketing as well as Equity Investment.

Now this article is for new freelancers in India and the most first question that comes into the mind of new freelancer is where to find freelancing work to start with?

Where to get started as freelancer?

From my way of freelancing you may start to think the best place to start freelancing is where I started i.e. from bidding and freelancing sites but the reality is slightly different. Actually if you know the answer to the question – Why I started in 2002 you could better understand where to start freelancing.

When I was in third year of my Engineering I (actually a bunch of us) was keen on doing some live projects. I started to tell anybody and everybody I meet about what I can do and it’s amazing what happens when you simply just talk about what you do to everyone you meet and share your business card.

I got my first project to develop software using a direct referral. I was not expecting any money from it and wanted to learn the concept of understanding client requirements and things like those but actually I was paid really good amount of money for getting the software done. Remember I was not expecting anything and so any money will always be good money for the task I did.

So to answer the question where to get started as freelancer – Direct Referral. This is where I started and Direct Referral is where I think every freelancer should start. This will allow you the space you need when you are getting started. Once started you can think about Direct e-mail or even calling. Then you can move to Social Media sites like LinkedIn to let people know what you do or what you can do. Once you have good set of work experience, you can showcase your portfolio and get into job boards and bidding sites like Elance, vWorker, oDesk.

When I was doing my Job from 2004 to 2008 I was not very active member of the bidding sites but that did not stop me from earning doing freelancing from direct referrals and also from my forums where I used to market my services in my sig and sometimes people used to hire me for advice. The key here is “contributing” to the community and learn in the process.

Yes I have tried many things that did not work as well and one of them is local newspaper advertisements. They have always been a waste of time and money for me and instead of getting clients many a times I got calls from local computer hardware suppliers to buy computers from them.

As of today I rarely add new clients because most of my freelancing work comes from repeat business and maintenance of existing clients but yes I get lot of clients through my Internet presence on social networking sites like LinkedIn.

Coming back to sites like Elance, In August 2010 I published the following Image in an article about Freelancing here

And as of today my Elance profile shows

It means 7,000 USD or 350,000 INR annually. Note that the above numbers do not include my direct clients.

Why College Grads Should Consider Freelancing?

Yes I know that Indian education still lack good solid foundation for Web technologies but still I think it includes lot more things that it used to be in the past. My kid who is only 7 years old knows how to play minesweeper. If I remember correctly I learnt minesweeper in college. Opportunities for graduates to use their internet skills to impress potential clients and win projects are lot more these days.

Final Thoughts

I know I have not answered lot of questions that may be in the minds of newbie freelancer’s in India and the reason behind it is – I did not intend to make this post very lengthy. So I will answer more freelancing questions in the upcoming posts and link them here.

If you have question in your mind about freelancing post in comments below and I will be more than happy to answer them all.

More Related Posts:

1. Top 5 Disadvantages of Freelancing
2. Top 10 Advantages of Freelancing
3. Why I Make $10,000 Doing Freelancing And Now You Can Too

Guest Post by Nabeell Shahid, Founder of Grace Business Solutions

As I forecast tomorrow, I see many freelancers or solopreneurs shaping up as Entrepreneurs, maybe the factual practice of technology is helping them get more business or ample amount of sources to grab assignments is making it happen but I fear that how many of those entrepreneurs will survive in future if this induction of freelancers continue to increase. The art of freelancing is from starting up as a freelancer developing into a solopreneur & becoming an entrepreneur, starting with almost no assets to filling up your bag with multiple assets, starting as one & making it a team.

Following traits have been derived from the element that freelancers have to be self-starters who are confident enough to sell themselves and their skills to the crowd.

1. Brand Yourself

A freelancer must be able to market himself. People have to be able to sell themselves when it comes to making others believe in their abilities to do a task well.

“If you are unable to sell your ideas in the open arcade, freelancing is dubious career for you”

If a freelancer wants to appeal an employer, he has to give that employer an impression to believe that this freelancer is best suited for the task. When it comes to freelancing, the competition is boundless. If one fails to sell themselves, there will be hundreds of others who will joyfully take their place. Time to time as you grow with experience prepare/update marketing materials and develop new marketing messages that address your clients concerns, their changing values, and their priorities for each tasks. It doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do if you can’t effectively market your services to potential buyers. You have to make them aware of you, and be able to “sell” them on your services as compared to your competitors.

2. Bilingual – Work Smarter

“Become bilingual”, learn not only the language of your skill but also the language of business and commerce, you have to be multi talented in order to compete successfully in the freelancing arena, you will need to do all the work yourself: have and implement visions, create and follow through on action plans, generate and develop ideas and file and follow up on invoices. In other words, you will need to simultaneously hold and sustain the big picture and the minute details. It is the freelancers who understand how to make the clients trust them who are the winners.

I want to emphasize, the huge majority of clients don’t know anything about Java or Psd files–they only want a good job done by somebody, preferably at an affordable rate. The Internet is a global marketplace and freelancers should embrace a more commercial profile. Communicate enough with your clients so that you can accomplish the tasks you were given. A balanced communication style is the key to success. One of the primary reasons many freelancers lack personal interaction is because clients can come from all over the world. Most freelancers have the ability to do work for clients regardless of where they live, and as a result, the local aspect of the business is often overlooked.

3. Self Discipline

Since you have no boss, no one looking over you as a freelancer, you are both an Employer and an Employee where your talent is in your Asset. Your work even spreads into your emotional and romantic life. It is not necessarily skill that makes a person a successful freelancer, but more of a combination of self-discipline, dedication, and hard work. Freelancers need to track revenues, expenses, and even their own work schedules. They need to be able to work without supervision. They need to be self-driven and self-directed. All this being said, you still have to watch out for number one—you.  It is not productive to procrastinate by washing dishes or taking the dog for a walk, but it is also not productive to compulsively work 24/7 and leave no time for yourself, family, and friends. Your business will be tumbling down if you are emotionally or physically ill or burned out. Returning to that strategy mentioned earlier, you need to set specific days and hours you will work and not work. There are always exceptions, such as a last-minute deadline. Yet, you cannot expect to think about work and nothing but work. Home offices can snare people like this. They can be very magnetic and draw you in on at all hours if you are not careful.

4. Patience

To become a freelancer, a person must first be prepared for the foreseeable: rejection and failure. Every freelancer receives rejections, and while these denials may be more than discouraging at first, they are no reason to give up on the dream of becoming a solopreneur. A person who is determined to prosper as a freelancer must maintain a positive attitude at all times and must go into every project with the intention of succeeding. It is “the fuel” of your persistence.

It is unpardonable for any freelancer to not have enough patience when he or she is working with a client. Usually, a client has a vague idea about their project and how it should be done. Some customers are paying more, some less, but a professional in any field should pay attention to all clients regardless of the size of their project. A pleased client is one who receives the needed explanation from the hired specialist. We all know that not all people are experts in web design, development, or SEO. Patience is always good to use when dealing with employers.

5. Pro Active

Be pro active not reactive, I also think there needs to be equal parts determination and creativity thrown into the make-up of the ideal freelancer. You need to be ambitious… hungry—thinking about tomorrow. It is certainly not for anyone who is lazy. Unless you have a partner, you will be brainstorming with yourself.  You have to go with your gut and think on your feet. Being proactive is about being anticipatory and taking charge of situations. In a creative climate proactively is anticipating difficult times of years, months and even days.

6. Willing to Learn

A considerable fact is that the freelancers who have the tangible staying power are those who are lifelong learners the ones who are constantly seeking out ways to improve their skills and grow their business. There are a lot of people who do freelancing and you can get caught up in the competition. And yes, there are a lot of fields that you can penetrate in order to be in the know. You have to be focused on the details and make sure that all the details are correct to be a good freelancer. By daring to go on a new path, you’ll have the opportunity to advance new skills, and eventually enjoy more competitive rates as a freelancer.

7. Entrepreneurial

Numerous skilled professionals chose to begin freelancing careers as solopreneurs. While it’s true many decided to work alone not because of a strong entrepreneurial spirit but simply to maintain some cash flow, it appears that a significant number of these new independent workers found that they liked the environment.  On the Internet, you can build both personal and business relationships without actually “meeting” the person.

Working for yourself is vastly different than working for a company in that you must have vision in order to sustain your enthusiasm. Without it, you’ll never be able to convince someone to hire you. You really have to love what you’re doing because sometimes it can be a gigantic pain in head. But if it’s something that you really believe in, you don’t mind all those hours you put in. They are attracted to challenges but not to risks. It may look like they are taking high risks, but in actuality they have assessed the risks thoroughly.

So whether you’re currently a freelancer or considering moving into freelancing reflect your own personality traits, behaviour, practices and devote some time getting to know yourself. This does not means that these are the only behaviours required to prosper, but they would most definitely constitute a strong foundation from which to improve yourself and move forward with your career as a freelancer.

More Related Posts:

1. How to build a Successful Website
2. Top 5 Disadvantages of Freelancing
3. Freelancer – To be Or Not to be? [Vote Now]

This guest post is by Ian Ippolito, CEO and founder of vWorker.com

As the CEO of vWorker.com, I have close contact with many of the 300,000+ freelancers who use the site to earn a living. I’ve seen virtual workers of all temperaments, nationalities and ages. But the thing that always strikes me is how there seem to be two distinct types of freelancers.

The first seems to enjoy a charmed life. It’s not unusual for such a freelancer to be brand new to the site and yet win not just one, but several jobs in the first few weeks. They enjoy great success, build up repeat business and enjoy an easy and constant stream of projects and income.

The second struggles for weeks just to win their first job, and don’t understand what they are doing wrong. Then when they finally do wine one, they don’t manage the project properly and have numerous problems with it and their employers. They usually end up with a dissatisfied client and no chance of getting repeat business, and have to start all over again at square one.

I’m writing this article to help you be the former type of freelancer, and avoid the fate of the latter.

1. Successful Bidding

Put yourself in the employer’s shoes for a minute. You’ve just posted a job on vWorker.com to create your asp.NET company website and are evaluating bidders. Which one of these bids would make you want to correspond with the bidder further?

Bid #1:

Description:
Hi, I’m Andre Jones and I’m an expert in the following:
a) Web site design
b) PHP
c) ASP.NET
d) Java/Javascript
I also am a fantastic photojournalist and marketer.
Here are example of my work:

http://example1.com

http://example2.com

http://example3.com

Please see my resume for more details. I’m looking forward to working with you!
Bid amount: $2,000

Bid #2:

Description:
Hi, I’m Andre Jones and I have 5 years of experience in ASP.NET.
I read through your description and think this is going to be an excellent way for you to attract new clients.
What kind of security did you have in mind for this project? The reason I ask is that, I can build whatever you want. But I don’t want to quote you the price of the equivalent of a “limosine” if you are really looking for an economy car. For instance, are you expecting a special admin section that only you can access, or will it all be public?
Bid Amount: None

Who will the employer prefer? It’s not even a close competition. 99% of employers will respond back to bid #2, while deleting bid #1. Why is there such a difference? The main problem with bid #1 is that it gives off the foul stench of a copy-and-paste spam bid from an amateur. Bid #2, on the other hand, comes across as engaging, interested, enthusiastic and competent. Look at the differences:

1. Bid #1 has listed every skill he has, including most that are not asked for in this project. Why would the employer care about this? He’s making the classic mistake of talking about what’s interesting to himself (his skills) rather than what’s interesting to the client (how he can help the client solve his problem). Bid #2 on the other hand shows respect for the employer’s time by only talking about the relevant skills.
2. Bidder #2 showed the employer that they actually read the description by asking specific questions about it. Pertinent questions compel a person to answer them. Bid #1 on the other hand has no questions and is not compelling. Incidentally, it is so generic that it gives the impression it was probably spammed to everyone on the site with similar projects (and it probably was).
3. Bid #2 expressed enthusiasm for the project itself. When an employer has to choose between two equal candidates: the more enthusiastic has a huge edge. Note that he did this in a sincere, honest and specific way. He didn’t throw out platitudes (which can be even worse than not saying anything at all). So if you can do this sincerely, then it’s a powerful tool. If you’re not sure about this, then don’t take a chance of doing it incorrectly.
4. Bid #1 put in a $ amount on their first bid. This is usually a huge red flag to any knowledgeable employer. 99.999% of the time, there’s no way someone can make an accurate bid without getting additional information. This reeks of a freelancer who is too inexperienced to realize how bad this is. Bid #2 didn’t make this rookie mistake.

(Insider scoop: Speaking of bids, I’ll give the readers of this blog who use vWorker an exclusive “scoop” on an upcoming feature that will be of interest to you. Currently when you make a bid (say $1000), the vWorker fee is deducted from that. But in a few weeks, that will change and instead we’ll raise the amount the employer escrows to cover the fee. So if you bid $1000, you’ll get $1000 and you no longer have to worry about the fee during you bid. See vWorker updates for info on this when it becomes available.)

Alright! You’ve followed the above tips and you’ve now won the bid! Working properly during the project is the key between a client who comes back to you over and over again for a long time, and one who can’t wait to get rid of you. The key is to remember to think long term.

2. Managing client expectation

Even on a very well laid out project, you can expect 10-15% of a contract to be unclear. This means you will have to work out the details during the project. Go through the project at the beginning to find these areas and get them hammered out.

Don’t make the mistake of ignoring things, or worse: getting no input from the client and instead implementing them in the easiest way possible and hoping the client won’t notice. Communication is key to working out these issues and avoiding an unhappy client later.

3. Managing deadlines

Deadlines are real and should be treated as such. But every human being misses at least one deadline in their lives. If you can’t make a deadline, don’t wait until the day before and say “Oh, by the way I won’t make it. Sorry, dude!”. The last-minute surprise (when you’re expected to be finished) can cause your employer a premature heart-attack, and cause you to lose all credibility.

Instead, you should be communicating with them constantly during the project. As soon as you notice you are behind schedule (weeks before), let them know and let them know why (i.e. “we ran into xyz because it was more complicated than expected”). With advanced notice your employer can often make other arrangements.

And never just say “Oh it’s going to be late,” and not say when you think it *will* be done. Just like you don’t like to be left in limbo…neither does the employer.

These are all small but important things that make the difference between keeping your client’s trust or losing it completely and never working for them again.

4. Uploading deliverables

Disputes happen… even to the best of freelancers. They key is to be prepared so you can avoid problems when they do occur.

For some reason, many freelancers hate uploading their work to the vWorker site. Yes it does take a little more time to do this. But ask yourself this: would you rather do that, or would you rather lose the funds for the project you worked so hard on, simply because you didn’t take the time to do this simple task?

On a site like vWorker we guarantee that you will be paid if you complete the project to the contract, on time and in the industry expected manner. However, without the upload, you have no proof of what and when you delivered. And without that, we cannot enforce that guarantee and you can end up not getting paid. So you can easily avoid the entire situation by just uploading the deliverables. Then you are fully protected in a dispute and can get paid for the work you did.

5. Repeat business

You finished the job and have a happy client! Congratulations! Now that you’ve earned their trust, you can look forward to a recurring revenue stream from future projects. However, many people don’t think about how to save money by structuring that repeat business properly.

For example, if you won your first project from the employer via an open-auction pay-for-deliverables project, we charge a 15% vWorker fee. On repeat projects, the employer skips bidding, which saves us money (bandwidth costs, advertising to bring in bidders and employers, etc.) and we pass that savings on to you. The key is to make sure the employer posts the project to you as a “one-on-one” project. This cuts the cost to 12.5%. On a large project this can be a significant savings. If you both trust each other so much that you can forgo escrowing, you can set it up as a bonus and only pay 10%! And there are other ways to save as well.

Once you’ve established trust with the employer, you can have the switch from pay-for-deliverables to pay-for-time (PFT). In PFT, you clock into a timecard and are guaranteed payment for every hour you work. This is a really good deal compared with PFD, where any cost overruns (or bad estimates on your part) are your responsibility. On top of that, the fee drops to just 9%! So this is a fantastic way to give you more flexibility AND save money at the same time.

And on all the above options, you can drop the cost by another 2.5% by asking the employer to use a preferred payment method (snail mail check or wire). These are cheaper for us to process, so we pass it on to you. Note: Once the bidding change I talked about earlier is in place (in a few weeks) we expect employers will be much more likely to use a preferred payment method, because they will actually see the difference (will not have to escrow as much).

Using the above tips, you can have a very successful freelance career. I hope these tips were helpful!

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2. Why I Make $10,000 Doing Freelancing And Now You Can Too
3. The 3 Most Effective Ways Ever to Finding Clients

PayPal slowly but surely is Implementing RBI Guidelines which means using PayPal for Indians almost impossible. Let me touch upon some of the issues we come across when using PayPal.

PayPal Issues in India

1. Forex Losses

You cannot use your PayPal balance to buy anything online but need to be using your credit card for all payments. This is perfectly fine but then forex rates of PayPal make it virtually impossible to use PayPal. Say I have $100 in PayPal and I want to make a payment of $100 for some purchase. I will be withdrawing my $100 in my PayPal at a USD to INR conversion of 43* and making the payment at 46*.

* Rates are approximate rate.

2. Large payment problems

You cannot accept payment above $500 which means PayPal can only be used for micro payments but not for large payments though you can split the large payments into small parts like a payment of $800 can be split into two parts of $400 each but you cannot accept $800 in one go.

3. No clear Policy updates

You have to withdraw your PayPal funds in 7 days and so at times you may need to pay additional (though very nominal) PayPal withdrawal fees but there are lot of confusion as to what happens if one does not withdraw it. For example PayPal allows you to withdraw a minimum of $10 but what if one has less than $10 lying in the account for more than 7 days. You have to get into such a position and see how PayPal will behave because no one including support knows what will happen.

So having so many issues I have decided to move to other PayPal alternatives and so I am using couple of them.

PayPal Alternatives

Elance

I receive lot of payments from my direct clients. So I refer them to pay me using Elance instead of PayPal. Yes I pay Elance fees of 8.75% but it is at par of what PayPal fees + Forex charges. PayPal fee for receiving payment is 4+% and on top of that PayPal have a Forex rates lower by roughly 2%. This means you actually pay 6-7% when using PayPal and now I pay 8.75% for using Elance. More or less similar charges yet lot more convenient. It also helps me in a way that client feels much more confident when I don’t ask them money upfront but ask them to use escrow of Elance as well as makes my Elance profile grow.

Moneybookers

You can’t accept all the payments in Elance and so next option I prefer is using Moneybookers. They provide lot more benefits than PayPal and so let me share the benefits of Moneybookers here.

1. Very low fees – Receiving money is free and sending money costs only 1% up to 0.50 EUR which is almost 80% lower than what PayPal fees is.
2. Support Local Currency Balance – In PayPal you cannot have an Indian Rupees balance but in Moneybookers your account balance is in your own local currency.
3. Withdrawal Fees – Though PayPal withdrawal fees is NIL unless you are withdrawing very less amount, Moneybookers’ charges 1.80 EUR for Visa and bank transfer and 3.50 EUR for Check per withdrawal. Unless you have large payments, you can be paying lot of withdrawal fees in Moneybookers and so I am using Moneybookers for payments which cannot be accepted in PayPal i.e. payments above $500. So withdrawal fees don’t hurt me lot because I am saving $10+ in transaction fees of receiving money in PayPal anyway. A point to note here is – PayPal in India transfer money to your local bank account using NEFT and so you don’t pay the forex fees to the bank but to PayPal. Moneybookers wire transfer’s the money to your bank account and so Forex rate is what your bank offers to you.
4. Escrow – Buying through PayPal can be dangerous (See how here) but Moneybookers’ provide Safe escrow option instead.
5. Better Support – PayPal has horrible Support where you seem to be interacting with some person but replies are always automated. Check for Yourself

I am using Elance, Moneybookers along with PayPal for receiving money and Google Checkout for making payments. What PayPal alternatives are you using? Share your PayPal alternatives in comments below.

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How much do you charge as a freelancer? Rates range all over the board, so the simple answer is ‘whatever you wish.’ The more complicated answer is, ‘it depends on a lot of factors.’ Here are some tips for establishing your rates as a freelancer.

1. Look at the competition prices

Read the job posting boards to examine the salaries that are offered. Search for fellow freelancers within your specific field of expertise to see what they are charging. Research trade magazines to discover their payment rates. This will give you estimates about how much you should charge.

2. Establish the base time for services

How long does it take you to write the average article? How long does it take you to update a web site with a small blurb? How long does it take you to create a snippet of code? Get a baseline price for the services that you offer.

3. Calculate a difficulty multiplier

How difficult is the job? Are you going to have to perform a lot of research? Is this a job that you can do in your sleep? Take these factors into consideration. If a job is difficult, multiply your base time by 2. If it is easy, multiply it by .75.

4. Have an hourly rate

Freelance Switch has a great calculator which can be used to set your minimum hourly rate. It establishes the rate on a number of factors, including rent, insurance and legal fees. You are given a suggestion about the hourly rate that you should charge. If you choose to use a per project rate, the hourly rate will give you a good guideline. The Editorial Freelancer’s Association has a price sheet where you can gain another perspective about pricing.

5. Examine your skills

You might have a unique knowledge of the printing industry. You might love cars or have unique contacts in an industry. You might have a knack for explaining difficult concepts to novices. All of these are skills which you can use as leverage to ask for more money. Are there any skills that you have above and beyond the average freelancer? If a project falls within your favorite niche, incorporate a multiplier for special knowledge to compensate for the easy difficulty.

Base Time * Difficulty Multiplier * Skill Sets * Hourly Rate = Project Price

6. Learn to say NO

Sometimes, you have to take an ugly project because you have to eat. Many clients try to pay as little as possible for your work. You are worth more than that. These clients are usually responsible for most of the hassles that you will receive. You are still worth more than that. If someone is not willing to pay you what you are worth, say no to them. The money will be nice on a temporary basis, but accepting the client is bound to cause you headaches in the long run.

7. Be consistent to client

This makes things easier. If you choose to give one of your clients a discount, inform that client of the discount. Let them know that your rates are normally X, but because of A,B, and C you are giving them a 10% discount. Clients talk to one another. Your raving fans will provide free advertising. When your raving fans talk with their friends about your services, they will talk about your normal rates.

Rates for freelance work varies from individual to individual. Some people will charge $10 an hour. Others will charge $100 an hour. Your rate is determined by what YOU feel is the right rate. When you decide how much you are charging, be consistent. Best of luck Work!

James is a writer and analyse who works at a leading supplier of the best ink cartridges in the UK called Cartridge Save and also updates their design blog.

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Finding clients is one of the biggest challenges for freelancers. So let us look at the most effective ways to fetch clients.

1. Forum Networking

If you are looking for clients, networking in forums can help you get lot of clients and prospects. Try to be an active member in niche forums. It not only will help you get prospects and clients but will also help you build an authority in your niche. I am talking about helping people following the forums guideline and not spamming the forums with self promotion.

Just to let you know that I found my first ever client on Sitepoint forum.

2. Referrals

My favorite way of getting clients is through referrals. Freelancing is kind of part time to me and so I prefer to take up small sized freelancing work and yet one of the highest priced freelancing project was through a referral.

I don’t actively ask for referrals and I do not have any rewards system for referring clients as well but I prefer to do a very active communications with my clients which leads to lot of referrals.

3. Freelance Marketplace

I use websites like Elance, vWorker and many others as freelance marketplace where people can hire and pay qualified professionals to get the work done. I make lot of money doing freelancing but the only problem with such marketplace sites is you need to constantly bid for work to get the flow of work coming your way where as with forum networking and referrals it is just the opposite.

Where Do You Find Your Clients?

I’d love to hear about how you find clients. Share your views in comments below.

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2. Freelancing in India
3. Top 5 Ways to Turbo Charge Your Freelancing Career

The idea of this post originated from an interesting comment on Facebook by Aliuddin Faisal Faruqui for Disadvantages of Freelancing.

Looking at the advantages as well as disadvantages of freelancing what would you prefer. To be A Freelancer or Not to be a Freelancer.

I am a freelancer and would love to be one and I am also sure Aliuddin Faisal Faruqui will also be a freelancer but what about you?

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2. Earn Money as Freelancer
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There are two sides of every coin and freelancing is no difference. After reading all good things about freelancing now it is time to take freelancing with a pinch of salt.

1. With More Power Comes More Responsibility

Freelancing gives you the power to work for whatever you like at a price you feel satisfied. This means you have the power to choose your work at a price but you should also be more responsible in setting the price for yourself. Make sure you do not set it too high or too low. It is always good to start low and move up as you grow as a freelancer.

2. Need Lot More Discipline

You need to be a lot more disciplined to not only to keep you driving but to even stop you at times.  There is no boss when it comes to freelancing and this means there is no one on top of you to say when you should start and when you call it a day. I myself had quite a few 16 hours day quite often when I started freelancing and slowly but surely I made a rule not to power on my laptop (no matter what) once I called it off.

3. Becoming Workaholic

The more you work the more you make and this at times can work to your disadvantage. You should not start your work too early and work late in night suits or pyjamas. Once in a while is acceptable but if this is becoming your habit you should make sure you take needed steps to come out of this habit or else there will be hardly anytime you will give for yourself. You will not realize but you will become workaholic.

4. Working in Non-Productive Environment

You may always think that you are working from your home and what else could be more comforting than this, but make sure your environment is productive. Freelancers at times can become lonely, especially if you work from home and you do not have anybody to talk about your work and achievements in your coffee break. Apart from that your there can be lot of other external factors which make the environment un-productive like your kids playing around.

5. More Than a Job

Being a freelancer means that you control everything from profit and loss to your PC maintenance and so you are not only a freelancer but also a finance manager, the admin guy and the marketing manager at the same time and so make sure you are prepared mentally for all those responsibilities.

Can you think of anything else? I’d love to hear it from you. Share your thoughts in comments below.

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2. Why I Make $10,000 Doing Freelancing And Now You Can Too
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Freelancing is very small portion of my total monthly revenue and yet I do not prefer to give up on freelancing because it has many advantages and so today we will discus on the advantages of freelancing.

1. More Control over Things

I decide what work I want to do, when, how and at what price. See it for yourself here. I can set my own working hours and the day I am not willing to work becomes my weekend.

2. More Money

The more I work the more I earn and so I control my own profit and loss but if you are working for your employer it is your duty to work more for the same pay and still get the feedback of ways to improve yourself.

3. Can’t fire yourself

If you lose your job it’s a big task to pick up a new job. As a freelancer you have multiple projects going at any given point of time and so if one goes down it’s not as big a deal because you don’t have all your eggs in one basket.

4. Raise

You don’t have to wait for a year long to get a raise and you can give yourself raise just about any time. If you feel you’re worth more money per hour, just up your quote for next work. In the first 8 months of my freelancing I doubled my pricing in 3 small tranches.

5. Atmosphere

I am 100% sure my current sitting system (on my bed) is not as good as my last employer (Lexmark) but still the atmosphere is far better now and this allows me to work more efficiently and allows me more time for myself and for my family.

6. Working Vacations

There is no rule that says you can’t take your laptop with you and work during your vacation. You can be on the beach of Bahamas and still work for yourself (if you can work BTW).

7. No Bonds

You don’t need to make an upfront commitment on how many more months you will work at the same place and at the same price without any demand from your end.

8. Saving on Expenses

With the cost of travelling going up day by day, it is becoming a real savings to stay at home. Apart from that if you work from your home you’re probably going to be eating lunch at home every day saving you lot of money daily and even protecting your health.

9. Get Paid For Learning

If you want to learn something new in an area where your employer doesn’t work, then you know how hard it is to pick up a new skill when you have to do it all on your own in your own free time. As a freelancer you still have to learn it on your own time but at least you can look for clients who need your new partly learned skills and even pay you for becoming a pro.

10. I can Say NO

I intentionally kept this point last but this is by far the best advantage of freelancing, you can say NO to your client but you can’t really tell your project manager that you don’t want to work on something. I get lot of offers which I think I cannot take up due to my other commitments and so I just say no thank you to them.

What Else?

Can you think of anything else? I’d love to hear it from you. Share your thoughts in comments below.

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I am sure many of us will be more than happy to get an extra 10k USD doing what you love to do and today I will not only share with you why I make so much money doing freelancing but will also suggest, how you can also do the same.

Let’s begin on why I make $10,000 doing freelancing.

1. I Refuse to Give Up On Freelancing

Freelancing is a very small part (less than 5%) of my total monthly revenue and yet I don’t prefer to give up on freelancing because it actually adds to my overall revenue without much of an effort from my end. Yes you heard it right – without much effort from my end. Many freelancers make it harder than it actually is.

2. I decide what to work on

I am programmer at heart but if you check my Elance Profile you will hardly see any development work. Development projects usually are big budget projects but also needs more time and effort from your end on a continuous basis. I prefer to concentrate more on my own blogs and forums and yet make some extra income and so small size jobs are perfect for me. Small sized projects not only help me getting in touch with more number of clients but they also help me in learning more new things.

3. I decide on the pricing

Many freelancers think that if you want to be among successful bidders on sites like Elance you have to quote lowest price. This is completely a MYTH and you can take my words on this and quote me anywhere. There are innumerable feedbacks on my Elance Profile like this

This means I charge clients premium rates for being professional and maintaining the quality.

Let me go ahead and frame a golden rule for bidding. You should be able to show your expertise to whatever project you bid for and win the project bid even if you are not offering the lowest price. People select the best suited person for the task and not the cheapest.

4. I decide when to work

If I have a very busy schedule for my own work I decide to decline new work and also let existing client know about my non-availability. I only choose the best projects for myself at the price I am comfortable at and this way I can not only setup my own working hours but also my own working weeks and dedicated more time to my own websites. Many freelancers think that this may hamper reputation but on the contrary many clients thanks me for letting them know my availability and expertise well in advance.

5. I decide where to work

I shared sometime back I how to work from the comfort of your home and I love doing it but remember every coin has two sides. Working from home needs lots of discipline and many of us (including me) lack that discipline.

Final Thoughts

You may be wondering why I did not answer the question on how you can also earn $10,000 doing freelancing. Don’t you think the answer lies in the above list?

Just don’t give up on freelancing and work for what you can show you are best at.

Share the reasons why you’re still freelancing in comments below.

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After a long yet healthy discussion with RentACoder officials today I got an email which really pleased me. RentACoder is now renamed as vWorker which stands for “virtual worker”

I will quote few things which I think was much needed changes for RentACoder

We outgrew our name (Rent a Coder) a few years ago. Back in 2001 we were just coders, but now the site includes professionals of all types including: design, writing, personal assistants, paralegals, etc.. To reflect that, we’ve changed our name to vWorker

Very True

Looking to save money and work more flexibly? We’ve introduced an entirely new method of payment called pay-for-time that lets you do both.

Sounds interesting and soon would love to give this a try.

Soon we will be rolling out a new virtualized environment (for higher reliability), site-wide IM and other features.

Would be interesting to see them.

If you still do not have an account with RentACoder vWorker, Go get it now.

Update September 27 2011 : Comments are closed for everyone. Yes I know there would have been last say by many but this is all I could do stop the argument. It is not leading to anything fruitful or to a solution. This is my personal blog after all and in my opinion Ian Ippolito (Owner of vWorker) stood this long to clarify things speaks for itself.

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Yet another very interesting feature from Elance – Profile Widget. Grab the code and post on your blog / website to show your work history, skills and client testimonials.

Here is mine

Have you got yours? If you haven’t just go get it now

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No matter where you are based these days making money on internet is same for everybody. All you need is dedication and passion to take up opportunity and work for your passion. But working for your passion needs lots of discipline and many of us (yes including me) lack that discipline. So let us see answer this question today – How to work from the comfort of your home?

Disadvantages of Working from Home

Working from home has many disadvantages and let us discuss the other side of coin today

• You need lots of discipline to keep you driving.  There is no boss and this means there is no one on top of you to say when you should start and when you call it a day. I myself have quite a few 16 hours day and I still have them quite often.
• You should not start your work too early and work late in night suits or pyjamas. If you start doing this there will be hardly anytime you will give for yourself. You will not realize but you will become workaholic.
• Working in non-productive environment. You may always think that you are working from your home and is very comfortable but also make sure your environment is productive and there are not much external factors which make the environment un-productive. It could be anything as simple as your kids playing around.

Now its not all doom and gloom and there is light on other side of the tunnel as well.

Advantages of Working from Home

I control things

Over to you

Do you still prefer to work from home?

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