Two Things I Depend on For Freelance Commissions

By Charlie on November 24th, 2007 | Filed in Getting Commissions | 3 Comments

I’m sure some of my subscribers will read this one and unsubscribe immediately because this is no uncharted territory. In fact, if you get anything out of this post at all you’ve maybe had a long life of drinking bleach.

But then again, some of the people who stop by here are struggling to get more work, more clients and make a successful go of owning their own business. This post might help you, as these are the only two things I did to get my own business off the ground.

My two big somewhat mediocre but highly important tips for getting freelance work are these:

  1. Have a good portfolio
  2. Communicate well

Have a good portfolio

Having a good portfolio is essential. At the beginning of my freelance career I knew nobody and so got zero commissions through my connections. I had to build my client base entirely from scratch.

In the beginning, every email I sent out and every commission I fought for on eLance or Scriptlance, everything always had a link to my online portfolio. And I don’t mean the home page of my site. I mean the portfolio page itself.

My logic behind this was that if someone wants to see my work, why don’t I just show them the work? I could send them to the site and let them slog their way through but that’s not what they want. And considering that your potential clients might receive dozens of responses, you might as well give them a streamlined path. Who knows, you may be the only one who does and it’ll be noticed.

Communicate well

Communicating well does not mean calling people “Sir” and “Madam,” although I guess those could factor. Communicating well means answering someone’s questions. It means paying attention to what they want.

It has little to do with propriety and etiquette, and a lot to do with looking at things from your client’s viewpoint.

What is his or her viewpoint? To get their project done quickly, within budget and to their satisfaction. (There’s probably tens of thousands of dollars in this paragraph alone.)

Let’s say you’re bidding for a project online somewhere and the post says, “must include your resume.” What are your options? If you want to be considered for the job, you better include your resume. If you don’t have one, either write one or don’t respond at all.

There are people who put things like this in a job post just to see if the respondents can follow instructions. They may not even want to see a resume, but they want to see if you can pay attention. Sure, that’s sort of sneaky, but it’s also a pretty good way of judging if someone’s on the ball.

Also, you should be attentive to what the client wants, whether it’s general info or a specific need. A recent job I got was from a guy who put a job post online and said he needed a Web 2.0 style logo with reflections and glossy look. In reading through the other responses I noticed that nobody had said anything about Web 2.0 or included a link to any specific Web 2.0 work.

So that’s what I did. My email to him said specifically that I do Web 2.0 logos and had numerous links to such projects. About ten minutes later I was awarded the commission.

I can’t tell you from his point of view why he hired me as I never asked, but at the very least he knew I was paying attention.

I know it probably seems like I’m giving away millions of dollars to my competition, but I would hope these things are common sense. If your client says he wants a website without Flash, don’t tell him that’s your specialty and try to convince him that’s what he really wants.

Common sense, right?


Comments

3 comments

Carol - 11.25.07 at 2:14 pm

I looked around your site trying to find a name of who wrote the above, but no luck. Whoever you are, thank you! Excellent advice for someone who wants to break into freelancing like I do. Stumbleupon led me to your site and I am glad it did! Will look forward to returning soon.

Charlie - 11.25.07 at 3:16 pm

Carol -

Hey there! You are very welcome, but I think we’re even since you just clued me in that my name appears nowhere on this site!

I’ll fix that ASAP with all due credit to you!

Appreciate the kind words and glad you enjoyed. Hope to see you around here again.

Best,
Charlie

Duncan - 02.03.08 at 10:18 am

Hi. Short and sweet. We all know that portfolio and communication are far the most important weapons in the freelancer toolkit, but it really doesn’t help to be told that again and again until it sinks in.

cheers,
D

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