The blogosphere has words aplenty to say about Freelancing –
some of it good, much of it not. I
decided to throw my hat in the ring and try the top tiered gig sites…..
something I was certain I could do with aplomb and somehow turn out a decent
blog about all the glorious things I had learned. Yeah…… what was I thinking????
Alas, it appears that
my blog is really going to begin (though hopefully not end) as a somewhat sad
chronicle of my first adventures and foibles just getting started in this vast
field. Looking back just a few weeks, I
have to confess to a large amount of arrogance and even hubris….. I actually
thought this journey was going to be easy!
I am not sure if I originally meant this blog to be more
of a record, profile, journey or advice blog…. Whatever the main intention, it
has veered sharply. Now – this is a
chronicle of an adventure that is looking more complicated by the second.
For any writer just breaking into the field or looking to expand
your repertoire, Freelancing has probably hit your radar. This self-contracted world is a smorgasbord
of opportunity and wealth – for the right player at the right price. Currently there are several lead websites
that connect Freelancers with those looking for their services. Convenient, right? On the surface, yes. Sites like Elance, Odesk, Freelancer.com,
Guru.com, Fiverr and others entice both payers and buyers, the workers and the employers. Both are looking for the right fit and these
modern platforms are the digital solution to outdated job boards.
A quick search will reveal many opportunities listed on any
of these sites, along with countless hits of ‘experts’ aiming to teach you how
to ‘hack’ these Freelance Marketplaces.
I read a few of them, and then read some more. The advice out there isn't bad, in fact –
much of it is gold. Create a decent
profile, take skill tests, get ID verified, set up financial accounts, apply,
apply, apply… It’s all part and parcel
of any job forum, and I was comfortable immersing myself into these
realms.
I got my feet wet with Elance just about 3 weeks ago. I took time to set up my profile well, to add
a resume, a picture, get ID verified, take skill tests – the works. I scored high enough in Microsoft Word to be
invited to their group, while many of the other skill tests I took landed me at
the top 30%; a feat I thought was great, though after further research proved
to rather mundane. After all the ground
work was done, I started searching and bid on a few jobs. I got hits back very
quickly and was accepted on 3 out of the 10 project I bid on.
So far so good! I
wrote a short creative story of 1500 words that handed me a tidy $110, then a
forum earned me 2 gigs at $25 apiece. It
was fast, slightly lucrative and exciting to think about – there were so many
other jobs out there and many of them were fairly high paying. Maybe the appeal
was intoxicating – and maybe that should have been my first clue that I was
hedging into waters I didn't fully understand.
In my job search I found a simple enough listing asking for someone to research only about an hour per day. It was
regarding Paleo and the popular Wheat Belly diet, something I was already familiar
with, so I bid low and landed the gig.
It started well enough, though I did notice the client was
10 shades to the side of demanding. Ok….
No biggie, when you are paying for a service, you want what you pay for, right? I can understand that. After
a few trials and errors, we hit on a method that seemed to work…. For a day or
two. We had switched the job from an
hourly rate to a fixed price, something that I probably should not have agreed
to. The specifics of the research ended
up being more particular and finicky that I originally anticipated – nothing I
couldn't handle, but something that took more than an hour. Soon enough I learned the hard lesson that Freelancing
on a schedule is much harder than Freelancing on your own. An obvious observation, but one that never
really dawned on me – until I had research due and my youngest daughter
required an ER visit.
The mom in me panicked and the Professional in me shuddered
and gave way to The Mom – there really was no other choice. Unfortunately, this resulted in poor research
and an unhappy client. After a short correspondence,
I was told to stop researching – something that while disappointing was not
totally unexpected. The resulting marks, however, WERE totally
unexpected.
I received my ‘rating’ from my unsatisfied client, 2’s
across the board with the exception of cost – that earned me a 4 star. Suffice it to say, I was devastated. My little one had been in the hospital and
now I was out of the running on a brand new venture. For anyone who has ever dabbled in these
massive Freelancer economies, you know that your Star rating means almost
everything – one negative can drop your score horrendously, damaging the positive
ones with unfair weight.
Now, let me just say that I don’t really blame the guy – it was
and is my fault. I did not deliver what
was promised, how it was promised and when it was promised. Maybe he could have shown a bit of compassion
and given me a day? Well, maybe he would have,
if I had told him. I opted for silence
in regards to personal issues in our communications - I felt that it was none
of his business that my daughter was ill, and offering it up struck me as
a sob story and begging. Not my style –
though if it a case like this ever comes up again, it WILL be my new style. He gave no option to rectify or make amends,
and once feedback is left, that’s it. On
Elance, you can’t change it.
This was just a few days ago, so the full import of this event
has yet to realize itself. I have
noticed a marked decline in invitations for job though – marked as in zero…
none, zip, nadda… I went from turning
down offers to bid due to work load to receiving no invites at all, and in just
a few days!
Time and hard work will overcome this set back, but I do
feel that I have learned an incredibly valuable lesson. First rule of Freelancing? Screen your clients as strongly as they
screen you – this gentleman had left negatives more often than positives, a
sign I should have noticed – if I had looked.
I know I am going to have limited options right now and that I may need
to low ball myself long enough to recover, but I’ll do it. I earned a decent sum on Elance in a very
short period of time, I am not willing to give up on it, not yet at least.
Next blog – oDesk.
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| Sisyphus pushing his stone uphill Bernard Picart [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
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