Freelancing in Bangladesh can be the next big thing. This blog is about learning freelance writing and building a career in freelancing.
Top 3 Freelancing Sites to Join
There are quite a few freelancing sites that you can join. I will recommend 3 of those for you. I am not saying all other sites are bad, some are a bit risky and others, I simply have no experience of them.
The three sites, I want to recommend you, are
ScriptLance.com
oDesk.com
Elance.com
Let me describe my experience with these three,
*If you are having problems understanding a few terms like escrow or milestone, please read the freelancing terminology page. I have tried to describe a few common freelancing terms there in simple Language. (which is now under construction) :(
ScriptLance
I started my career with Script Lance. One of my friend recommended it to me, he mentioned a few others but said it was the best one. I quickly found that the site design is quite user friendly and as they have unlimited bid options, it will always keep you interested. That means you can bid on as many projects as you want.
The site has an escrow system to ensure that freelancers get their payment. But it is not mandatory like Elance, so if the buyer doesn't escrow the money, there is a possibility that you won't get paid. So, when you get a job don't start before the buyer escrow the agreed amount to your account. When I joined there was no milestone feature, now they have added that, so that's a good thing.
However, you can't expect high paying jobs in Script Lance, here I am talking about writing jobs. 1-2 Dollar per article is what most jobs offer. And there are quite a few freelance writing farms in Script lance that just bid in each and every writing job posted there. Competing with them as a new comer will be difficult. Another annoying thing is the holding of the first payment for 3 months. New freelancers can't withdraw their earnings until three months of their first payment. I had to wait almost 4 and half months to get my earnings from SL. For a person new to freelancing, it can be frustrating enough to quit and look for other options.
I think it is a good site to learn freelancing. I never had great success with this site and was frustrated with the per article rate, so moved on to other sites. However, the friend that mentioned me SL (ScriptLance) has had huge success with it. So, I guess, it will be best for you to join all three I am mentioning here. It requires a bit of luck to get a job and who knows which site will prove to be the lucky one for you. I was not successful at ScriptLance but that does not mean you won't. And at the beginning, getting a job in any site is difficult, so join all three and see where your luck turns.
oDesk
Now I work full time at oDesk. This is the best freelancing site for me and can be for you too.
A huge amount of writing jobs is posted here each day. However your bid per week is limited. You start with two bids per week and it is increased when you pass a simple and annoying oDesk Readiness Test. The test is nothing but for you to check the help section of the site and answer a few dull questions. I will give you a clue; each question that has an answer saying "all of the above" is the right one for that particular question. You can take the test as many times as you want, so passing won't be a problem.
Two types of jobs are posted here, hourly and fixed rate. With hourly jobs, the payment is guaranteed. But, there is no escrow service for fixed rate jobs, which makes fixed rate jobs a bit risky. So, do not bid on a project that is posted by a buyer with no verified payment method.
The rate per article varies greatly. You will find jobs that want to pay 50 cents per article to jobs that pay $10 per article or even more. For starters, $3 per article is a good amount and you as a new writer should bid less to increase your chances of getting a job. After you work on a few projects and get some good feedbacks, then you can ask for more. Because of the huge amount of jobs posted to oDesk daily, the possibility of you getting a job is higher.
I like this site very much but it is not all perfect, actually no outsourcing site is perfect, all of them have some negative sides, but I have seen from my experience that oDesk and Elance are always trying ti improve themselves, so I guess they will only get better for us freelancers.
Elance
This is the most aristocratic site for freelance writing. You can expect high paying writing jobs here. Escrow is must for every job so the risk of not getting paid is negligible. Hourly jobs available too, but you will hardly see any posted as hourly job.
However, as it gets high paying jobs, it has more writers from US, UK and other native English speaking countries. And you will see a lot of jobs that are only for writers from Native English speaking countries. Which is of course a lot frustrating for us. And another negative side is the amount of connect/bid only 10 per month. I now have a paid account and get 25 bids per month but as a beginner I struggled a lot to establish a good profile in Elance. So, my suggestion is you focus more on Script Lance and oDesk but also get an account in Elance and use those 10 bids each month carefully.
*IMPORTANT: I wanted to write my honest experience about the sites that I have used to get freelance writing jobs. But, it seems to me I have been a bit harsh on them. In fact, these three are far safer and superior than any other top freelancing platforms. I can remember two of them,
RentaCoder (Now Vworker) : Not enough article writing jobs, they show a non-native writer badge on your profile which is awful and for taking tests, you will have to pay.
and Freelancer.com (previously GAF) : More like a fish market, not for newcomers, stay away from this site.
How to Join Freelancing Sites
Joining a freelancing site is easy. Anyone who knows how to open a email account should be able to sign up and create an account in freelancing sites. If you don't know how to open email account or don't know how to find information via Google, then it is a big problem, you need to be familiar with these common internet things, before trying a career in freelancing.
Like I said it is simple, go to a freelancing site, open the sign up page and fill the necessary information, they will send a confirmation email to your email account, follow the instructions to verify your account, some sites however have more steps than these, we will get to that later.
After you sign up, first thing is to fill your profile, your profile page is what buyers (people from whom you will get jobs) check to find out your qualifications. A profile page with a lot of qualifications will boost your chances of getting a job. Write a few articles that you can put in your portfolio and also attach to your cover letter when bidding. A nicely written sample article will boost your chances. You can write a sample article about any topic, but it would be better to write on a topic that has a universal appeal.
I know my writing is a mess; I will try to improve this post later. Up to that moment, sorry.
The three sites, I want to recommend you, are
ScriptLance.com
oDesk.com
Elance.com
Let me describe my experience with these three,
*If you are having problems understanding a few terms like escrow or milestone, please read the freelancing terminology page. I have tried to describe a few common freelancing terms there in simple Language. (which is now under construction) :(
ScriptLance
I started my career with Script Lance. One of my friend recommended it to me, he mentioned a few others but said it was the best one. I quickly found that the site design is quite user friendly and as they have unlimited bid options, it will always keep you interested. That means you can bid on as many projects as you want.
The site has an escrow system to ensure that freelancers get their payment. But it is not mandatory like Elance, so if the buyer doesn't escrow the money, there is a possibility that you won't get paid. So, when you get a job don't start before the buyer escrow the agreed amount to your account. When I joined there was no milestone feature, now they have added that, so that's a good thing.
However, you can't expect high paying jobs in Script Lance, here I am talking about writing jobs. 1-2 Dollar per article is what most jobs offer. And there are quite a few freelance writing farms in Script lance that just bid in each and every writing job posted there. Competing with them as a new comer will be difficult. Another annoying thing is the holding of the first payment for 3 months. New freelancers can't withdraw their earnings until three months of their first payment. I had to wait almost 4 and half months to get my earnings from SL. For a person new to freelancing, it can be frustrating enough to quit and look for other options.
I think it is a good site to learn freelancing. I never had great success with this site and was frustrated with the per article rate, so moved on to other sites. However, the friend that mentioned me SL (ScriptLance) has had huge success with it. So, I guess, it will be best for you to join all three I am mentioning here. It requires a bit of luck to get a job and who knows which site will prove to be the lucky one for you. I was not successful at ScriptLance but that does not mean you won't. And at the beginning, getting a job in any site is difficult, so join all three and see where your luck turns.
oDesk
Now I work full time at oDesk. This is the best freelancing site for me and can be for you too.
A huge amount of writing jobs is posted here each day. However your bid per week is limited. You start with two bids per week and it is increased when you pass a simple and annoying oDesk Readiness Test. The test is nothing but for you to check the help section of the site and answer a few dull questions. I will give you a clue; each question that has an answer saying "all of the above" is the right one for that particular question. You can take the test as many times as you want, so passing won't be a problem.
Two types of jobs are posted here, hourly and fixed rate. With hourly jobs, the payment is guaranteed. But, there is no escrow service for fixed rate jobs, which makes fixed rate jobs a bit risky. So, do not bid on a project that is posted by a buyer with no verified payment method.
The rate per article varies greatly. You will find jobs that want to pay 50 cents per article to jobs that pay $10 per article or even more. For starters, $3 per article is a good amount and you as a new writer should bid less to increase your chances of getting a job. After you work on a few projects and get some good feedbacks, then you can ask for more. Because of the huge amount of jobs posted to oDesk daily, the possibility of you getting a job is higher.
I like this site very much but it is not all perfect, actually no outsourcing site is perfect, all of them have some negative sides, but I have seen from my experience that oDesk and Elance are always trying ti improve themselves, so I guess they will only get better for us freelancers.
Elance
This is the most aristocratic site for freelance writing. You can expect high paying writing jobs here. Escrow is must for every job so the risk of not getting paid is negligible. Hourly jobs available too, but you will hardly see any posted as hourly job.
However, as it gets high paying jobs, it has more writers from US, UK and other native English speaking countries. And you will see a lot of jobs that are only for writers from Native English speaking countries. Which is of course a lot frustrating for us. And another negative side is the amount of connect/bid only 10 per month. I now have a paid account and get 25 bids per month but as a beginner I struggled a lot to establish a good profile in Elance. So, my suggestion is you focus more on Script Lance and oDesk but also get an account in Elance and use those 10 bids each month carefully.
*IMPORTANT: I wanted to write my honest experience about the sites that I have used to get freelance writing jobs. But, it seems to me I have been a bit harsh on them. In fact, these three are far safer and superior than any other top freelancing platforms. I can remember two of them,
RentaCoder (Now Vworker) : Not enough article writing jobs, they show a non-native writer badge on your profile which is awful and for taking tests, you will have to pay.
and Freelancer.com (previously GAF) : More like a fish market, not for newcomers, stay away from this site.
How to Join Freelancing Sites
Joining a freelancing site is easy. Anyone who knows how to open a email account should be able to sign up and create an account in freelancing sites. If you don't know how to open email account or don't know how to find information via Google, then it is a big problem, you need to be familiar with these common internet things, before trying a career in freelancing.
Like I said it is simple, go to a freelancing site, open the sign up page and fill the necessary information, they will send a confirmation email to your email account, follow the instructions to verify your account, some sites however have more steps than these, we will get to that later.
After you sign up, first thing is to fill your profile, your profile page is what buyers (people from whom you will get jobs) check to find out your qualifications. A profile page with a lot of qualifications will boost your chances of getting a job. Write a few articles that you can put in your portfolio and also attach to your cover letter when bidding. A nicely written sample article will boost your chances. You can write a sample article about any topic, but it would be better to write on a topic that has a universal appeal.
I know my writing is a mess; I will try to improve this post later. Up to that moment, sorry.
