How to win first project?

Hi to all readers of this article.

As far as I began freelancing more that seven year ago, I think I could give you some advices on how to win your first project. I have been working on couple freelancer sites, and could tell you lots of interesting things. One of them could be hot to define if site is worth to join or not, is some site scam or not. Possible I will write about that in my next articles.

If you read this article, I suppose that you already know what freelance is, so I won`t be explaining that. I also suppose you have problems about winning your first project. Why did I mention first project? Not second, third, fourth? You eager of earning money and building your reputation, so bid and bid on projects, but still cannot win any of them. Possible, you are doing something wrong. I am ready to give you some tips.

The first project is extremely important for you. It`s something like a good start and is some king of psychological breakthrough. You get more inspiration, more energy and power, because you just got your first results! And those results usually are money and reputation.
Ok, it`s time to begin.

One of my first suggestions should be: don`t bid on the projects do don`t want to work on. Sounds strange? Anyway I saw many such bids. If you place bid of $5 for creating a unique design, please make sure you will really work for $5. If I would be webmaster (well, I have several running sites: D), I would DO choose such bidder, if I was sure I will really get this done. Later, watching such bids I noticed disappointed webmasters comments and projects reposts.

Cheapest bid does not always win. Frequently a freelancer places smallest bids, on some sites this value is $5. If you place a bid of $5 for creating unique design webmaster conclude you just want to get this project at any cost. If you are a new freelancer and do not have any reputation, you will hardly get this project, and most likely this project will be won by other bidders. And their bids will be much higher than yours. I would suggest building your portfolio first. This also has some moments you should know. I will write another article about that. I don`t say there are no projects worth of $5. Such things like script/css fixes can be done for such price, especially for beginners. So decision is yours. I just can repeat: if you place $5 bid, be ready to work with this project.

Do not post automated bids. No one webmaster likes it. Automated bids means that project was not even reviewed. Sometimes I justify such bids, but only if freelancer already has reputation built. Personally I used something similar to: "I can fix your problems/complete your project. FTP access will be needed". Because after reading project description I concluded I will really need FTP access, and I will DO really fix the problems or complete project. So some freelancer or company wins the automated bid, and then reads project requirements. Frequently after that follows dummy excuses. Some excuses caused me much fun. I sometimes am not sure if such excuser believes himself about his excuses. I call such people "time wasters". Not funny situation for a webmaster.

Do not post your mega-long portfolio with your bid text. This looks very unprofessional. Don`t post any portfolio, unless webmaster asked for it. Usually you can post your bid in your profile area. And it will be accessible to all webmasters.

Do not post any contact information on private message boards or project bids. You risk of your account to be terminated. Do you really need that? There are some projects that allow posting contact information. Usually such projects are called job listings. Just carefully read about the project you prepare to place bid on.

There is one more thing I noticed. That`s very poor English. Maybe it`s not a vital thing, but such bids like "Me do da reqrmnt pls choose me". I would never choose such bidder. I freelancer English is very poor, how can he understand what I need to be done? English is not my native language, anyway I use it frequently, even could say daily. I don`t say my English is perfect, but I write articles like that on the fly, without any translators. And I do know how hard is to learn some language. Anyway, currently I can speak three languages, and additionally learn Spanish and Chinese. You can always use Google translate, but ONLY for single words, but not for entire sentences. I am sorry to say that, but such translation still gives poor results. So be sure, that you understand what webmaster wants to be done. You can inform webmaster that your English is not too strong, but you really understand what needs to be done.

I prefer a fair business rule. Be fair with webmasters. If you won a project, but something changed in your life, I suppose you should inform webmaster about that ASAP, return any money you received. Very likely you will not get a bad review for cancelled project. Everything could happen in your life, anyway stay fair! Don`t write such things like "Electricity has gone", "I have no Internet". Those are just another dummy excuses. If you really do not have electricity for some time, just can go to Internet cafe, and write email to webmaster, right? Keep contact with webmaster!
Right after winning a project I usually was writing a letter immediately. Something like this: "Thank you for choosing me as your project winner... Now, to begin my work I would need... etc." I prepared text template for that, in order to save some time.

Well, it`s enough for now. It`s very likely I will add more tips, and will gladly response to your comments. Thank you for reading this article.