In a field that is flooded, and still flooding, with online freelancers who have the skills and expertise of the online jobs that you want, you must have an edge to nail those jobs.

Yes, traditional methods work; I am talking certificates in the relevant field(s), years of experience, and even the proverbial ‘hardworking’ principle that  most people quote.

But in a world where almost anyone can access certificates (authentic or otherwise), and the Internet is full of writing templates and samples, getting a client to say YES may mean going the extra mile; avoiding scams and putting your best foot (or fingers) forward.

Do not panic; you need NOT sell your soul to a land a client.

All that a potential client wants is to feel you offer something unique, something s/he wants.  And the winner is that the client must place a level of trust in you; trust that you will not only deliver stellar content, but that you will deliver the same within the agreed time.

A client will love you if you can deliver more than his/ her ideas about the task. Some clients are happy to pay a pretty penny to the right freelancer.

So, how exactly do you present yourself as the right candidate?

• Read the clients’ instructions and understand them

• Put yourself in the shoes of the client and think about what his goal with the task he proposes is. Danny Margulies, in numerous of his posts shares a wealth of practices and tips that not only help you help you get into the client’s head, but also how to communicate with your potential client.

• Still in your potential client’s shoes, think about additional services that he might require that he might not have mentioned.

Example 1:

For instance, if a client wants someone who can post on FaceBook or Twitter, you can advice (depending on the niche of his work) that s/he can also share his works on other social media platforms including Reddit, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, etc. It won’t be that much extra work for you but it already places you as an expert and could earn you extra coins. Every client wants an expert on his/ her side.

Example 2:

If your client wants someone to write and post blog posts for him/ her on his/ her blog, and has given you access to his/ her blog’s control panel; be ready to impress. If you own a blog or have the skills of running one, then you know that in the Control Panel is where the magic happens. You can change the theme of a blog, install functional plugins, add images, manipulate fonts, add tags, and much much MUCH more. You can propose to your client that in addition to just generating blog posts for him/ her, you will make the blog post eye-catching for the readers, as well as work on a few elements of the blog’s pages, posts, etc. You sell these extra services to him/ her and quote your price, or offer some of these services for free, and you might just land a great client for keeps.

• Do not under or oversell yourself. Being a know-it-all is great if you can deliver on all you say you are good at. However, if you pose as a know-it all and do not deliver, you have lost that client; s/he may still pay for the work done, but will not dream of coming anywhere near you. Again, remember some platforms have a “review” policy and platform and clients can leave you a nightmare of a review if you mess with them (let’s not worry about that right now)

• Be confident about your knowledge and skill. If you, like many other freelancers grew up in a society that discourages tooting your own trumpet, you need to get past this notion. If you know you can deliver something, go ahead and package it as nicely as you can. Pitching your clients is not the time to play it safe. If you desire a specific skill/ knowledge, udemy, coursera, and some trusted trainers offer excellent training at affordable fees.

Take Away

Here is my effective practice on UpWork

1. Login in to my Upwork
2. Filter job search to keywords I am interested in; such as ‘Article Writing and Blogging’
3. Quick scan through all the available jobs
4. While scanning through jobs in 3 above, I save each job that interests me so I can have an indepth look at it later
5. Read through each saved job indepth to assess if it is a match for me
6. Draft and submit unique proposals to the jobs I stand a high chance of winning or jobs I would really love to work on.

You can also check out this video by David Mbugua, as well as his website which offer numerous tips on UpWork.