• Wake up at noon
• Goof off for an hour or so
• Play eenie meenie miney mo to pick a client project to start working on for the day
• Goof off for another hour
• Actually get started on the job picked earlier
• Get tired of staring at the that project
• Decide to start working on another client project
• Goof off for another hour or so
• Finally get started on the project
• Get sick of looking at it
• Go back to the first project
• Lather, rinse, repeat for a few hours
• Go to bed at 6am

That’s hardly productive. Looking at that list, I’m amazed I can even tie my own shoe laces! So starting today, I’m trying a different method.

You know, I think the people who start the threads don’t realize that this topic has come up repeatedly, and searching first doesn’t occur to them – I never do that, to tell you the truth. So then they get the accumulated disgust of all the people who have been reading these things for months or years. And since they’re always new people, it seems inhospitable.

In-person, people often don’t think before they speak. On the internet, people don’t search before they post. Either way, misunderstandings can occur and it will lead to resentment on both sides.

With all this hostility, pent up or otherwise, sometimes it’s hard to get a straight answer. But in the words of Kenny Rogers, “There’ll be time enough for counting talking when the dealing’s done”…so let’s talk rates, shall we?

However, you can’t always please everyone. When this happens, oDesk makes it possible for you to hide your feedback comments (not the score itself).

But the question remains: should you hide comments?

However, as with all social situations, there are certain things you can do to get the most out of your experience – especially when dealing with technical issues.

Any tips on developing trust with new buyers?

This is what I had to say about it:

Just do the job and do it well – that’s the best way to build trust and credibility.

Because I had to keep my answers relatively succinct, I going to elaborate on that answer a bit here…

A job well done is your best promotional tool

[adsense]People talk. The question is, what will they say about you?

There’s only so much your profile and cover letters can do for you – they shows you can talk the talk. What you need to do next is prove you can walk the walk.

Word of mouth is a powerful tool, and it goes both ways: good and bad. It should go without saying that you want to do the best possible job on all of your assignments.

How I cook

Ingredients:

• 5 parts: Coffee
• 4 parts: Speed
• 4 parts: Precision
• 3 parts: Communication
• 2 parts: Perfectionism
• A dash: My Awesomely Awesome Awesomeness^TM

Instructions:

Soften ½ of the communication and pour into a large bowl. Sip coffee. Add speed, precision, and perfectionism. Beat until mixture is smooth and free of lumps. Sip coffee while beating. Fold in remaining communication steadily and beat until mixture starts to solidify. Continue to sip coffee. Sprinkle with a dash of Awesomely Awesome Awesomeness^TM and serve while fresh…with coffee.

¹ I know, look at me: big shot, huh? Ha! Not really, it’s more luck than anything else. But I can’t release the interview information now since it hasn’t been published yet, and there’s still a good chance they may pull my interview.

[adsense]You’re out to dinner with family or friends and someone asks, “So, what are you doing for a living now?”

For some reason, people love to talk about what they do for work. Everything we do and are is externally identified by what we do for a living.

So you answer with, “I’m freelancing now. I work from home on the internet.”

And that’s where it all starts to go downhill…

Must be nice…

Photo by Anomalily

“Wow, it must be nice to work from home and do nothing all day!”

I’m sure it is nice to do nothing all day. But ask any successful freelancer, and they will tell you that their schedules are just as jam-packed with stuff to do as anyone else – more often than not, moreso. Between juggling various projects, being their own customer service, marketing team, accountants, and so forth, freelancers have a lot on their plates.

Here are my answers to some of the more common questions and statements I’ve had the pleasure of hearing.

Q&A with Danalyn

“You’re not doing anything, are you?” (on the phone)

You know, I’m really not doing anything right now. But my doing nothing is paying me per hour, so unless you want me to start billing you more than Miss Cleo, I’m going to have to take a rain check on this phone call.

“That must be easy money, huh?”

Yes, because instead of strolling into the office and maybe doing 3 hours of work and getting paid for 8, I actually do get paid for each hour I work…and only the hours I work.

“You must be rich. Can I borrow $100?”

Sure. But only if I can borrow $200 from you.

“It must me nice not having to pay taxes”

I bet it is. Unfortunately, I don’t have that luxury.

In fact, I pay more taxes than you do. It hurts. Especially when I have to fork over almost half my earnings to Uncle Sam because of that wonderful thing called the freelance tax.

“So, are you one of those envelope stuffers or something?”

Yes. Once a month, when I drop off the rent.

Do you need help finding a “real job”?

Well, since the money I make doing this is real enough to pay the bills, I think I’ll pass. Thanks for the offer, though.

Truth be told, I don’t spend much time searching at all – buyers find me, and they do the inviting.

Does this mean I’m just that good?

While sometimes I’d like to delude myself into thinking so, I’m really not.

It all comes down optimizing your profile to grab a buyer’s attention and, more importantly, show up in buyers’ search results when they’re actively looking for providers.

Know thy audience

[adsense]Almost everything on your profile can be used to find you in a provider search. It’s up to you to be sure you have the correct terms to make sure you’re found.

Start by targeting your buyers.

• What types of jobs do you want most?
• Which skills are required for those jobs?

Those are the two biggest questions you’ll have to answer first. Once you know who your target audience is, you can start optimizing your profile.

Know thy search phrases

Optimizing your profile for search engines (in this case, oDesk’s built in search tool) is simply a matter of making sure you have the proper keywords in your profile while keeping the text readable. In oDesk’s case, it isn’t as convoluted as traditional search engine optimization, because you don’t need to worry about keyword density.

After defining your audience (I cannot stress how important that step is), put yourself in the buyer’s shoes. If you were searching for you, what would you type into the search box? Keep in mind, buyers will search for skills or software, not names.

Once you have a list of the top 5 keywords/phrases you’d like to be “found” for, start writing. Make sure you write in complete sentences and, more importantly, that makes sense to a human.

If a keyphrase you define is “valid xhtml”, be sure to write it out in your overview as: I’m highly adept at creating valid xhtml.

Remember: while you are trying to optimize your profile for searches, your main concern is still the buyer – so make sure they can understand what you write!

Know…the big three

Title – The default provider search option searches providers’ titles only. It’s important to have a catchy title, yet have your top one or two keywords in there. If you’re a CSS coder first and foremost, be sure to include CSS in your title. If you’re an iPhone developer, make sure you include the word “iPhone”.

Objective/Overview – When a buyer posts a job or uses the advanced search option, both your overview and your skills are included in the search algorithm. Use a bulleted list, or highlight your strongest skills in your overview. Remember to make it about what you can do for your buyer, not the other way around.

Skills – This is where you can list out each of your skills. Because these don’t necessarily have to include complete sentences (except for descriptions), this can be considered keyword heaven. I recommend including key software applications in this list. For example, if you’re a graphic designer, include software like Photoshop and Illustrator here. If you’re a programmer, list your language experience like PHP, MySQL, ASP.NET, etc.

Don’t overstuff your skills section, though – doing so will have a negative impact.

Everything in moderation

Don’t get overzealous with the keyword stuffing…otherwise, it becomes just that: stuff.

That’s why it’s important to target your audience and narrow down your potential buyers. Usually, buyers want experts. Regardless of whether or not you actually are an expert in 20+ areas, if a buyer sees this on your profile, there’s a good chance they’ll think you’re a jack of all trades, master of nothing type, not an expert in what they’re looking for (even if it’s not true).

Be honest

And last, but definitely not least, don’t lie!

If you’re not an expert at something, don’t say you are. If you know a little about one area, don’t say you’re a master. Don’t get yourself in over your head on an assignment because your profile wasn’t truthful.

This will not only cause added stress for you, but will also disappoint your buyer. Not to mention, they probably won’t want to pay for the extra time it takes for you to learn something your profile said you already knew!

Just be honest!

I am a night owl by nature – it is extremely easy for me to slip into a nocturnal routine. When I was bound to a normal 8-5 schedule, I forced myself to go to bed by 2am so I could wake up at 6 to get ready for work.

But when I left it all in the summer of 2008, I said goodbye to sunlight.

Twilight had nothing on me

[adsense]I was sick of having to wake up at 6am every day, so I set my eyes on 10am as my wake-up goal.

Manageable, right?

Of course!

What I didn’t count on was staying up later and later each night. Whether it was because I was goofing off after working, or trying to reach deadlines for projects because of prior goofing off, I went to bed later and later each night. Eventually, I wasn’t going to bed at night anymore!

My schedule had gone from 10am-ish to 2am in June, to 4pm-10am just last month.

24/7 burning

Of course, because my husband and I were on completely opposite schedules, we were burning electricity 24/7. We don’t have many windows in this place, and what we do have are all upstairs. Any time someone is downstairs, a light is always on (except when we’re watching movies – having no windows comes in handy then).

Imagine our dismay when we got our $250 electric bill last week.

This is not a large apartment – our electric bills are typically $100 less. We were surprised at first, especially since the heater and a/c had been off for all but 2 days that month. Then it dawned on us that our opposing schedules probably had something to do with it.

So, begrudgingly, I’m trying to get back into the habit of waking up early…if for nothing else than to get our electric bills back to an affordable rate.

Although, upon reflection, I may be going about it all wrong by staying up for 40 hours until I’m so exhausted that I pass out by 8pm…

As mentioned before, things don’t happen overnight, and they don’t happen without a little effort on your part.

But, like just about anything else, once things start to come together, it usually gets easier and easier until it almost seems effortless.

As she states in her forum post:

I just wanted to take a moment to assure all the other newbie providers on Odesk that there is hope. If you put your best effort into your profile, apply thoughtfully to positions and have patience, you will find work on Odesk.

This newbie joined Odesk at the end of November, and I was awarded my first assignment this morning. I spent my entire first week on the site editing my profile information and taking as many of the certification tests as I could. I didn’t even try to apply to my first job until that was done. Without very much to add to my portfolio, my hope was that high test scores would help assure potential buyers of my capabilities. I don’t know if most buyers really look at this or not, but I like to think it helps.

You can read the full post in her oDesk forum thread.

With companies downsizing everywhere you turn, more and more people are looking into freelancing as an extra source income. However, one thing most “newbies” may not be aware of is the constant battle with rejection we, as freelancers, must face. Taking rejection personally, or not having the patience to tough it out when things slow down, can ultimately lead to your downfall.

Competition is fierce, and you don’t want to get left out in the cold because your feelings got hurt.

On average, for every job you bid on and apply to, you’ll get rejected for two – that’s life. As freelancers, we can either learn to adapt, or go bankrupt.

It’s not always about you

[adsense]There are many reasons a freelancer will face rejection – often, it has nothing to do with the freelancer themselves, but with other outside influences that they don’t tell you about (nor should they because it’s none of your business).

Sometimes life gets in the way. Sometimes they run out of money. Sometimes they find someone else.

If you’re spending hours on end trying to figure out what went wrong (or worse, hounding your buyer about it), you’re wasting too much time and energy on it. Buyers are not obligated to tell you why they rejected you.

They are also not obligated to sugar-coat their reason for rejecting you, either.

So, what if it is about you?

Sometimes, you do or say something that a buyer doesn’t like. Whether your cover letters aren’t crafted to their liking, or your profile doesn’t stand out enough, take this time to reflect on what you’ve done and/or can do better the next time.

• Were you under-qualified?
• Were you over-priced?
• Did you communicate properly?
• Were you succinct and to the point?
• Were you succinct to the point of not giving them enough information?
• Did you answer all of their questions?
• Did you ask them enough questions?

Whatever the case may be, don’t take rejection as a slight against you. Take it as an opportunity to learn and grow from your mistakes. Keep at it until you get it right.

Sometimes it takes months before landing your first freelancing gig. Once you get the first job, getting others will be easier. Giving up, however, is not an option.

If you can’t stomach the rejection notices, you aren’t going to get very far in this cut-throat business…and that is the cold, hard, un-sugar-coated truth.