Freelance websites are the places where you can search for a job according to your knowledge and skills. I posted a good (but not complete) list of freelance sites here. Browse (or better: search) our blog for reviews of separate freelance markets.

To start your freelance job search, you need to select a few best from your point of view freelance sites, register (as a rule, create a free account) and start browsing the listed projects. You will discover tough competition – there are tens of bids for every project.

How to win projects in this situation? You definitely need to apply some techniques to increase your chances:

• Your proposal should be personal. Take your time to modify your proposal template for every bid you place.

• Focus on your experience and skills. Show you are an expert in this area. Refer to your past successful experience.

• Be clear: what the customer can expect from you, when and at what price. Not every listed project gives you complete info. So, you should contact the buyer and get the details before you quote your services.

• Portfolio. You should have specific samples of work done for every project. The buyer is not interested in your general portfolio; he wants to see your experience with the similar tasks he needs to be fulfilled.

• Tell about yourself. Provide some information about yourself or your company. Build some trust. Show you are a real person.

• Reply asap. If you get any queries from a prospect try to reply as soon as possible. And remember to answer all questions you get in the messages.

• Study your competitors. The competition is cut throat for every project. You need to know who you compete with: their experience, prices, location, etc.

• Build your reputation. Reputation is of great importance at freelance sites. The better your history and feedback the higher chances to get a new project even if your price is higher than competitor’s. Repeat customers are a great benefit for freelancers as well.
Browse these two popular sites for freelance projects:

eLance (aff)

FreelanceWorkExchange (aff)

Summary: yes, freelance sites are great places for freelance job seekers, but you should have your own proved strategy and tactics to succeed. You will compete with freelancers from all over the world who can beat you with lower prices and better expertise. Hopefully, the above steps will increase your chances to get one or more projects.

[tags]freelance, job sites, freelance jobs, home business, work from home, elance, strategy, tactics, business, online business[/tags]

I think a FREE service provided by Sidejobtrack.com is a great tool for all kinds of freelancers who run one or a few projects simultaneously. What does it do?

Advantages for independent home workers are:

1. FREE
2. Tracks your projects: what to do, when, for who
3. Managers your projects: reporting, invoicing

To better understand the benefits you can take a tour

Summary:
The fact that the service is free and supports about 10,000 accounts means there is something in it. But every independent worker and freelancer have his own needs. Start with a tour, sign for a free account and make a decision if the service is likely to help with your freelance projects.

[tags]freelance job, self-employment, sidejobtrack, job, work from home, home jobs[/tags]

eBay plans to offer its enormous pool of sellers a new service: opportunity to advertise their products on other websites. How will it differ from the competitor’s services? It will link only to eBay auctions.

eBay is going to start testing eBay AdContext this week. It is interesting that eBay is the first company that announces the size of payouts for the affiliates: a cut of 35 percent to 60 percent of sales.

eBay says that their new system is complementary and does not compete with similar services of Google and Yahoo! eBay also allows to combine and display both types of adv on the websites. But we need the comments from Google and Yahoo! – do they allow to combine two contextual services? Up to this time it was not allowed.

Summary:
Well, this new eBay service is a kind of reply to Google GBuy that takes off on June 28 (direct PayPal competitor). It is obvious that online competition is getting tougher on all levels including largest players. The new eBay initiative is an attempt to introduce a new kind of service that has nothing to do with eBay traditional business.

Website publishers will get one more option to choose from when thinking over the ways to monetize our websites. eBay sellers will add a new promotion method to increase their online sales.

eBay.com is the biggest and the most popular international online marketplace. I think we are likely to benefit from this program.

[tags]ebay, google, yahoo, msn, adsense, adcontext, yahoo publisher network[/tags]