In a nutshell, freelance bidding sites allow clients to post jobs and freelancers to bid on them. The freelancer makes a pitch and a bid, and the client picks a freelancer to do the job.

You’ve probably heard of the major freelance bidding sites. The likes of Elance and oDesk are somewhat ubiquitous within the freelancing community; not always in the way you would hope.

Below you will see a smattering of the good sides of freelance bidding sites, followed by the numerous dangers they pose to you, your time, your reputation and your money.

The Good

There is a common misconception that a “real-world” freelancer is in just as much danger of being ripped off and messed around as the freelancer working online, but it is simply not true. When you work in the real world, you get to meet and talk to the client, you know where they operate and there can be clear repercussions if you are not paid.

Meanwhile, online it is different because you have no idea where your client really is, you have no idea about their character, and there is often nothing you can do if they steal from you. Programmers, hackers and online agitators may disagree, but if you have just spent the week working on a client’s project and have discovered you will not be paid, you cannot afford to go on a week-long online revenge campaign (as satisfying as it might be).

At least with a bidding site, you get to see if a member is a new member and if they have reviews and ratings from other people. There are also typically escrow systems in place – your payment is secured before you start working. Importantly, you can report people who are difficult to work with (for whatever reason), and it usually actually means something on these sites.

The Bad

Using a freelance bidding site is near the top of the list for many people trying to build a career online, and they can be a good way to get started. But, just because they are the lesser of several evils does not mean you should be blind to their faults. Here are some of the issues that may affect you sooner rather than later.

Competition

There is always competition from developing countries on freelance bidding sites, and they have learned to enter their home country as the USA, Canada or the UK. They can afford to work for a pittance, and clients honestly believe that the rate they are offering must be the going rate because there are so many people offering to work for a pittance.

Clients Can Be Wary

When it comes down to it, freelancers are typically ripped off and messed around more than the clients are, but it still happens to the client.

For example, they might hire someone from the UK with a low rate to write a single web page, and it turns out he is a Middle Eastern teenager that has copied and pasted Amazon’s source code. It affects long-time clients on freelance sites – they can be downright suspicious, and are unlikely to afford you much slack.

Clients Want a Lot for a Little

You will see hundreds of jobs posted where they offer the worst possible pay rate imaginable and then demand a swift deadline and high quality. One may think it is bluster, or that it is them trying to keep the flies off, but they are deadly serious.

You Have to Work for a Positive Review

Are you are freelancer being messed around or ripped off? Tough! Your client is going to make you dance like a monkey at a circus, because if you don’t, he or she will give you a bad review.

It is okay for the client because he or she can create a new profile, but you may have spent months building up a great reputation and perfect reviews. Many freelancers are held hostage by their reviews, and the more nefarious clients know it.

Conclusion

Freelance sites are a good starting point for a fresh new freelancer, and they may even provide a little low profit work when times are hard. As a long-term business strategy however, it has more weaknesses than strengths.

As a freelancer, you ideally want to manage your progress in two directions. You want to build a client list and maintain a good relationship with the people that send you work, and you want a website or blog to act as your online ambassador to help build your online reputation. This is especially true if you want to pick up referral work, which as you know is the hottest lead you can possibly get.

If you build a good online reputation and take care of your clients, you will build a self-perpetuating marketing system; bidding on the likes of Elance will be a thing of the past. In my humble opinion, that is ultimately what you should be looking to do.

As the most popular and powerful online professional network, with over 300 million members around the world, LinkedIn is arguably the best place online to build a portfolio of professional contacts and connect with like-minded professionals.

The site has a simple mission: to get the world’s professionals connected in the interests of success and productivity. And there are plenty of success stories which have LinkedIn to thank to at least some degree.

But not everyone is making the most out of LinkedIn, and there are many who let opportunities go wasted. In this guide I shall walk you through the process of finding new clients on LinkedIn and provide you with some helpful advice on making the most out of this service.

Searching With LinkedIn

In the first case we shall assume that you know the person/company you want to reach out to, which makes things very easy. All you have to do is search for the name/company on any LinkedIn page, and if they are registered, they will appear. The amount of profile information available to you will depend on their privacy settings.

But what if you don’t have a specific name or company to search for? This is no problem, as LinkedIn offers good tools for prospective searching. In fact, LinkedIn’s search functionality is one of the best things about it.

The important thing here is to know how to search effectively. The following tips will help:

Search for job roles, skills and anything else that relates to your work.
Search for agencies as well as individuals.
Use advanced search settings. These really help you to be specific and get back results that are actually useful.
Make use of Boolean search operators to sort the relevant matches from the irrelevant matches.
LinkedIn Groups offer an excellent way to get connected to clients and people who share the same professional interests, and there are loads and loads of them. Search from the search bar or the ‘Groups You May Like’ page.

Making Connections

Finding new client is the easy part – connecting with them is harder.

One option is to send an invitation to connect with you. If they accept your invitation, you will become 1st-degree connections and you will both have access to each other’s profiles and be able to send messages.

The snag here is that you will need the recipient’s email address in order to send an invitation to connect.

Once you have a 1st-degree network, you can then use the free ‘Introductions’ feature to introduce yourself to users who are 2 or 3 degrees away from you, by requesting an introduction from one of your connections. This method of finding new clients on LinkedIn is usually successful, because the recipient will see that you both have a user in common. What you do need however is a reliable 1st degree connection and the ability to give a good first impression.

If you can’t find the email address and you don’t have the right (or enough) 1st degree connections with which to send introductions to connect, you should go with InMail. InMail is a powerful tool that lets you directly contact members that you are not connected to, but you must use your InMails wisely because you only get a limited amount each month (you have to pay for them if you have a basic account).

Important Extras

If you want to remain anonymous when browsing profiles, head to the Privacy & Settings page. Unless you check the anonymous setting, other people will be able to find you through their “Who’s Viewed Your Profile?” page.

It is very useful to set up a detailed, CV-style account before you begin searching. LinkedIn offers lots of tools that help you branch out and get connected, and these work at their best when you have a comprehensive profile. Of course, a comprehensive profile is also good for your exposure.

Let Other Clients Find You

Don’t forget – ensuring that people can find you is just as important as knowing how to effectively find new clients, because you never know when that perfect opportunity will come knocking. The best way to open yourself up to good prospects is to create a strong and dependable network of users in your professional field, and to optimise your profile page for searches. I would highly recommend searching online for advice and tips on improving your LinkedIn page.

Be it a busy bee or an idle slugabed, almost everyone starts his day with a visit to Facebook – the ultimate shrine and solace for all digital devotees.
And, in one way, it’s good, because you are connected to the world out there, making new friends, sharing bits and parts of your life and being ‘in touch’ with all those distant well wishers who requested you to. After all, this is what ‘social’ networking is for, right?

Now imagine doing this on your professional network as well. You connect with people of the same profession on a certain site LinkedIn, say, greet them with a regular ‘hi’ and suddenly, out of old Facebook habits, you end up sharing Kim Kardashian’s photo with them. How embarrassing would that be? And what if you find your B2B partners liking, commenting and sharing the same? Will it not be an egg on your face?

So, just know this – LinkedIn isn’t Facebook. And here’s how you should observe the golden rules of it:

Choose a profile picture that looks professional:
So, you have visited the Virgin Islands recently? But, why do you want your business relations to know about it? Do they care? Don’t yell out personal details with a loud photograph for your profile. Keep it out-and-out professional.

Treat the platform like your resume and not a networking site:
Provide details about your profession and not what you ate for breakfast. Tell the end user about your skills and what you are adept at. Take it this way – you are sitting for an interview session, explaining the interviewer about your qualifications, work experience and proficiency. Or say, you are sorting out what to include in your curriculum vitae and what not to. You would never reveal in it, where you went for your holidays last summer, would you?

Be careful while connecting your other social media profiles to LinkedIn:
Chances are that you’ll be at a lot more liberty on Facebook or Twitter or even Google+. So, while you connect these profiles to your LinkedIn account, take the pain to not share anything unprofessional. If these profiles of yours carry a lot of casual content, it’s better to keep them away from your professional network. A ’12 am and still at the pub’ status would definitely make your bosses, colleagues and B2B friends cringe.

Know whose out there and how to start a conversation:
You can start with a friendship request on Facebook, exchange phone numbers and LOL all over it. But, when on LinkedIn, remember that you are connecting with people on a professional front, primarily to land up somewhere with a good job. How you converse with the recruiters is an important issue. Never ask for an e-mail or a phone number straightaway. Your way of approaching him for a specific post should entirely reveal the gentleman that you are.

Be more choosy in endorsing or in being endorsed:
I am suddenly reminded of long-dead Orkut, where we could write ‘testimonials’ for each other. LinkedIn endorsements, too, do something similar. They let you choose skills for friends and accept those your friends choose for you. Impressions and opinions do matter. But, getting recommended by just a few insignificant souls does not pay very well. Okay, that friend of yours adores you very much. But, should you always pick up an endorsement for him? Or let him offer one for you everyday? This, somehow, looks shady.

These are undoubtedly the golden rules of the professional networking site. And there still are other minor ones too. For instance, you can cut those ‘Wssup’ or ‘Hiya’ greetings from Facebook and resort to using more formal words and minding to dot your i’s and cross your t’s. It’s not Twitter, you know, where you have to keep thinking about managing text space. So, while on LinkedIn, don’t shout and blabber, just speak.

The real question is – why would you not!? In an ever-evolving technological world, we’ve seen the sales of tablets increase by around 50,00 in 2014 compared to 2013, with a projected increase for 2015 that takes the sales of tablets over the sales of desktops for the first time ever. Following these statistics logically, this would mean that more users are accessing the internet via a mobile device, which would in turn convert to more users buying via these very devices. Not only this but 2014 has seen 52% of online shopping visits derive from mobile devices – again, more than desktop computers for the first time.

It’s not rocket science!

More people owning mobile devices means more people using mobile devices.

More people browsing online with these devices means more people buying online with these devices.

Why Going Responsive is the Way Forward

If your site is not at all designed or built for mobile and tablet usage, you could be losing a substantial amount of visits through user frustration and the discovery that a better user experience can be gained elsewhere. Slow loading times, lacking navigation and the inability to view the website as it is intended to be viewed are just a few off-putting factors that can be detrimental to traffic and conversions. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider going responsive:

1. To please the almighty, all-powerful sovereign that is Google: of course Google has preferences towards websites which are responsive, offering the ultimate user experience and having only one URL and the same HTML, making it easier to crawl and therefore easier to index.

2. Straightforward sharing and user interaction: having only one URL also makes it easier for visitors to share your website via social media and will send all referral traffic to your one URL. Users are also more likely to share your website with others as the result of a happy visit.

3.Enjoyable User Experience: Having a better visual appearance, fast loading time and smoother navigation is more likely to result in a repeat visit and higher conversion rates. If a customer is frustrated, they’re more likely to leave the website immediately and shop elsewhere than to persevere.

Need I Say More?

As 2015 approaches, non-responsive websites are in danger of falling far behind their competitors with responsive websites. We no longer use mobile phones primarily for calls and text messages but for social media, online shopping, browsing, downloading and Google only knows what else… So if you want to keep your current customers happy and have a shot at gaining more customers, move with the technological times and go responsive.

Free online advertising tips! Nothing is better than free…

You are opening or redesigning your online store. Your new website has been created, what other steps can you take to increase traffic to your website? If you don’t advertise nothing will happen, that is guaranteed

Here at WebDesignerExpress we will create a site that will speak to your target audience, we will work together with you and we will do a market research to find out what works for you. Our website will have ease of navigation and we will work hard to make sure that your client never has to look for your competitor.

But, what else can you do to increase traffic and visibility to your website? Here are some simple steps to free online advertising:

1. Ask us about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Trough the SEO process we will work to increase volume to your website, ensuring that your website will be indexed by the main searchengines; therefore increasing your page ranking. Better ranking will mean higher traffic and more business to you, if you are not comfortable doing your self ask us to do it for you. Here is what you should know about SEO.

2. Have your own blog. People like blogs, they like it when they feel like they are being talked to in a personal level and they have the ability to respond and comment on your blog. Make it interesting and write simple and complex content for all audiences. Your web designer and web developer can include a blog section to your site. Ask us about it.

3. Make sure you have substantial content that is relevant to your business and your industry, great content is everything in your website, remember to write what people want to read and not what you like to write.

4. Submit your website to an industry site and/or industry directory. However beware of directories that solicit you for upgraded listings. Make sure the directory is widely used and accepted in your industry. Always affiliate your site with reputable sites, don’t make the mistake of submitting your website to everyone that call be very bad.

5. Exchange links with other reputable sites that are related to your business, links can bring great amount of traffic to your website..

6. Utilize media clip websites such as YouTube to market your business. Only link related media that your consumers might find interesting.

7. Issue a news release. Once your website is complete, send a news release to newspapers or industry periodicals. Find an event that might be newsworthy, write an article related to your business and send it in making sure you include a link to your website. Utilize traditional and web targeted media.

8. Make sure you include your website address on all your business cards, stationary, flyers, brochures and all printed materials.

9. Promote your site on online forums. There are thousands of forums, internet communities, and social networking websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Myspace among many others. Find online communities with serious discussions and make sure you actively participate and advertise your website.

10. Traditional paid advertising. Either printed media or internet paid advertising such as pay per click, ask one of our web developers for more information.