For a lot of people, hiring freelancers is scary. It can freak a lot of people out. Now, I’ve been doing it for years and I find it super easy.
However, I tend to sometimes forget how scary it was when I hired my first freelancer. Don’t be worried though, because millions of people are doing this all over the world every day.
We use them every day in all manner of processes and all manner of contracts. I honestly cannot tell you how many we use, but it is a lot!
Let me just give you a little summary of who we use .
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We use Freelancer.com, that just happens to be the largest freelancer site on the planet. Now, we also use Upwork which used to be elance and ODesk, but they merged and changed over to Upwork.
Then there is Fiverr.com. Now, this is just as it sounds. Most things on this site you will find can be done for only $5.
There are gigs that can run from $25 on up, but the majority are only $5. If you need a rush job, you can just pay extra and they will get it to you very quickly.
For example, this podcast will be transcribed by our main guy on Fiverr who is based in Jamaica. He will transcribe 15 minutes for only $5.
He is fantastic. Trust me, we have tried plenty and some are hopeless, but he is fantastic and does an amazing job.
So let me explain how these work.
On Freelancer and Upwork, you generally create a project. This would be the equivalent of selling something on Ebay.
You want to write down specifications of what you want someone to do for you. So,perhaps you want to change the style of your homepage on your wordpress blog.
There are gazillions of people on there who can do work on WordPress. Come up with a good title. Don’t just say, “Change WordPress Homepage”.
Everyone and their brother will say that. Try to be a little bit more creative and create a good description.
There are thousands of jobs going up every day just like the one you are posting so if you want to draw and attract attention, create a descriptive title.
Now, with your description, please do not just say –“I have a wordpress site and I want the homepage to look like____. Please tell me how much.”
You need to be descriptive.
So first off, be sure and give them the URL of your website. Let them know you want it changed and maybe say — “These are the 10 ways I would like to change the home page.”
You can use Jing, which is a free online screen shot tool, and screenshot the page and add squares with numbers to note how you want things changed.
If there are multiple things to do in a single project and you give them numbers, then when they come back and tell you it is done, you can tell them what a great job they did.
But you can also point out any adjustments that need to be made. For example — you could say — “With #3, it is not quite as I would like it just yet, can you make this adjustment to it as well?”
So, put your description together, and then put in a bid. Choose the lowest price available, and choose pretty much anyone.
Don’t worry about using people from overseas. They can speak perfect english and they can use translation software.
You will never be actually speaking to anyone anyways. In fact, I never speak to anyone of my freelancers that I hire.
A lot of people will do this and they will interrupt you when you are doing a lot of work. Every five minutes or so, they will ask you to check their work and it can get frustrating.
So from the beginning, just make it known that you want to chat with them through the Freelancer site.
Upwork works exactly the same way. When you do this, you put your product in and you hit go. Then people will come back and put prices as what they would charge and bid on your project.
It’s like on Ebay when you have a lot of people bidding on your products.
Then you have to decide who to choose. How do you do that?
After a few hours, you should have enough bids in that you can make a decision as to who to hire.
Look through the bids and if the people have no history, then that is a gamble for you (you can take it if you want). Sometimes newer members will take on jobs for a lot less so you could get a deal.
Now, look at the job history. Are there jobs listed like what you are wanting done, or are there others listed such as graphic designing? That is not the same as wordpress design.
Find people who have experience in the type of work that you want done.
Once you have looked at the job history, look at their rehire rate. Some have 30-40% rehire rate.
Do the same on each job and whittle it down, and then maybe ask a couple of questions that will get you on the right track.
Friendly Follow
Today is Wednesday and that means it is time for a friendly follow. Today, I want to introduce you to Joel Brown.
He is a lifestyle design coach and I like him because he is Australian and enthusiastic and gets you pumped up.
He helps you get on the right track with your goals and visions and is great at what he does.
Go see what he has to say. His website is Addicted 2 Success.
I’ll see you tomorrow on New Year’s Eve.
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