ELANCE A GREAT PLACE TO BE

 

A few months back, I caught a lucky break.
One of my most trusted mentors advised me that, if I wanted to make real money and have an enjoyable freelancing career, I shouldn’t waste my time on Elance.
But the lucky part wasn’t the warning. It was the fact that it came too late. I’d already been Elancing it up for the past 24 months, and had just closed a six-figure year. Yes, all from Elance.

If I’d gotten his tip a couple of years earlier, I probably would have listened. And it would have cost me a major matzoball o’ cash.
Note that the mentor in question does not have some weird criteria for evaluating time-wasting activity. Even as I’m riding Elance with my arms out and screaming “King of the world!” like Jack from Titanic, most pros still see the platform as something closer to the ship’s boiler room, a fiery pit where soulless freelancers mindlessly churn out drivel in exchange for tarnished pennies. Copywriting legend Bob Bly even likes to call Elance “the cesspool of freelance writing.” (I still can’t figure out where that is in relation to the boiler room, but either way, it’s pretty dang low.)
These people — including, strangely, many avid Elancers themselves — believe that Elance is nothing but a sucker bet. The gutshot straight draw of freelancing.
Popular arguments go like this…
The averages argument: The average Elancer brings home dog crap. If you check out the earnings on the site and divide it by the total number of freelancers, you’ll get an amount tinier than the universe immediately following the big bang.
The supply and demand argument: Elance is a stone cold buyer’s market. With scads of freelancers bidding on jobs, rates (and freelancer morale) tend to quickly disintegrate.
The starving writer argument: Most of the jobs posted on Elance pay well, IF your idea of a nice life is sleeping in your car and calling ketchup packets “meals.”
Now. I have just three things to say about these bold claims.
1) They are all true.
2) They will never change.
3) Not a one of them has got diddly shit to do with how I make money on Elance.
Put another way, all of the anti-Elance arguments are about what most freelancers and gurus observe when they look at the platform.
Unfortunately for them, there is plenty more they can’t see. And it’s precisely in this unseen area that the real money is being made on Elance, right under most people’s noses.

Welcome to Elance’s Invisible Game

Entrepreneur Brandon Gadoci says: “In life, there are two games that are always being played. One you can see, and one you can’t.”
Elance is no exception to this rule, and I’ve been using the term Hidden Elance Economy to describe Elance’s invisible game for the better part of two years.
Of course, most freelancers have no idea the Hidden Elance Economy exists. And the ones who do aren’t likely to talk about it for fear of giving away a key trade secret. Of all the Elance advice that’s been published (most of it junk), I’ve never once seen this idea so much as hinted at.
So, freelancers tend to land on Elance without any kind of plan. Then they quickly get discouraged when they see all the low paying jobs — and the morass of competitors they believe they have to beat for the privilege of actually winning one.
At this point many roll into the fetal position and give up for good. Others make the more unfortunate decision to linger on. They try to make the most of Elance’s harsh economy by working their asses off, capitulating on prices, and telling themselves that, hey, things could be worse.
But this pseudo-strategy never works.
The moment you try to win on Elance by doing what seems natural, you’ve already lost. It’s like trying to beat poker pros by just playing good cards, attempting to outwit a car dealer by haggling harder, or making a mad dash to escape the friend zone by simply being a nicer guy. Or, to put it into Erlich Bachman terms, trying to beat Elance without understanding the dynamics of the Hidden Elance Economy is like bringing piss to a shit fight.
Now I’m sure you’re probably wondering just what the Hidden Elance Economy actually looks like. Good question, especially given its invisibleness and all.
As I see it, the Hidden Elance Economy consists of 3 key parts that fly totally under most people’s radar — a sort of perfect storm for Elance badassery. (A word of caution: leave any ingredient out, and your Elance-based freelancing business is likely to collapse like an ill prepared angel food cake.)
Let’s discuss.

Hidden Elance Economy Component #1:
Sleeper Hit Clients

A Sleeper Hit Client is someone who — despite a nondramatic Elance debut — turns out to be a rockstar client who pays well, makes a good working partner, and is likely to keep hiring you in the future. Naturally, this type of client needs to be at the centerpiece of the Hidden Elance Economy. Otherwise, I’d be describing a Tootsie Roll Pop with no Tootsie Roll in the middle. And who wants that?
Most freelancers think there aren’t enough clients like this on Elance to support a six-figure income, but remember, you need to go beyond the obvious.
For starters, most Elancers would do better to reframe the question of “How can I make a full time living when there are so few high paying clients?” to “How many premium clients do I actually need to find on Elance in order to make six figures?”
Taking another look at my Company Snapshot (a misleading term, by the way, since I operate on Elance as a solo act) below, you can see that I was able to break the 100k barrier while working with 27 clients over the past 12 months. And four of those were repeat clients from the previous year, meaning I only had to find two clients per month to make these numbers work.

It ain’t easy, but it is doable.
Especially once you realize that there are far more great clients on Elance than you think. Hell, there are probably more than even I think. As I’ll explain soon, most of them are buried deep within the weeds of the Hidden Elance Economy, but many Sleeper Hit Clients are “hiding” right in plain sight.
See the thing is, very few clients jump on Elance and hire premium freelancers right off the bat. Most need to get their feet wet first. Yet sadly, the conventional wisdom is to instantly profile clients as “shrimp” if they haven’t spent a ton of money yet, or even if they do something like (gasp!) choose “unsure” as their stated budget. Can you see the fatal flaw in this approach, or do you need Julia Roberts to go all Pretty Woman on your ass for good measure?
Check out the screenshot below for a perfect example of a high paying job I was recently awarded by an awesome Sleeper Hit Client who (up until that point) had a very average Elance history:

This is by no means an isolated occurrence. Forget about what clients spent yesterday, and start asking yourself how much they might be willing to invest in high quality work today.

Hidden Elance Economy Component #2:
Repeat Business

Maybe you glanced at Elance’s job marketplace this morning and saw only a bunch of low paying gigs.
But what you didn’t see were all the well-paying projects won by freelancers without the client even creating a post. These jobs were casually awarded after a message from client to freelancer that sounded a lot like this: “Hey Jane, want to do some more work?”
I’ve been winning work this way every single week for about two years. Yet, again, it’s totally invisible to anyone watching from the outside. Check out my repeat business percentage below:

You’ll see a similar pattern of high repeat biz from all of Elance’s top performers. It’s a huge part of why Elance can appear to be a dystopia to anyone following the game, while being pure cornucopia to freelancers playing the invisible game.
A very encouraging implication here is that the most talented Elancers are more likely to collect a modest amount of clients than constantly fight you for a bazillion new ones. Personally, I decline dozens of high quality job invites each month, and I know several other successful Elancers who do the same.
So if you’re someone who knows your shit (or you’re willing to learn it), there’s as much showroom space for you to shine on Elance as there is anywhere else. Probably more when you consider that most serious freelancers still steer clear of the joint. (Be sure to send them a thank-you note after you come in and clean up, will you?)

Hidden Elance Economy Component #3:
Invite-Only Jobs

Invite-only jobs represent the very essence of the Hidden Elance Economy.
While one of the biggest complaints about Elance is the flash mob of low bidders who descend on jobs like wedding crashers, invite-only postings are a far more exclusive party.
As it turns out, Elance’s top clients don’t necessarily put up public jobs and wait to see who applies. Instead, many silently shop around for a freelancer who fits the bill they’re looking for, and then reach out to that person privately, by inviting them — and often only them — to bid on their job.
Yes, you heard me right: you can easily be the only VIP on the guest list (like I was in the screenshot below).

Check out the opening words of the above post for added encouragement. If you’re used to writing proposals for public jobs, you’ll immediately notice how the roles are somewhat reversed; clients posting private jobs are usually already sold on working with you.
Over 90% of the clients I’ve picked up in the past year have come from people directly seeking me out in this way, making Elance — or, more exactly, the Hidden Elance Economy — the most powerful lead generation tool I’ve used to date. visit to join Elance https://www.elance.com/s/ominisolo1/?rid=5GCPF https://www.elance.com/?rid=5GCPF

How to Make Money On Elance – My $100,000 Year

“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” – George Bernard Shaw
On July 20th, 2014, I celebrated my 2-year anniversary working as a freelance copywriter on Elance. The date also marked the close of a 12-month period in which I’d earned $100,000. Yes, all from Elance.

People said it couldn’t be done.
I’ve had this said to me personally, and I’ve seen countless posts on Elance’s Water Cooler forums from freelancers who say it’s impossible to make a full time living on Elance.
Most recently, there are gems like this (condescend much?):

But posts like this totally miss the point. This one in particular is full of red herrings.
Because being a successful freelancer isn’t about journalism, newspapers or ad agencies. It’s about solving people’s problems and providing value to their business.
If you can do that, and be/become very good at your craft, then your background will be totally irrelevant. And if you can’t, then you can have ad agency experience like Don Draper, and you’ll still starve.
All of this misinformation wouldn’t bother me much except for I know how easy it can be to believe it when you’re just starting out. Or after you’ve hit a brick wall in your earnings. It’s like being saddled with “freelancer kryptonite.”
Consider this post the antidote.
Because as you’re going to see, if I can do it, just about anyone can.
So if you’re trying to figure out how to make money on Elance, this one’s for you.

Think you need previous experience to make money on Elance?

It’s a fair question. It would be perfectly natural to wonder whether or not I’d ever worked for an agency, whether I’d had any articles or books published, or whether I’d studied writing or journalism in college.
Not only did I not do any of those things, but I think you’ll agree that I had just about everything working against me.
This was my situation at ground zero of my Elance career:

• No copywriting experience
• No college degree
• No agency experience
• No freelancing experience
• No other income source

In other words, I literally did roll out of bed one morning and decide to call myself a copywriter.
And I think it’s safe to say that regardless of who you are or what you’re going through, there’s a good chance you too can make a full time living (or two) on Elance. It isn’t 1983 anymore, and you certainly don’t need anyone’s permission or approval to do it.

The power of focus

Elance’s Water Cooler forums have for years been bombarded with posts by freelancers complaining that there aren’t enough good clients on Elance to make a decent living. “You need to find clients off Elance too” has always been the consensus.
But I didn’t buy it.
I saw plenty of good clients on Elance with my own eyes.
I was even fortunate enough to land a couple of them pretty early on (they paid well, were easy to work with, and both are still giving me regular repeat business to this day).
It isn’t like Elance allots you a certain number of premium clients and then cuts off your supply. You’re free to find as many as you can. I knew if I could find 2, then I could probably find 5, 10, 20, and beyond.
So I decided to go against the status quo and focus all of my efforts exclusively on Elance.
Instead of wasting time on the endless marketing tactics freelancers get lured into, I built my freelancing career with:

• NO blogging
• NO networking
• NO cold contacting
• NO social media
• NO newsletters or follow up emails
• NO accounts on other freelancing sites

Essentially, I outsourced all of my marketing to Elance. And the plan worked like gangbusters.
I won lots of jobs. I had enough time to devote to doing them right. I got plenty of repeat business and great feedback. And I built up an awesome Elance profile that quickly stood out to top quality clients.
Every single day, tons of qualified clients flock to Elance for the express purpose of hiring freelancers.
To me, trying to generate leads on my own instead of leveraging all of their marketing power would have been like going buffalo hunting because I was in the mood for a bison burger. Hitting up the meat counter at Whole Foods works so much better.

Do Elance clients pay less?

Anyone who really believes that the rates on Elance are somehow inherently low is living in a self-imposed prison.
I was hired by a new client recently. She’s done plenty of hiring in her career, but this was her first time on Elance. Do you think her budget magically shrank when she created her account?
If you think these questions are ridiculous, that’s how nutty this entire superstition really is.
Sure, some clients come to Elance looking for a good deal.
Guess what? Some people walk into a Mercedes dealership looking for a good deal too. They can drive off in a brand new Benz for less than the price of a Camry. This doesn’t change the fact that there are plenty of others who are happy to spend 2-10x that.
And by the way, whether it’s Elance or the car dealership, both of these types of clients offer value (more on that in a minute).

“But don’t the low bidders drive down prices?”

Elance isn’t an economics classroom, and freelancing services don’t trade like commodities on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
At least not if you’re willing to put some work into your game. Offer the right service to the right clients, packaged in the right way, and your market value goes way up.
One of the ways I know this is because, when I’m awarded a job, I’m usually the highest bidder.



(…by the way, 2/3 of the above jobs turned into repeat business.)
Unlike the complainers, I pay no attention to the percentage of Elance jobs posted by higher paying clients.
Of course there are going to be fewer of those, the same way online dating sites aren’t fully populated by potential mates who are all rich, smart and beautiful.
The more attractive something is, the heavier competition will be for it, and the harder it’s going to be to get it. That’s life. There’s a reason we call this site Freelance To Win.
But the best clients think in terms of value, not price.
They’re not interested in the cheapest freelancer any more than they are in the cheapest restaurant, the cheapest office chair, or the cheapest laptop.
If you can provide value (i.e. solve their problems), you can find more of these good clients than you know what to do with. Below are a few I’ve started working with in just the past couple of months alone…



…all 3 of whom have become repeat customers.
Two of them even confessed that they’d been “looking for someone like me for years.” Freelance copywriters may be ubiquitous, but problem solvers are hard to find.

How to make money on Elance – the truth

Elance is an ecosystem.
All of the clients and freelancers serve a purpose.
Clients who pay $15 per hour are much more valuable than the whiners would have you believe.
These good folks help beginning freelancers break into the game and cut their teeth. (My first Elance client was one such person, and I am extremely grateful to him–and judging by the feedback he left me, the feeling was mutual.)
New freelancers in turn help these clients build their businesses on a lean budget that more experienced freelancers would never consider. Win-win.
It gets better: freelancers who do well get repeat business.
Pretty soon they become busy enough that they can raise their rates, and start turning down business at the old rate. This opens up new job opportunities for less experienced freelancers, who can then follow in their footsteps.
Some of those freelancers will do well…and get repeat business of their own…and the virtuous cycle continues.
Meanwhile, some of those $15/hr. clients will grow their businesses, too. As they do, their needs and budget expand, creating new opportunities for more experienced freelancers with advanced skills. visite to sign up https://www.elance.com/s/ominisolo1/?rid=5GCPF https://www.elance.com/?rid=5GCPF

How to Make Money With Twitter Using Sponsored Tweets

By Alison Storm

9 Comments

To outsiders, Twitter can seem like a big waste of time; a bunch of egomaniacs telling the world what they ate for lunch or what they think of the latest contestant on “The Bachelor.” But to those who use it and love it, it’s an invaluable resource. I’ve used Twitter to find new jobs, locate sources for articles, and gather information on a variety of topics.
There are many ways to use Twitter for business and personal success. However, until recently, I couldn’t put a dollar amount on Twitter. Then I discovered Sponsored Tweets, an advertising platform that connects companies with tweeters.

How Sponsored Tweets Works

Sponsored Tweets allows brands to tap into a Twitter user’s followers to reach new customers. By giving companies access to your Twitter stream, tweeters are compensated for each advertisement they accept.

The only thing tweeters need to do is write a tweet based on some simple guidelines provided by the advertiser. Sponsored Tweets takes care of the rest, and will even tweet it out for you. Companies choose Twitter followers they like based on a variety of factors, including how many followers you have and how much influence you have over those followers.

1.Tweeters Sign Up

Setting up your account will only take a couple of minutes. To be eligible, an account must be at least 60 days old with 50 followers and 100 tweets sent. Sponsored Tweets will review your application, and once you’re approved you can start earning money.

2. Tweeters Promote a Brand on Their Own Terms

The great thing about Sponsored Tweets is that the tweeter is in complete control. If an advertiser is intrigued by the influence you have on your followers, then they present you with an opportunity through your Sponsored Tweets account. They will inform you of what your tweet needs to say and what link must be embedded in the message.
If you don’t like a company that approaches you, you can simply turn down the offer. If you want to move forward with the opportunity, however, simply write the tweet using the guidelines provided by the advertiser, and the advertiser will approve the final text.
All tweets carry full disclosure, which means they must include hash tagged text such as “#sponsored” or “#ad.”  Since you’re writing the tweet, you can create a message you’re comfortable with. Once it’s approved, the tweet is sent out and you receive payment in your Sponsored Tweets account.

3. Tweeters Get Paid

With a typical Sponsored Tweets account, you must earn $50 before you can withdraw funds from your account. However, if you sign up for a “Pro” account, you only need to have $25 in your account before you’re eligible for withdrawal.
You can upgrade your account to Pro status for free for one month, and cancel at any time. After one month you will be charged a monthly fee of $1.99. According to Sponsored Tweets, having a Pro account will move you to the top of the list among available tweeters, which could result in increased offers from advertisers.

Earning Money With Sponsored Tweets

There are many ways to earn extra money online, but few are as simple as using Sponsored Tweets. Fitness cover model and two-time pro bikini world champion Chady Dunmore joined Sponsored Tweets a few months ago and already earns between $75 and $150 for every ad she sends out to her 57,425 followers. The experience has been rewarding for Dunmore, who says she has a loyal fan base of women who are inspired by her journey of losing 70 pounds, as well as the fact that she began an athletic career after having a child and beating kidney disease.
“I have been very happy with the results and I will continue to be a part of Sponsored Tweets because of the quality advertisers I get asking for me to send out their message,” Dunmore says. “That is an important factor because I would never want to endorse something I don’t feel is worthy of my followers.”
I’ve earned as much as $6 for a tweet, which seems pretty good to me. I have around 2,200 Twitter followers and the thought of earning enough to buy a venti mocha at Starbucks just for writing a tweet and making a few clicks feels like a good deal. But when I start to see how much reality stars, actors, and TV personalities are making I realize there is a much greater earning potential.
Take a look at what these celebs are earning from advertisers:

• Khloe Kardashian, E! reality star, makes $9,100 per tweet.
• Audrina Patridge, reality star from MTV’s “The Hills,” makes $2,600 per tweet.
• Jackee Harry, actress and star of “227,” “Sister, Sister,” and “Everybody Hates Chris,” makes $325 per tweet.
• Boston Rob, reality star from “Survivor” and “Amazing Race,” makes $149.50 per tweet.

How to Improve Your Sponsored Tweets Income

Once you sign up for Sponsored Tweets, look for ways to make it a more lucrative experience. There are several factors that can boost your Sponsored Tweets cash flow:

1. Choose Keywords Wisely

When establishing your Sponsored Tweets profile, you must choose keywords for yourself. These keywords help advertisers pinpoint tweeters who are a good fit to send their message – this means keywords are incredibly important if you want to receive as many opportunities as possible.
According to Sponsored Tweets, you should choose broad keywords and tweet about popular topics like food, music, food, and family. The most popular tags include entertainment, technology, and music.

2. Boost Your Klout Score

Your Klout Score is the number that relates to the size and strength of your sphere of influence on Twitter. It indicates how likely it is that someone will listen to what you have to say or act on a message you provide, and is based on the following categories: engagement, reach, velocity, demand, network strength, and activity. Your Klout Score can be anywhere from 1 to 100, and the higher your score, the more influential you are.

3. Improve Your Follower Activation Rate

One of the ways Sponsored Tweets judges the quality of a Twitter user is by their follower activation rate, or FAR. FAR is a measure of a tweeter’s influence with their followers based on the percentage of people who click-through when the tweeter posts links. The scale is 0 to 10, with 5 being the system-wide average; the higher the number, the better.
Dunmore says it’s not always about the number of followers you have, but instead, the influence you have on them. “I also try to tell people useful, interesting, or funny info,” she says. “You want to have interaction and conversations with people and be able to contribute something useful to them for free as much as possible.”

Not Everyone Loves Sponsored Tweets

Some people argue that flooding your Twitter stream with advertisements will upset your followers. And even companies aren’t necessarily sold on the results.

Companies Experience Varied Results

Leslie Nuccio, VP of marketing with GoPhoto, tried Sponsored Tweets with hopes of raising awareness about the importance of digitizing photos, slides, negatives, and videos. But the clicks she did get were not quality.
“The bounce rate on those clicks was extremely high,” she says. Bounce rate is the level at which visitors leave a website from the landing page, without clicking around. “Of course, there is always the chance that one of those visitors will, eventually, decide that they need to scan photos and will then remember the GoPhoto name. But with that bounce rate, and especially with the quality of the tweets, I felt that I’d be more successful using other avenues for brand discovery.”

Additionally, for an emerging company, she says using celebrities to announce their brand was far too expensive.

Sponsored Tweets Can Annoy Your Followers

Sponsored Tweets suggests sending out a minimum of three non-ad tweets for every ad you send out, which will limit the chances that you’ll get on your followers’ nerves. Regardless, some followers could get upset that you’re using your Twitter stream as yet another way to bombard them with ads. But as long as you’re selective about the ads you choose and pay attention to your ratio of ads verses regular tweets, you shouldn’t lose too many followers.

Final Word

As of late 2011, 100 million people actively use Twitter, and experts are predicting that the social media giant will hit 500 million registered accounts within the next year. With social media marketing becoming increasingly popular, there is no reason why normal Twitter users can’t turn this popular site into a way to make a little extra cash – even if it does result in losing a follower or two.
Have you tried Sponsored Tweets? Have you had success, either has a tweeter or an advertiser?