Writing a great proposal is the the first indication of a serious freelancer.I used to wonder why people have hard time getting thier firts job,So I posted a project on Freelancer.com.I was surprised to see that most people write a one line proposal,below are the few actual examples.The names of the freelancers have been omitted.
Search in with your skills key word on Freelancer.com like if you are expert in Matlab,search with Matlab and all related projects will appear. Look at the skills that client is looking for; If you have those skills, proceed to more details of the project. If you do not have those skills, proceed to the next project
Visit the client profile and look for the following things and look for the following things
Is his payment method verified? -If Client payment method is not verified, look for when he joined Freelancer.com.It may be the case that client recently joined and his payment is in process to be verified. Still be careful while working in such situation, if you are beginner, send him the proposal and ask him in a friendly way to verify his payment method.
How many projects he has posted and how many he has awarded? If the award ratio is good, send him a proposal. If he has a bad award ration, and you are beginner, you can still send him a proposal
What is the feedback he received from other contractors?.If he has received bad feedback continuously, try to avoid working with him. There are more chances that working with him would be a bad experience.
Is he fair in giving feedback to the hired contractors?If he has given a fair feedback to the earlier contractors, it would be great experience working with him. If he has given continuously bad feedback, avoid him.
After performing all the above checks, read the project description and make sure you understand it completely. Some contractors do not read the full description, and bid on the projects, which creates problems later in interview. Remember each membership plan comes with a limited project application that you can send, so If you bid on the projects that you do not understand completely ,there are less chances that you will get hired, and you will loose your quota. Sometimes client want you to include a specific word/sentence from the project description in your proposal, so if you do not read project description completely, you are immediately declined to be hired.
When I write my cover letter, I do it in three paragraphs. When client scans different proposals, the proposals appear in short form. He can only see two or three lines of your proposal, so you have to make the first two lines catchy so that he read your full proposal.
In my first paragraph, I will write like ”I have attached a relevant sample to the project…” and give a brief description about the sample and how is it related to the project. If I do not have the relevant sample, I will develop one. If I cannot develop the sample also, I will send him my transcript with the relevant courses to the project highlighted.
In my second paragraph I will present my terms like how much time it will take to complete the project, when can I start, and is the rate flexible or not. For beginners your rate should be flexible. ask him any question in this paragraph…
In my third paragraph I will tell the client how I can be contacted. I will end the paragraph with professional note like “I am looking forward…Thank you”.
One of the trick that I learnt from my mentor Khalid Bajwa is to use generous dose of smileys but in a way that does not hurt your professional image like you can say at the end of cover letter…”Happy Hiring”:)
When the client ask for an interview, first start with like how are you, and then start with the project related stuff. When it comes to decide the rate of the project, get a bit personal using smileys:).Be flexible and be realistic. If you are demanding a high rate, tell him the reason.
For any help contact me Here or use the comments section.
1 comments:
Hi,
You write this blog very well about proposal writting. I want to share with you one more freelancing website. It's Boon Tech App.
Here is the link: freelance application
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