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Requirements for being a Good Freelancer:

Primary Skills (Billable Skills) or Expertise

My primary Skills/Expertise are MultiChannel Marketing and CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) and love these. I help my clients using these skills and they pay in return. oDesk provides a good list of skills based on the posted projects.

Now, find out your own Skill sets! Ask yourself! Are you a good programmer? Do you love to write? Are you a good manager? Do you like helping out people? 

Remember, Primary skills should be based on your passion and love! If you’re just after the trend or copying someone, it’s not going to help you. You are going to face many problems in future this way. So, carefully choose your billable skills and it’ll easier to success.

Many People starts with Generalization (Doing everything they can) and then move towards Specialization (Focus on few things). This is a good approach. That’s why I used the term Skills set and not only a skill.

Secondary Skills

Only being good at Billable skills isn’t enough. You have to work on your secondary skills too. Secondary skills are those skills which are useful for bringing more value at what you do. According to me, Secondary skills are:

1. Communication Skills: You’ve to work on your Communication skills too. Learn how to speak and talk well. English is most important language in this field. You don’t have to be some sort of Guru but just be good enough to express yourself and understand others.
   So, Buy some books, watch movies with subtitles or read Grammar for improving your communication Skills.
2. Computing Skills: It’s not a big deal for many people but You got to be good at computers. It sounds silly but it’s important. You have to know how Skype works, How to you create a presentation or PDF etc.

Dedication:

Patience and belief

Many people quit before they get it. Just make your mind, set goals for long-term, create agendas for short terms and believe in yourself. Don’t be a quitter!
If you’ve some confusions or setbacks, don’t let it divert you. Find a way to overcome those and get back into the field. You’re gonna make it for sure.

Eager to Learn

Do you have what it takes to be a good freelancer? posted by Ankit Kumar. You can follow Ankit on Twitter or contact him here.

Don’t complain about the Recession. If you are Freelancer, you have more jobs than before.

I just looked over the oDesk (Leading Freelance Marketplace) new jobs and found that most of them are posted by totally new employers. In average, there is an increment of one new employer in every 2 or 3 minutes.

New Job Posted at oDesk

How can you get more job as Freelancer?

The reasons why employer use the services like oDesk are the less cost, easy billing, less clutters (like Paper works etc). If you do the same and promote yourself locally, you will flooded by Projects.

Catch the Employers before they reach into Freelance Services. Give them a proper reason to hire you.

Don’t blame! You have more jobs posted by Ankit Kumar. You can follow Ankit on Twitter or contact him here.

Google has just published a Free EBook. Its’ for Improving Online Conversions for Dummies.
The Book has 6 chapters. You will learn about tracking conversion in Adwords and Analytics.

If you deal with Google Adwords and Anlytics, it’ll will help a lot.

Well, it’s boon for Freelancers like me .

Go get the book now. BTW, it’s free and only takes around 2.5 MB in your computer. Good deal, isn’t it?

Learning CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) by yourself posted by Ankit Kumar. You can follow Ankit on Twitter or contact him here.

If you know more than a language, you can earn good links.
All you have to find and translate popular articles or projects and you will get the credit for translation and links too.
Look at these two pages.

Teach Yorself Programming

F2 WordPress Theme

Both of them have ’6′ Page rank. Both of them provide credit to the translators. I analyzed the Hindi translators and found that their landing pages has ’5′ and ’4′ Page Rank respectively. It’s cool, isn’t it?

It may be a very good method for freelancers to get more works. Quality links will improve their portfolio or site ranking and it will also add authorities.
If you are a freelance translator or article writer then it the possibilities are even more.

Ready for translation for links? You can find high ranked articles in Dmoz. A search performed for “Personal” bring around 90,000 results in Dmoz.

You can also translate projects in SourceForge, WordPress themes or plugins etc. A Google Search will also for finding suitable projects.

Ankit

Quality Link Building from Translation posted by Ankit Kumar. You can follow Ankit on Twitter or contact him here.

Freelancing or your current job might be a very good source for a handsome income but I want more. And I know, you do too. Therefore, here comes the concept of Mini Sites.

You want to make passive income. You want to make a system which will bring you money without your efforts. Mini Sites help here.

Mini sites, as the name suggests, are the sites with fewer contents and focused on very specific topic or niche. Marketers use mini sites to build list, sell product or to earn using Affiliate Marketing or Ads.

How can you build your own mini sites? The building process is very simple. You can even make a mini site in a week, all by yourself. But they will make money, if and if only, you promote them effectively.

You can make your first mini site with these steps. I hope they will help a lot.

Think about your Expertise or Hobbies

Select one in which you think you are the best. You are going to make your first mini site for it. Reason? It will simplify all the journey and may also offer a good return if you have some great skills or knowledge.

Find a Gap and fill it!

Now you have your niche. Perform some search for getting knowledge what is already available on the market. Your aim should be finding a need. And you are going to fill it. The need may be a product (Tips or System) or the current Price (Products in the specific niche are very costly).

Start building content

No need to write an essay or shoot a film for introducing something. All you have to focus on Problem Solving. Problem Solving Approaches sell more. So write articles about solving a problem or make video about it.

Think about the offer

After building content, think about your revenue system. Are you going to sell  the product directly or Will offer it for free? Direct Selling is good but your content will be limited to few paid users. You can also make a good income by including affiliate products in your contents and offering the content for free. The more downloads will bring more money . You can also think about building list of audience and its monetization by various methods.

Launch it

Grab a related Domain and Hosting and use WordPress for making site.  Why WordPress? It’s easiest Content Management System and you can build the site yourself. You can also add many functions in WordPress using Plugins.

Start Promotion

Post about it in your Blog, Twitter, Facebook or email your friends. Build links using all methods and you are done!

Constant Optimization

Apply Data Driven Approach for optimizing your site more. Use Analytics Tools, Optimization Tools and always optimize the site according to indicators.

So, It was all about building Mini Sites. They will need you at the their first stages but your involvement will be lesser as you move toward the next stages.

Still looking  for information? Download this video and learn everything!

Thanks

Ankit

7 steps for Passive Income with Mini Sites posted by Ankit Kumar. You can follow Ankit on Twitter or contact him here.

I live Freelancing. The obvious reason:  It’s the major source of income for me. You got some skills, market it and you are going to make handsome money. The method used is Freelancing.

So, How to start Freelancing? How can you be a Freelancer? The path is very simple.

For starters, just make profiles at some CrowdSourcing Services as Elance or oDesk , and start bidding at the jobs which match your skills! Easy, isn’t it? If it works, you can consider about Building personal brand and get projects without these crowd-sourcing services. Sky is the limit.

Ready to start? OK. Let’s learn how to get work from sites likes oDesk and Elance. The steps are:

• Complete you Freelance Profile. Include you previous experiences, skills and Portfolios.
• Pass the related tests. It proves that you are capable for something.
• Bid Less than others at start. You have to get the jobs to make your profile shiny. Focus on building authority at start.
• Never Over-promise. Always include what you are capable to do.
• Always mention, why you are the right person for the job. Include that why you are working for less money. What are the steps and milestones? The more detail you provide about you and your services, the winning chances will be higher.
• Apply some effort while bidding. If the job is for Web Design, try to make a quick mock-up based on the data provided. Send it with application. Thus, the chances will be more. If its about SEO, do a quick review of website.
• Engage the Buyers. Tell them that they can ask questions before rewarding job. If you get selected for an interview, try your best to convert it into a gig. Please them, with your answers and politeness.

So, these are the basic tips for Freelancing. Well, It is really a good way to make money. All you need is to be good at some skills.

Now time for some video tutorials:

Freelance 101: How to Start Freelancing (Part 1)

Freelance 101: How to Start Freelancing (Part 2)

posted by Ankit Kumar. You can follow Ankit on Twitter or contact him here.