How to land your first client on PeoplePerHour

So, you’ve joined PeoplePerHour and are ready to start earning. But, there’s one small problem, you don’t have any clients yet. Check out our top five tips for using your freelancer profile to help you land your first client on PeoplePerHour.

1. Your freelancer profile is everything

It still surprises us how many people overlook the biggest marketing tool they have on the PeoplePerHour platform. Your freelancer profile. A great looking profile will really help to highlight your strengths and talents and is key to bringing in your first client.

Fill out your profile as much as possible, and really focus on your headline and the first three lines, as this is what will show above the ‘read more’ tag on your profile.

important tips for your freelancer profile

Profile example: Stephen is a TOP CERT freelancer in the social media category with PeoplePerHour

As part of your freelancer profile, make sure you have a decent picture. We really encourage personal headshots rather than company logos or cartoon-style figures.

Buyers like to get an idea of who their freelancer is, so use your headshot to your advantage in your freelancer profile. We also encourage professional profile pictures. So, if you were planning on using the one of you swigging a beer on a beach in Spain, we’d urge you to reconsider!

2. Upload your best work to your portfolio

Your freelance portfolio is your biggest sales tool — it shows your potential new customers what you’ve done before, and the quality of work you could do for them. If you want to quickly land your first client, load your very best pieces of work to your freelance portfolio, with your best six pieces first. (These are the ones that will be shown first on your profile.) The good news is, you can add as many pieces to your portfolio as you like!

Showcase your freelancer portfolio

Profile example: Sallyann is a TOP CERT freelancer in the graphic design category with PeoplePerHour

But, we also know that new freelancers might not yet have a freelance portfolio to show off. If this is case for you, don’t panic! Even as a brand new freelancer who’s just starting on the journey to living your work dream, you can build a portfolio easily and quickly.

  1. Enter competitions. This is a great way for creative freelancers to show what they’re made of. Search online for relevant competitions in your industry and create a few pieces of work. If you win, bonus! If you don’t, it doesn’t matter. You have something to add to your portfolio.
  2. Do some freelance work for a charity. Here at PeoplePerHour HQ we definitely do not endorse working for free. You’re a professional freelancer and you deserve to be paid! But, for new freelancers, offering to do some free or greatly reduced work for a charity or non-profit that you care about, can be useful to you both. And, you can then use it as part of your freelance portfolio. (Don’t forget to make this a condition of doing the work!)
  3. Offer to do freelance work for friends and family at a reduced rate. Know of a family business that could use your services? Use who and what you know to help you build your portfolio. Working for friends and family for a very limited time can really help to boost your credibility, and your freelancer portfolio.

3. Add Offers to your freelancer profile

Offers, are just one of the things that set PeoplePerHour apart from some of our competitors. 

Offers are ‘off-the-shelf’ jobs that you can complete for different buyers over and over again. For example, if you’re really good at writing blog posts, you can easily create an offer for writing a 500-word SEO-friendly blog post for a set fee. That offer can then be bought by the PeoplePerHour community of buyers.

Offers are brilliant additions to your freelancer profile and act as your very own little shop that you can promote both on and off the platform.  

Interesting fact: over the last six months, PeoplePerHour buyers have bought 30,602 offers, compared to accepting 28,867 public freelancer bids.

Go ahead and create as many offers as you like! This can be a great way to land your first customer.

Create freelance offers and boost your freelancer profile

4. Apply for projects regularly

As our monthly gift to you, PeoplePerHour will credit your freelancer account with 15 proposal credits at the start of each month – completely free of charge. All you have to do is use them.

It’s unlikely you’ll gain your first client without bidding on projects. Applying for projects regularly and writing a stellar proposal will help to convince new customers that you’re the right freelancer for the job.

We’ll offer more guidance on writing a great project freelance proposal in a later post, but as a rough guide:

Do

  • Tailor your proposal for every new project. It’s okay to have a template but make sure you have the customer’s actual needs in mind when writing your proposal.
  • Carefully consider your bid. Make sure you have a good idea of how long it might take you to do the work, and price the project accordingly.
  • Ask for more information from the buyer if it’s necessary.
  • Highlight your freelance skills and explain why you’d be the best person for the job.
  • Upload examples of your freelance portfolio.
  • Answer all of the buyers questions if they’ve asked them in the project brief
  • Keep all of your communication in the worksteam.

Freelancer tip:

“Communication is half of success. You must be polite and responsive, no one wants to deal with a rude person, right?”
Anna Kryzhanivska
Photo Retoucher & PeoplePerHour’s Female Freelancer of the Year

Don’t 

  • Send the same blanket template out to every project.
  • Price your bid lower than normal just to get the work. This sets a precedent that you’ll find it hard to break. And, buyers may not accept your freelance proposal if you’re too cheap!
  • Make any spelling mistakes; double and treble check your proposal before sending it!
  • Promise something that you know you can’t deliver. This just leads to bad feedback.

5. Don’t lose heart

Starting out as a new freelancer can be tough. But don’t be too hard on yourself, everyone needs to start somewhere. PeoplePerHour has some incredible talent, doing remarkable things, and earning a lot of money in the process. This comes with dedication, selling Offers, sending off regular freelance proposals and delivering brilliant customer service to buyers. Once you land your first client, it will become much easier to get the second!

Doing a combination of these things will spark your success in no time!

Freelancer tip…

“Patience is the key to your success. You may get impatient and depressed when not getting jobs immediately but you need a little time to build trust with buyers. Once it is done, you will get a flow of work.”
Biplab Poddar
Gogle Ads & PPC Consultant

Do you have a tip on how to win that first customer or more business on PeoplePerHour? Let us know by emailing community.comms@peopleperhour.com.

Feature Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash