I saw a lot of people started their freelancing career with huge interest and dream. But within few months their dream fall in a black hole. But still they don’t know why they didn’t get success in their freelancing career.
If you don’t have sound knowledge about How to get started, how to write proper cover letter, how to manage portfolio , how to manage client, how to manage finance and budgets then within few days or months you will face a disastrous situation. At the end of the day, you will be caught by frustration and leave freelancing career.
Keep it on your mind, you need to do a lot of research and have to have dedicated patience in freelancing career. Today I’m going to present 7 most common mistakes made by beginner and also tell you how to deal with that mistakes. Lets’ go –
Mistake 01: Unprofessional Portrait As A Profile Photo
First impression is the last impression. If there is no photo or you upload an unprofessional/ugly/blurry photograph as profile photo, then client might reject your application. Try to upload a presentable photograph that highlight your personality and represent you perfectly. Many people ignore profile photo issue, but I’m sure this is one of the hidden reasons for job application rejection.
Mistake 02: Incomplete Details About The Skill
Try to put a lists of skills set in profile page. It will tell client about your skills. From my experience, I’ve seen that many people write a lot of garbage stuffs in profile page. Write only those words that relate to your skills and jobs. Don’t put too much information, try to wrap up all information within few lines. Potential clients don’t like such type of descriptive lists and they don’t have enough time to read all that stuffs.
Mistake 03: Skills Are Not Up-to-date For Current Market
Start with an example. Suppose- You are very good in simple or basic PHP coding. But right now in web development world, use of raw coding become limited and most clients want to use frameworks like CodeIgniter, CakePHP, ZEND Frameworks for agile development. To fulfill client demand, You need to develop your skill sets. Invest your time to learn new technologies and add it in your profile page. Keep your eye on web development blogs.
Mistake 04: Bad Scoring In Skill Test
Most freelancing websites have options for taking skill test and all are for free. Skill tests helps freelancers to get job earlier and freelancing websites encourage it frequently. Many buyers set a condition to pass a specific skill test in their job post. If you do not take that skill test then simply you have less chance to get that job. So, take skill test and you can measure how much expert you are in your preferred field.
Mistake 05: You Have No Demo/Live Project For Clients
First of all, no client want to take any risk for a project. Because they invest their money and time on it. They like to give the job to a person, who have sound knowledge for his project. You can get job very easily from this type of clients, if you have any live project related with his project idea. If you have any project then forward your demo site immediately and tell your client to see that. I’m sure you have most chance to get that job very soon!
Mistake 06: Don’t Know How To Write A Cover Letter
Very important fact for getting a job. Don’t apply with “general”, “copy paste” cover letter. It reduces your chance for getting a new job. Remember , there may be 100+ people who apply for the same job and most of them send same cover letter. In this situation client try to find out someone who send a unique cover letter with demo link. Don’t write too much words , try to write straight sentence that meet client requirements.
Mistake 07: Never Read Job Posting Carefully
Read job posting carefully and try to focus client requirements. Some client add verification text in their job details and tell applicant add that verification text in their cover letter. I saw many client also ask questions and expect answers in your cover letter. So, be careful and follow instruction of client before applying any job.
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