Elance provides many opportunities to develop your freelance business. However, I believe that you owe it to yourself (and your clients) to spend time customizing the Elance settings, establish a work protocol, prepare business documents, and market yourself a little bit. Doing these few things up front will allow you to concentrate on the work you’re hired to do, instead of doing it all at once.

CUSTOMIZE ELANCE

There are a few settings that you can, and should, customize on your Elance pages. Afterall, your clients will be going there to find out more about you. Here are my suggestions:

• Create a catchy title for your Elance profile.
• Create a tag for that title.
• Summarize what types of writing you specialize in, and which niche(s) you prefer.
• Choose keywords that reflect the type of writing you do and your niche(s).
• Rate your skills – nothing higher than a 9! (We all have room to grow.)
• List your employment history. Your last job wasn’t as a writer? That’s ok – list the relative writing experience you gained at that job.
• Write about your experiences as a writer – especially if you have any awards, college writing experience, etc. This doesn’t have to be job related, but should show how you have gained experience to become the writer you are today.
• Payment terms can be listed, however, I always add the caveat that each job is bid individually and terms are subject to the scope of the job. (Sooooo many different variables!)
• List any writing credentials you have. None? Perhaps you have credentials in business or another field? List them. These may come in handy when you’re trying to show experience with an employers subject matter.