Grizzly Bear Rips Freelancer to Shreds. You Take His Job

[smart_track_player url=”https://soundcloud.com/johnmorrisonline/jms071-grizzly-bear-rips-freelancer-to-shreds-you-take-his-job” social=”true” social_twitter=”true” social_facebook=”true” social_gplus=”true” ]

Subscribe to the Podcast

[saf]

Here’s the big thing to get to succeed as a freelance web developer:

If you and your buddy are hiking in the forest and are suddenly attacked by a grizzly bear… you don’t need to be the fastest guy in the world. You just need to be faster than your buddy.

There’s your uber-secret, stop-the-presses secret to success.

Freelancing is a competition. To win, you don’t need to be perfect… you just need to be better than the next guy. And, let me tell you… most of your competition is epicly bad at this.

The grizzly would be five bites into a thigh bone before they took two steps.

You just need to do some simple things that others aren’t willing to do. Here’s my 5-point “dominate freelance sites” checklist. Don’t overlook this. It’s nothing earth-shattering… the gold is in the doing:

1. Pick a Niche

Ohmahgawd John! Quit talking about this niche thing. It’s all you ever talk about… blah, blah, blah… I get it.

Do you?

I get that response all the time. THEN, I check their profile:

“I’m a highly motivated web developer with experience in HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, Javascript and NodeJS”.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Everybody says that… and it means NOTHING to a client. They don’t even know what half that stuff is. They do not “understand the words that are comin’ out of yo mouth!”

What is the end result you deliver?

“A profit-generating membership site your members will love.”

“A smooth registration form that’s a dream to complete.”

“A dead simple blog you’ll crank out quality content on.”

NOW you’re speaking my language.

Pick a niche, specialize in it and best the best at it. This is the 2nd most important thing you can do to be a wealthy freelancer (#1 is coming).

2. Build a Compelling Profile

You can’t make people hire you. There’s no magic secret to make every client hire you every time. Instead, it’s about making your best case… and, believe me, most freelancers do NOT.

Here’s some obvious stuff most aren’t doing:

  1. Fill out the whole profile.
  2. Use a professional-looking picture
  3. Write more than two sentences in your description
  4. Have a portfolio
  5. Take relevant tests

Brain-busting stuff I know… but you’d be shocked how many freelancers just don’t do it. Then, of course, come to me bewildered about why they’re not getting clients.

Here’s a hint…

If you’re not willing to spend more than 10 minutes on your own profile… chances are you’re not going to put much effort into my project. True or not… that’s what a client thinks when they see it.

Now, I have a video (I’ll tell you about in a moment) where I give you my 3-step formula for writing my service description that I’ve found works like gangbusters… but simply being complete is yuuuuuuuuuge!

3. Bid Intelligently

Here’s another head-scratcher…

I get a lot of freelancers who complain to me about all the “junk projects” on Upwork or Freelancer.com, etc.

Ya know…

You can filter all that junk out right? In fact, there’s a filter right on Upwork when you search for projects… that lets you only see projects from clients who actually hired someone before.

And you can toggle it between:

  • No hires
  • 1-9 hires
  • 10+ hires

IMAGE

So start off by only toggling the 10+ hires option.

Those are presumably the cream of the crop in terms of clients… and avoid all that junk. Plus, there’s filters for client Experience Level, project Budget, Job Type and a lot more.

Finding the right projects to bid on is the “dirty secret” to winning at bidding.

Of course, writing your bid is a whole other animal. But, I recently made a video for you where I go into that. I’ll get to that in a minute.

4. Do Good Work

The #1 most important thing you will do to have success as a freelancer is to do make your clients over the moon about working with you.

It’s about the code you write…

It’s about how fast you get stuff done…

It’s about how well you communicate…

It’s about how easy you are to work with…

It’s about how reliable you are…

It’s the WHOLE thing. You can’t use one to Trump the other. All of them combined will ensure clients love you, hire you again and again and tell everyone they know about you.

But, you’ve likely heard a lot about that… so let’s move onto:

5. Build a Funnel

This is the thing almost every developer balks at:

I just want to put up my profile and get work.

I don’t want to do all this marketing stuff.

Selling is evil.

(Said in my whiniest Gilbert Gottfried voice)

But, it’s THE fastest way to start getting clients.

Let’s say you build those dream-like AJAX forms…

Put a video on YouTube showing how you built. The exact code. Point people to your profile at the end of it if they just want it done for them. Throw a $1/day in YouTube advertising at it for a month or two until it gains traction.

Just don’t give away the source code like I do.

And, that’s it.

You’ll start getting viewers, subscribers and eventually clients. And it’s cheap and easy as hell.

Don’t be afraid of this.

You don’t need to be Tom Cruise. You just need to have something that actually works and be able to explain it fairly well. And, clients will see you can do exactly what they need and want to hire.

I get multiple quote requests every single month doing this.

So, that’s all simple stuff… but the trick is in DOING it.

Now I mentioned a video where I get into more detail about this. It’s a 30-minute whopper where I go into a lot more detail about these five steps, including:

  • My 3-part formula for writing my service description
  • How to write your bids to get hired
  • The critical part of your profile everybody gets wrong

And a bunch more.

It’s this month’s Patreon-Only e-course. If you want to keep going with this and get access to the video, just become a supporting listener of $10 or more per month over on Patreon… and you’ll get it.

I’m finishing editing it and it’ll be up on Patreon in the next few days.

So, be sure to jump in right away.

Here’s where to go:

https://johnmorrisonline.com/Patreon

You’ll also get access to all my other Patreon-only courses, all my source code and priority Q&A access.

No reason not to:

https://johnmorrisonline.com/Patreon

See ya over there!

P.P.S. If you liked the show, give it a like and share with the communities and people you think will benefit. And, you can always find all my tutorials, podcast episodes and more on johnmorrisonline.com, @jpmorris on Twitter and youtube.com/johnmorrisvideo.

Join 7,700 Other Freelancers Who've Built Thriving Freelance Businesses

Over 7,700 other freelancers have started thriving freelance businesses using the information on this blog. Are you next? Subscribe below to get notified whenever a new article is posted and create your own success story:

You might also like

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Pinterest
John Morris

JOHN MORRIS

I’m a 15-year veteran of freelance web development. I’ve worked with bestselling authors and average Joe’s next door. These days, I focus on helping other freelancers build their freelance business and their lifestyles.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Join 7,700 Other Freelancers Who've Built Thriving Freelance Businesses

Over 7,700 other freelancers have started thriving freelance businesses using the information on this blog. Are you next? Subscribe below to get notified whenever a new article is posted and create your own success story:

Success Stories

Ready to add your name here?

Tim Covello

Tim Covello

75 SEO and website clients now. My income went from sub zero to over 6K just last month. Tracking 10K for next month. Seriously, you changed my life.

Michael Phoenix

Michael Phoenix

By the way, just hit 95K for the year. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve taught me. You’ve changed my life. Thank you!

Stephanie Korski

Stephanie Korski

I started this 3 days ago, following John’s suggestions, and I gained the Upwork Rising Talent badge in less than 2 days. I have a call with my first potential client tomorrow. Thanks, John!

Jithin Veedu

Jithin Veedu

John is the man! I followed his steps and I am flooded with interviews in a week. I got into two Talent clouds. The very next day, I got an invitation from the talent specialists from Upwork and a lot more. I wanna shout out, he is the best in this. Thanks John for helping me out!

Divyendra Singh Jadoun

Divyendra Singh Jadoun

After viewing John’s course, I made an Upwork account and it got approved the same day. Amazingly, I got my first job the very same day, I couldn’t believe it, I thought maybe I got it by coincidence. Anyways I completed the job and received my first earnings. Then, after two days, I got another job and within a week I got 3 jobs and completed them successfully. All the things he says seem to be minute but have a very great impact on your freelancing career.

Sarah Mui

Sarah Mui

I’ve been in an existential crisis for the last week about what the heck I’m doing as a business owner. Even though I’ve been a business for about a year, I’m constantly trying to think of how to prune and refine services. This was very personable and enjoyable to watch. Usually, business courses like this are dry and hard to get through…. repeating the same things over and over again. This was a breath of fresh air. THANK YOU.

Waqas Abdul Majeed

Waqas Abdul Majeed

I’ve definitely learnt so much in 2.5 hours than I’d learn watching different videos online on Youtube and reading tons of articles on the web. John has a natural way of teaching, where he is passionately diving in the topics and he makes it very easy to grasp — someone who wants you to really start running your business well by learning about the right tools and implement them in your online business. I will definitely share with many of the people I know who have been struggling for so long, I did find my answers and I’m sure will do too.

Scott Plude

Scott Plude

I have been following John Morris for several years now. His instruction ranges from beginner to advanced, to CEO-level guidance. I have referred friends and clients to John, and have encouraged my own daughter to pay attention to what he says. All of his teachings create wealth for me (and happiness for my clients!) I can’t speak highly enough about John, his name is well known in my home.

Sukh Plaha

John is a fantastic and patient tutor, who is not just able to share knowledge and communicate it very effectively – but able to support one in applying it. However, I believe that John has a very rare ability to go further than just imparting knowledge and showing one how to apply it. He is able to innately provoke one’s curiosity when explaining and demonstrating concepts, to the extent that one can explore and unravel their own learning journey. Thanks very much John!

Mohamed Misrab

Misrab Mohamed

John has been the most important person in my freelance career ever since I started. Without him, I would have taken 10 or 20 years more to reach the position I am at now (Level 2 seller on Fiverr and Top Rated on Upwork).

Join 7,700 Other Freelancers Who've Built Thriving Freelance Businesses

Over 7,700 other freelancers have started thriving freelance businesses using the information on this blog. Are you next? Subscribe below to get notified whenever a new article is posted and create your own success story: