Making Money Online

Like we have already seen in a previous discussion, freelancing is one of the easiest ways to make money on the internet in Kenya as well as anywhere else in the world. You can work part time as a freelancer to earn an extra income or even make it your full time occupation.

It shouldn’t be a problem getting online jobs considering that freelancing sites such as freelancer.com and elance.com usually feature lots of online jobs that you can bid on and if the project owner gets impressed with your bid, then he/she might hire you for the job.


As good as freelancing is as a source of extra income however, many people struggle at making effective bids on the jobs that interest them. If you have a big name in the freelancing arena, this won’t be a problem as you will be seen as a trusted and reliable provider.

But as a little freelancer with little experience and credibility to your sleeves, how do you compete against the big guys from all around the world and take the projects or the online jobs you are eyeing home? Should you offer your service at below minimum rates just to gain an unfair advantage over other freelancers? Here are a few tips.

Sell your unique skills and attributes

How you present yourself to the buyer is critical in determining your chances of taking home the online jobs you want. Instead of focusing on reducing the rates in order to gain an advantage, you should mainly focus on convincing the project creator that you are the most ideal provider despite charging higher than some of your competitors.

You need to show why you are the most reliable for the job. For example, if the task at hand is to write articles for an antiques blog, you could mention another related project that you once worked on.

Personalize your bid

Instead of the normal one line bids and pre-packaged bids that are just copy-pasted by most of the freelancers for all the projects they are bidding on, take your time to personalize your message. Show the service buyer that you understand the project at hand and that you have taken the time to read it carefully.

And indeed you should take the time to read all freelancing projects carefully. For instance, more and more service buyers on freelancing sites are requiring the freelancers to include a certain word or phrase as part of their bid to show that they actually read the project description. If this is the case, include that word or phrase as well.

Avoid silly grammatical mistakes

This is especially important for freelance writing jobs. Silly grammatical errors may dramatically decrease your chances of winning the project since some buyers might see it as an early signal for poor job. Using proper English will thus place your bid favorable in the eyes of the project creator.

Think like your buyer

Another smart way to help you make effective bids on freelance projects is to address the issues typical to the field of the project. For instance if the online job you are bidding on involves writing, what concerns would a buyer likely have? Some of them are poorly written articles or essays, plagiarism and copyright issues, and late delivery to name but a few.

You should show how you will address these and any other issues by giving clear outlines in your bid. Of course you will not want to give all this details in the publicly viewable bids board. Instead, you should craft a nice message and post it in the private message board that most freelancing sites provide. You should also provide the project owner a rough estimate of the time you will require to complete the job at hand.

In a situation where not much details has been given about the project, you should then inform the project creator that you will provide him/her with a deadline once he/she has given more details about the freelance project. This not only shows your reliability but also shows your commitment to the project.

Follow this simple guideline while crafting your bids for freelancing jobs and you will soon find how easy it is to find a regular stream of online jobs. Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts or ask any questions you may have about the article.