Landing your first anything is always the toughest job and it’s no different on Elance or any other freelance job board. You’ve got no project history, no feedback, no earnings – in other words, no reputation or credibility. So how then do you get a buyer to eventually trust you enough to hire you for their project?

Before you start bidding for your first project, let’s assume you’ve already done the following:

• You’ve chosen the right category for your skill set
• You’ve written a crackerjack profile description of your business, its main players, the services you’re providing and the skills you offer. You’ve filled out all the profile details in an interesting, unique and factual representation of you.
• You’ve chosen the type of project you want to bid on and understand its requirements.

Okay then, all set? Let’s get started. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Get to Know the Buyer – Intimately
2. Make a Personal Proposal – but Not on your Knees!
3. Offer Custom Samples – with a Twist
4. Slash your Rates but not in the Usual Way!

And now the meat

1. Get to Know the Buyer – Intimately

To get my first-ever project on Elance, I went to the buyer’s website and read her e-book. I then read her blog and started following her on twitter. By the time I got around to writing the actual proposal, I felt like I already knew her, I knew what she cared about, I understood some of her passions and I found some common ground to relate to her with. (Btw, I’m not a stalker in case you were wondering

So know your buyer. It helps to humanize the person behind the project description because then you can find an area that you’re both passionate about. It helps you choose the right words and the right things to say. So please spend that extra time getting to know the person you want to do business with.

2. Make a Personal Proposal – but Not on your Knees!

Whatever you do, please don’t start off writing the bid with descriptions about you or your company – remember that’s what the crackerjack profile section was for! Instead, in the bid, write about the buyer. Be friendly, be warm, be personable. You want to remind them, hey you’re a person too, and not just a username without feelings.

Write as you would to a friend – not your best friend, but a friend you’d like to be closer to, a friend you’d like to help. Be helpful, show them you care about their project and have read all its details, write about how you plan to tackle it, how it’ll help them, how excited you are to get started on it and how much you share the same passions – wordpress, gardening, iphone apps, whatever!

3. Offer Custom Samples – with a Twist

Here’s the thing. There’s this big mantra on elance and other sites that you should never offer custom samples. Never? Really. Well how else are you supposed to get samples? You’re a first-timer remember? You’re new to the field and you don’t have samples to hand out. You can MUST make custom samples!

Now agreed, custom samples may be easier in some professions than others. But you CAN do it if you really try. If you’re a web designer, you’re gonna have to make a sample website for the buyer. Or if you’re an editor, samples of before and after editing of his project. Or if a videographer, a short video of his production. Or if a writer, a sample of the buyer’s writing project.

Now, here’s the twist. You give incomplete samples. Yeah you heard me right. There’s a reason it’s called a “sample” and not an “actual”. You don’t give it all away for free, but you give just enough to (a) prove your ability and showcase your talent and (b) pique the buyer’s interest. This last point is very important. The buyer’s curiosity must be aroused so that if he/she likes the custom sample, he will immediately want more of it. And from you!

You can make custom samples in any field really. If the buyer wants a 10 min video, show him a 30 second one without color correction, professional voice over or editing (or all those other time-consuming tasks). This is what I did with a custom sample video for a company that requested help videos.

If the buyer wants a writing project of 1000 words, write a 100 – 150 words (and make it snazzy!). If a buyer wants a logo, design a vector one and watermark it. And so on.

Now here’s where the real benefit comes along. Once you’ve made a few custom samples to attract your first few buyers, these then become your portfolio. Voila!

4. Slash your Rates but not in the Usual Way!

Most people think going as low as possible in the money department is a sure-fire way to win a project. It’s also a sure-fire way to ensure you get stuck in that low rate rut and forever brand yourself as a low-class provider, no matter how much excellent work you do.

Instead, here’s what you should say to the buyer:

Tell ‘em you’re new to Elance. Tel ‘em your rates are actually X because you have [insert offline experience, education, qualifications, passion here] but since you’re new here you’re willing to offer them a deep discount of say, 50% off your rack rates! Make it sound like you’re doing them a favor and that they’re getting a really good deal (which they should be getting because you should actually be worth what you charge). Please note I am not advocating over-charging!!

This does two things: it makes buyers feel like you’re making an offer too tempting to pass up and it sets you up nicely to raise your rates with the same client later on if they send repeat work your way. Nifty, hunh?

Everyone starts at zero, so don’t make the mistake of assuming that it’s just tough for you. Yes the competition is global. Yes its killer. Yes only the fittest survive. Question is, are you willing to put in the initial extra effort?

Let me know how long it took you to get your first project in the comments below!

Much has been said and written about low-balling in the freelance community. Essentially low-balling is used to describe the (unethical) practice of pricing a project way below its fair market value. It is done by both freelancers who wish to compete on price (although they just end up hurting themselves and their fellow freelancers) and by outsourcing clients (who want to get the lowest possible price for their project).

I recently had my first brush with low-balling on Elance from the client-side. But thanks to numerous freelancing sites discussing low-balling tactics, I knew exactly what I had to do and say to this buyer.

So here’s the thing: he came through a referral and wanted X number of articles. I placed a bid, quoted my price, delivery time, etc. I got back a response saying the price was too high and he has another writing service lined up (URL provided) that is willing to do the project for a third of the price and would I be willing to “close the gap”?

Well, thanks to the fact that I am now confident about my abilities and sure about the value of my services, I was able to compose (what I thought was) a fairly level-headed, professional response: (edited to exclude specific names and amounts).

I started by thanking him and letting him know right away that I was prepared to stand my ground and give a solid reasoning for doing so:

“Thank you for your response. I do understand your need for cost-effective articles and to that end wish to reassure you that my costs reflect both my experience (both on and off Elance) as well as expertise in completing a perfectly turned-out product.”

Next I regurgitated my excellent feedback and history with providing quality work:

“I started on Elance at [amount deleted] and have since then built up a reputation consisting of 100% satisfied clients in the past year and testimonials which state that ‘Wonderful provider and none of what she provided needed any tweaks at all. That is rare’ and ‘All of the articles were very well written and exactly what I was looking for.’ I have worked hard for these accolades and that is because each project I take on gets my individual and customized attention.”

Then I backed all that up with the fact that I have reached this price fairly and that it is an accurate estimation of my time and effort involved in the project. I ended by outlining the long-term benefits of the content to him.

“The money invested now in article marketing will generate long-term dividends over the months and years in directing targeted, relevant traffic to your business. Since I too, run my own business, I am familiar with the need for great SEO content, perfectly positioned articles and a focused marketing campaign. Hence my current rates reflect the above traits.”

I also offered him a way out of the deal gracefully, by letting him know that I would fully understand if he decided not to award me the project and scout the market further but that I hoped he made whatever decision worked best for his business needs.

At that point I had pretty much given up hearing again from this buyer. So imagine my pleasant surprise when I received a “Congratulations, you’ve been awarded…” notice a few hours later!

Essentially, the buyer (now a client) responded by saying that my confidence in my abilities (backed with facts) gave him confidence in me and that he would be willing to award me the project at my stated price.

I guess it just goes to show that there are genuine buyers out there on Elance and elsewhere who are willing to be convinced if you have the confidence in yourself to be able to convince them. I really dislike it when perfectly talented freelancers let themselves get sucked into accepting projects at lower than their fair market values simply because they don’t believe in themselves.

So my advice to a beginner freelancer (especially on bidding sites like Elance) would be to start with hard work, keep your nose down and build up an excellent case for yourself. Once you’ve become established in your field, make sure you respect yourself and your abilities. Others will respect you more because of that.

Have a low-balling story you’d like to share? Tell us how you got out of a low-balling pickle – would love to hear some interesting takes on this rather unfortunate aspect of freelancing.