Well, now that I’ve been using Elance for just about three months now, I finally unveiled my earnings (Elance allows you to keep your earnings private for the world to keep guessing – even though you can finagle your way in and see the figures of another provider). I knew my clients and potential clients were able to see the cash I’d already pocketed to date but I wasn’t ready to share with other service providers like me on the site. Not until now.
Let’s go over the whys or why nots.
Zeros Are Not Attractive. They Just Aren’t.
For one thing, as a new member the last thing you want to do is attract attention to that blaring ‘EGG’ (another way of saying ZERO). I even had one client answer me point blank when asked why he didn’t select me even though I was an expert on that subject. His answer? “You don’t have any projects on your belt”. Granted, having no projects is one thing but even showing really low numbers is not a good indication of high quality. The last thing *I* wanted to do was to appear to be a sell-out. Even though I employed one questionable strategy (you can read more about that here) of doing a LOT of work for very little money as an ice-breaker, I didn’t want to expose that right way. I got lucky and since that first insanely low bid many projects have been pouring in.
Your Freelance Colleagues Bidding on the Same Projects Are Your Competitors. Simple As That.
Any way you cut it, a freelancer is looking for work. Usually. And if they are actively seeking out projects, including bidding on the same ones you are bidding on – well, genius – they are vying for the same job! I’m not saying they are not sincere or awesome people or that they deserve to be ostracized. No, nothing like that. But at least until you are an established E-Lancer, I don’t see the value is devaluing yourself (some may disagree here) by exposing your amateur earnings. Again, they can work their way into each project and figure out what they are up against – if that – but most people don’t have time to do that. They’d rather be bidding on quality projects. ;)
Earnings Per Client and Other Weird Metrics
Elance is funny like that. They have this weird and nonsensical system of lumping in all your earnings into one pool and then pulling an average based on the number of corresponding clients you’ve had. At first, I wasn’t bothered by it. Not until the one client I had who paid me $30 for a short article to test the waters. Yeah, he loved my work * I knew he would ;) * but that one $30 project threw everything else off. Suddenly my ‘Earnings Per Client’ stat plummeted. The same thing makes no sense the other way around either. I have a friend in Texas (yes, that’s where Bush is from ~sigh) who did one really high-paying job, creating the false impression to buyers/clients that her average client was spending more than several thousand dollars on her work. NOT true and a stupid metric of measurement at that. SO, to keep this under wraps a bit, for a time I had a veil on my earnings. There are other weird stats on Elance but they at least provide a snapshot of what you’ve put in to your online freelance business. The ‘Level’ a person is at is an instant ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for some clients – so one way to combat being judged by your earnings is to work on that metric. Once again, when you reach a respectable ‘Level’ feel free to bare your earnings, in my book, because they’re not as important anymore.
Money in the Bank Means You Did Something Right
Having said all that I said above, I recently made my earnings public. Never mind the fools that don’t realize what they’re missing if they don’t hire me because I don’t have an $8000-per-client average. I can no longer be bothered by what others on Elance are thinking either; I’ve pretty much established that my work is quality. Clients know what I’m good for, they know I’m committed and that they can rely on me. At THIS blissful stage, I find that they are more focused on the client feedback (more on that in another post)and job history rather than the numbers next to that little dollar sign on my profile.
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The moral, folks? There is none. Just that you need to do what makes you feel comfortable. MY two cents is that it’s a good idea to wait a while. Establish yourself. Expose that number once it’s no longer one of the first things people look at on your profile.
And, as always, I wish you the best of everything!
F
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