Some people may think that finding jobs at freelance sites is an easy thing to do: unfortunately, this is not true. For new comers, finding jobs is very difficult.
One of the things that matters a lot is whether a new comer sends a sample of his work to the buyer or not.
When should a new comer [or an experienced user] send sample of work to buyer?
There are lots of situations where the answer will be different depending on the situations. I will discuss few of these situations/scenarios:
First scenario:
You are a new comer: You posted a bid on a project: Buyer of this project has not asked you to send any sample.
This is the very common scenario that all users face.
As we all know, winning our first project is very difficult. In order to attract buyer’s attention, it is required that we do some special things for him.
One of such special things is sending sample of your work. But what sample will you send?
It actually depends on the type of project where you have placed your bid. First of all, is this a project where you can create a small sample of the work which is required by the buyer?
For example: if you have placed a bid on a copywriting job where the buyer needs 10 articles on, let’s assume, this topic “make money online”.
Now for this kind of a project, you can send a sample. You can simply send a already written article or you can write a short article on the given topic to show buyer your writing capabilities.
Important thing to remember:
Do not send a complete article. A sample means you write only few lines of an article. You can write 200 or so words and then send it to the buyer via PM.
Here is another example of a job where you can send a sample to the buyer.
Assume that a buyer opens a data entry project where he needs a person who can collect some information from the internet. Let’s assume that he needs to find websites of wedding dress makers in a specific city.
So what you can do is search the internet to find such sites and then make a small list of these sites: include site address and any other information which buyer may have requested and then send it via PM. Please note that, you should only send few entries.
For such projects, sending sample is always a good idea and this will surely help you to win your first project.
Just make sure that you do not get scammed by any buyer. After you send a sample to the buyer, wait for his reply. If the buyer demands you to send a bigger sample then I suggest you do not agree: or if he requests you to send another sample, then think about his request, does it sounds legit? Or the buyer may want to get his work done via asking different new comers to send small sample of work to him so that he can get his work completed without spending any money?
There are some projects where one cannot send a sample. For example: if a person needs to develop a new website, then you cannot just make a small site for him. You can create one page site but that may not do any good in attracting buyer’s attention.
For such projects, the preferable thing to do is to send examples of websites which you have created in the past for other people or for yourself. This is only possible is you already have done such work in the past: that is, you have past experience of this work.
Second scenario:
You are a new comer: You posted a bid on a project: Buyer of this project has asked you to send a sample of the work to him.
What kind of sample does the buyer needs?
That is a important question:
Assume that a buyer has opened a copywriting job where he needs 20 articles on this topic: “Free Online Jobs”. He needs the articles to be 500 words in length.
Now the buyer sends you a PM or sends you a reply to your PM and asks you to write one article on the said topic. He wants you to write 500 words one article and that if he likes your article, he will then hire you for this job.
Now tell me, would you do such sample work for the buyer?
Absolutely not:
The reason why buyer may ask for a sample is only that the buyer may want to check your writing capabilities and for this, a 200 words article will be enough.
There is no way you should do such sample work for any buyer.
So, before you decide to work on a sample for a buyer, think wisely. Do not let any buyer scam you.
If a buyer asks you to write a sample article, then simply write a 150 to 200 words on any given topic.
How can buyer scam you: in the above mentioned scenario, a scam buyer can send PM to 20 different users and he can give them 20 different titles on which they need to write 500 words article.
Now if these users send him the said samples, then he will be able to get the 20 required articles without paying any money.
Third scenario:
You are a service provider with some good ratings. Should you send a sample to the buyer?
If you are an experienced service provider, then you most probably will know the answer : )
Yes, you should send samples to buyers as sending samples is one of the ways via which you can win a project where lots of other members have also applied. But make sure no buyer scam you in this process.
The benefit that experienced users have is that they already have completed other jobs for buyers.
For example: an experienced service provider who does copywriting jobs will have many articles that he had written for different buyers. Now, if a buyer asks such user to write a sample, then he can send the articles to the buyer which he already has written.
For such users, I will suggest to only send sample of work which you already have done for other buyers instead of creating a new sample.
