How to really find clients on freelancing platforms such as Upwork, Fiverr, or Topcoder?
Massive action! This article shows you a simple and statistically sound way of increasing your odds of finding new clients as a freelancer.
I recently read the “10x” book by Grant Cardone. In his book, he invented the concept of taking massive action towards a goal.
Massive action.
- Not a timid amount of action.
- Not thinking in small numbers like “1” or “2”.
- Not an average “normal” amount of action.
Massive action creates a new level of problems where you have too much instead of too little response from the real world.
It’s a simple idea but it’s really powerful. Applying this idea to finding clients on a freelancer platform is very effective and usually leads to success.
Many people struggle with finding clients on a freelancing platform. They apply for one or two freelancer projects and wait for a few days until they get a response. The response is usually negative because the probability of getting accepted for a gig is maybe 5-10% — even if you underbid people. Oftentimes, clients want to have freelancers who have a lot of experience with past projects. If you are just starting out, you cannot showcase your experience.
So they apply for one or two projects and get rejected. If they are motivated, they try the same thing again. Only the super-committed ones repeat the same thing a third time. But after this fails too, they are out of the game. They are frustrated, argue that it’s not possible to earn money on freelancing platforms, and go on with the next idea to make money online (on which they’ll fail, too).
Yet, it’s so simple to find clients. It’s a numbers game.
Just realize that the acceptance rate of getting a freelancer gig is 10%. What’s the result? It means that on average, you need to apply for 10 projects to get one gig. If you apply for two projects, you have to be very lucky to get a gig — but most likely, you’ll fail. Even if you are serious and did everything right.
Before working as a self-employed Python coder, I was an academic computer science researcher. During my Ph.D. program, my goal was to get at least four high-quality research papers accepted. The acceptance rate was very low at 10-15% — even if you wrote a very good paper. So how to solve this problem? The only answer is massive action. Just submit the paper 10 times, improving it on the way. Then, you have a good chance of getting it accepted.
Realizing this early, I just committed to submitting a lot of papers. Because if I only submitted four times to a conference, it would have been virtually impossible to get accepted on four quality conferences. Instead, I submitted to maybe 15 conferences. Most papers got rejected but over time, more and more papers got accepted.
The only way of controlling your success in a competitive research environment is to submit papers regularly.
The same applies to getting freelancing clients as a Python freelancer. I just want to encourage you to apply for 10 projects at once. If you do this, you’ll get accepted by maybe one or two.
Many people fear too much work when applying for 10 projects. But think about it: wouldn’t it be great if you got accepted for all 10 projects? This means that you can focus on the most interesting ones and simply write a nice email to the remaining clients telling them that you need a bit more time to finish their projects. It’s better to have too many clients than too few. Actually, you want this problem of having too many clients. Only this way, you can increase your hourly rate over time.
A fundamental law of economics is that if demand exceeds supply, prices rise. Your prices.
This is how you will break through your ceiling. Applying for two projects and waiting is not massive action. Ask yourself whether you really want success or whether you manipulate your own success. Massive action is applying for 10, 20, or even 50 projects. And creating yourself a new level of problems (having too many projects rather than too few).
This way, you’ll create your first experiences and a lot of profitable work for yourself.
Where to Go From Here?
If you are interested in becoming a Python freelancer (even as a complete beginner), work from the comfort of your own home, and are committed to massive action, then check out my free webinar. I’ll give you a whole picture of the state-of-the-art in Python freelancing:
- how much you can expect to earn,
- how you can increase your hourly rate,
- how you can apply for projects,
- how to become a successful freelancer earning a good income on the side, and
- how to learn all you need on the way.
Register for free Python freelancing webinar.
If you’re super ambitious, feel free to check out the full Python Freelancer Course with our unbeaten success guarantee—or get your money back!