Enter Elance – Part 2

Just got here? Here’s Part 1.

Next, you set up your profile by adding education and employment info. You don’t have to, but it helps you get jobs, because the client can see what you can do. Papers [or lack of them] are not necessarily a disadvantage online. On the internet, most people don’t care if you’re a boy or girl, if you’re black or yellow, if you have three PhDs or a high school diploma. What they care about is your skill, and you can show that clearly in your bid.

Speaking of skills, Elance has lots of free tests that you can do to prove how good you are. All the tests are multiple choice and are timed at 20 to 40 minutes. Some of them are pretty hard. When I first joined, I was afraid to bid and fail, so I procrastinated by spending six hours doing tests. I told myself I was improving my chances of being hired, but I knew I was just stalling. I did about 12 tests and failed two of them. Four more tests were registered as incomplete because I chickened out after doing three or four questions. Incomplete grades you as auto-fail by the way.

Depending on the type of membership you have, your profile will show between 5 and 20 test skills. They’re important because when you bid on  job, the client will check to see if you have the right skills for it. Fortunately, you have an option to hide your failed tests, so phew. Also, if you fail a test [or if you want a higher score] you can resit the test after 14 days.

Let’s see, what else. Oh, you have a number of connects every month which allow you to bid jobs. Most jobs need just one connect to bid, but the higher the budget, the more connects you need. Free  membership gives you ten connects a month, which means you can’t bid on more than ten jobs, although you can buy more connects at any time. 10 extra connects cost $5. I have a paid membership, so I pay $10 per month and get 25 connects. I generally bid on one job per day. Combine this with GAF and I’m trying out for 6 jobs every day, though I don’t bid when I have clients waiting; I don’t want to be overwhelmed and end up breaking deadlines.

Being the Queen of Technobofia, I had a few issues registering on Elance. I somehow managed to book myself in as a programmer, so I couldn’t bid on any writing jobs. I tried to correct it but got nowhere, so I registered a new account, this time as a writer, but it wouldn’t acknowledge my membership so I couldn’t do any tests. Then, because I had two account on the same IP, both accounts were suspect and kept asking me to prove that I was really me. *russumfussumsecretquestions*

I asked Support for help, and this awesome lady named Sophie helped me out without so much as a giggle. She deleted one account, corrected the second account, and upgraded me to 25 connects. I’m amazed she was so patient, as it took 10 emails between us to fix everything. I’m clearly a Passenger D kind of girl, but you rock Sophie.

When I finally got over my fear [and ran out of tests to do] I bid on four jobs, then I went to sleep. Two bids were $100 each, one bid was for $250 and the fourth was for $300. I used up four of my 10 free connects. That day had been particularly rough, because I hadn’t won a bid for five days. I went into panic mode and bid on seven GAF jobs plus the four on Elance.

… to be continued …

Crystal Ading’ is a professional author, editor, rock lover and mother. Her work is available through www.threeceebee.com.

Enter Elance – Part 1

I’ve been a GAF member for just over two months, but I’ve only been active since the 1st of August. So far, I’ve earned $ 180, which is not a bad start. It’s hard, because some days I have work from three different clients and I’m afraid to sleep, then after that I get four days where I win no bids at all.

The best strategy is to make as many bids as you can. I try to do a minimum of five bids a day, and some days I do as many as ten. The down side of this system is that I may end up with more work than I can handle. Luckily, the clients I’ve worked with are happy and patient, and some are willing to wait a few days before I start on their projects. In a way, you seem more talented when you have a waiting list, so the clients are more convinced you’re worth their money.

Once you get to the level of having too much work, you might want to do what Wham called working smart. You could gather your own team and outsource some projects to them. That way, you work less and earn more.

It’s a system that wouldn’t work for me because as much as I enjoy making money, I enjoy the writing more. Unless I’m really broke, I only bid on jobs that look like fun, so having someone else do the work would take the pleasure away. For me. Fortunately for capitalism, very few people think like I do. *cheeky grin*

Being a one-woman operation seriously drops your earning potential though, because no matter how good you are and how much coffee you drink, you can only work so many hours in a day. Besides, coffee makes me hyper.

There are two ways to fix this problem. Not the coffee problem – that one is beyond salvaging, so I just stick with black lemon tea. The only way you can boost your income – without becoming an employer – is to bid on bigger jobs. On sites like GAF that’s not quite possible, because the average gig pays $30. The site was started as a way for employers to get their work done on the cheap, so the low cost is part of their strategy. I thought about finding another site, so I tried Elance.

Elance is a slightly high-end provider compared to GAF. The lowest you can legally bid on a job is $50, and they have projects with a budget of up to $100,000. Per job.

Of course, Elance is harder to get into than GAF. I opened my account in July, then ignored it for a few weeks because I had to take a test to enter. *Groan* Eventually, I gathered the guts to do the test. It’s multiple choice, and it’s open book. Each question gives you a link where you can find answers, but since the test is only 40 minutes long, you may not have time to use the links.

There’s a resource called Elance University that gives you all the material for the test, and it’s a good idea to browse the campus before you sit to answer questions. EU gives information on where to get jobs, making successful bids, how to get paid and things like that. You can either read the material or watch a video. It’s pretty basic stuff, but there’s a lot of volume. I had to hang out there all day before I felt ready, and I still scored just 80%.

After you pass the test, you have to verify your phone number so they know you’re legit. It’s a pretty straightforward thing. When you click ‘verify’, you get an alert that asks you what time you want to be called. You can choose ‘right now’ or ‘in two minutes’ or whatever. The autovoice thingie gives you a call and while your phone is ringing, a code appears on your screen, which you read out when the autovoice tells you to. Voilà, you’re legit.

to be continued …

Crystal Ading’ is a professional author, editor, rock lover and mother. Her work is available through www.threeceebee.com.

PayPal Now Works in Kenya!


Well, yesterday was a very significant day for me. I am not sure exactly when it happened, but receiving money in Kenya through PayPal is now possible! Kenya is officially on of the PayPal supported countries.

Yesterday there was a heated discussion on the Skunkworks Kenya mailing list on whether one can use PayPal in Kenya. During this discussion, one of the skunks happened to visit the PayPal site and lo and behold Kenya was on the list of supported sites. It was not long before the skunks quickly tested and confirmed that receiving money in Kenya via PayPal is now actually possible!

Why is this important? Almost everybody knows about PayPal and they are the most popular company to process payments on the Internet. Many people will trust paying through PayPal because that’s what they normally use. In fact, in countries like the USA, if you do not offer an option for buyers on your e-commerce site to pay via PayPal, buyers will think twice before buying from you. Just using PayPal inspires trust amongst your potential customers.

Now that PayPal supports Kenya, I expect that e-commerce in Kenya shall grow even faster.

Unfortunately, you can receive money into your PayPal account in Kenya but you cannot yet withdraw it to a local bank account – you have to withdraw it to a US bank account. This is definitely going to be a hindrance for many, but there are rumours that PayPal is working with Equity and we shall soon be able to withdraw to an equity bank account in Kenya. Is this great, or what??

So, this is all great but how do you actually use PayPal to do e-commerce? Well, PayPal offers two main ways of getting paid:

  1. Anyone can send money to the email address that you used to sign up for PayPal and you will receive it int your account.
  2. You can integrate PayPal into your own website to power payment processing for your online shop. DukaPress is probably the easiest way to do this as it supports PayPal straight out of the box.

Update: PayMPESA Helps Withdraw Your PayPal Funds to MPESA

Update: You can also now withdraw from PayPal through Babawatoto or LibertyReserve.

How to Create an Online Shop In Less Than Ten Minutes

This is a video I did showing how to set up a shop using DukaPress in less than ten minutes! Who wants to start an online shop? Watch the video:

Ready to start? Download DukaPress for free.

Making it as an Online Freelancer [Interview]

For the readers that don’t know, Linda Cherotich is a writer and freelancer extraordinaire. She is available for hire on www.freelancer.com and is already making a decent amount of money working online. Today, we get to learn all her secrets.

Q. You’re quite an achiever, tell us about you
Linda Cherotich is a young Kenyan woman with little to say but a lot to write about. I’m somewhat an introvert. Above all, I have an independent spirit.

Q. How do you make money online?
I write all kinds of articles for online clients; most of them on social issues. I have constant clients who fill my days with work.

Q. How did you start?
WOW…that’s a long story. I have always been reading and writing but until I went to college I considered it a hobby; my favorite pass time. It was in campus that I started writing seriously, being a firm believer in giving my all to what I love. This was the first time I had paid close attention to my writing passion and I sharpened this skill all through my schooling. I wrote short stories here and there and I kept a daily journal for three years. Towards the end of my fourth year, I discovered the potential that the internet had and I decided to exploit it. That was a year ago and I have never looked back

Q. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
The biggest problems I faced were internet connection, personal organization, dealing with internet clients who didn’t pay me, among others. It was very hard at the beginning and I recall wondering if I was really up to the challenge. Before I got myself my own internet connection it was hell on earth. The first few months were hard but in no time I was on my feet. I had to discipline myself and make time for work everyday. Before these challenges I was very naïve about the market and freelancing as a career, but there is only one way to learn…take the plunge.

Q. What are the challenges of being an entrepreneur in Kenya?
In this field, getting a good client can be hard; akin to sucking blood out of a stone especially if you are a beginner. You really have to prove yourself and demonstrate that you have the abilities the client is looking for.

Q. What was critical to your success?
Success can only be brought by a change of attitude, and I had to learn that.

Q. What about the competition and marketing, do you need to advertise, print flyers participate to conferences or is it mostly word of mouth?
Since the business is internet based, the only way to advertise is having a profile that outshines the rest. Developing trust with a client is crucial to your success when you are beginning

Q. Do you think that in order to “make it big” online you have to live in a Western country? Or does Kenya offer more or less the same opportunities?
Not necessarily, but you have to agree that they have a wider market and better options than us. Some clients, for example will not hire service providers from developing countries and if they do they will pay a fraction of what they would have paid providers from their own countries. Then, there is the payment method issue, which makes it a liability for them to hire service providers from this part of the world. In order to make it big as a freelancer in Kenya, you have to work twice as hard as a freelance writer in the west.

Q. Where do you see yourself and your business (es) in the next 5 years?
I’m going to be a force to be reckoned with…watch this space

Q. If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
Maybe I would have started earlier than I did, but I guess everything has its day and time. I never really knew a lot about online writing before I went into it, so I would read more about online writing.

Q. What advice do you have for internet business entrepreneurs in Kenya?
First, consult with people who have tread the path before you; they have the experience and you can learn from them. Second, be realistic, do not expect too much too fast. Third, be positive and fourth, since you need to have a skill to make it in your internet based business, take your time to develop them. If you have to take a course please do, it will be worth your while.

Kenyans on Freelancer – Part 2

If you’re just stepping in, you can gather the first part of this here. Moving on.

I’m on the site as an editor and writer, so the kinds of jobs I bid on are blog posts, copywriting, product reviews, and research tasks. The coolest jobs are the rewrites, where you’re given a story and told to redo it using your own words. They’re pretty easy, but they usually come on batches of ten, and after doing the same thing four times, your brain becomes jaded. It’s hard not to make the tenth article much worse than the first.

You can improve your chances of winning bids by paying the $20 fee to become a gold member. You pay it once a month, and it increases your shots at getting business. You can also choose your jobs carefully so that your toiling is worth it. For example, some jobs offer $30 to do four reviews, while others pay $30 for 25 articles. the word count and complexity vary, but 4 vs 25 … do the math. I’ve seen jobs for as much as $2500, but these are usually longterm jobs spanning several months, while the $30 jobs are for two or three days.

Some tasks are really hard. Yesterday I did 6 blogs in 3 hours and earned just $6, then did 10 rewrites in 4 hours and was paid $10. It’s hard not to pluck out your hair sometimes. But I have a good strategy, I’m pretty well organised, and I love to write, so I look at the words and think hmm, not bad. It helps that I love this work enough to do it for free.  As a professional writer, it seems dumb to be writing critiques on the coolness of Nokia, just to be paid in pennies, but the pennies add up, and you’d be surprised how much fun you can have poking fun at the torch on a China phone.

I started by saying Kenyans on Freelancer, because I’ve seen lots of  Kenyan flags there. When you register on the site, it uses your IP to figure out where you are, and then every time you bid, a little flag sits next to your name to tell people where you’re from. It helps because some clients like workers from specific countries. It could be primal loyalty, or it could be the ability to bid $30, who knows. But I’ve nosed around the Kenyan profiles, and they’re winning quite a few bids, so I think we’re making a name for ourselves.

Freelancer isn’t just for writers. There are thousands of jobs for IT people, architects, designers, anyone really. And it’s really easy to register. Just get on the site, key in your email, choose a good user name, and start your work. Choosing a user name can be hard because the common ones are taken, but you can go with your initials, your first and last names, your childhood nickname, or a description of what you do. You might want to avoid things like Bigbrotherdownstairs or Sexyxyz unless you’re bidding for jobs as an adult worker. If the name you choose is taken, the page will keep refreshing until you get a free name, in which case you could go with Susan365 or something like that.

Word of warning: some people on the site use it to subcontract. They’ve been on GAF for longer and they have more reviews, so they apply for jobs, win, then pimp the jobs to new workers at a fraction of the price. You won’t realise this is happening unless you’re curious, nosy, or have a lot of time on your hands, and they generally target n00bs who don’t know any better. On one hand, you get jobs that you may not have access to because you lack reviews, but on the other hand, why give someone credit for your skill?

Some workers bid online then subcontract the work offline, which is okay. But when you’re all working on the site, nobody cares if your green, pink or yellow. You know each other by user names, and you can’t even tell one’s sex. So the playing ground is equal. You should try your luck and bid, not piggy back off others.

One way to avoid the ride is to sniff around a little. When someone posts a job, look at their profile to see if they’ve just won a bid on the same job elsewhere. A person may bid $30 then offer you the same job for $15. Also, if you possibly can, avoid getting jobs from people in your industry. For example, as a writer, I try to bid on jobs posted by the IT crowd. If I bid on work from a writer, it’s possible she’s being paid for the same job somewhere else.

Another important thing is don’t do too much work for a client who hasn’t awarded you a bid. They may say they’re trial exercises, but it’s possible they’re using your work for free. Writing one or two sample articles is reasonable as part of a bid, but when you’re doing a few days worth of work, and the employer isn’t proving that they plan to pay, it’s time to get worried.

I haven’t been on the site very long and I’m far from the $100 mark – it takes time to get known. When I lost my first bid, I ignored the site for ten days. I decided I just couldn’t hack it. But then I came back, made a new bid, and landed my first job in minutes! The client said he picked me because he liked my English.

I was lucky – I lost only three bids before I won my first one. I’ve won a couple more, but I still lose bids daily, and it can get depsyching. But I pick my own hours and choose jobs and clients. I can do some work offline, and still bring in food for my baby. All at the cost of a month’s fee at Zuku. If you ask me, it’s a pretty sweet deal.

Crystal Ading’ is a professional author, editor, rock lover and mother. Her work is available through www.threeceebee.com.

Kenyans on Freelancer – Part 1

If you’re a regular here, then you know about Freelancer.com, or as some members call it, GAF. No, that’s not some secret subscribers code. It’s just the initials of the site’s old name, Get a Freelancer [Dot Com]. I’ve wanted to join the site for a long time, but I was afraid to try. I was eventually bullied into signing up [bless my bully!] and I’ve been working on this site for almost a month, so I thought it’d be good to do a little recap.

GAF is like a modern day sweatshop. We often complain about little kids in Indonesia being forced to sew buttons for 12 hours a day at 20 cents an hour. GAF is like that, except that we’re all grown adults and we use our minds more than our fingers. We write, design, create … and most of us  have more than one degree.

Here’s how it works. You go on the site and you register as a worker. You study the job board and look at the tasks and projects. You choose the jobs you want and decide how much you want to be paid. You approach the employer and say you’d like to do job XYZ in 123 days and that you’d like to be paid Q amount of dollars.

And then a worker from India peeks over your shoulder, looks at your bid, offers to do the same work $30, and gets the job. I’m not making this up.

Well ok, it’s not really that bad, not all the time. I’ve bid as much as $350 dollars for a gig, and sometimes you get paid what you bid. But the average bid on the site is $30, so you might not want to ask to be paid a thousand.

When an employer posts a job, they tell you how much they’re willing to pay. The usual budget is $30 to $250. As a freelancer, you can bid any figure within that range, but usually, the lowest bid wins, and a lot of people bid just $30.  When I tried for my first job, the prospective client was quite impressed with my work and my samples, but asked if I would be willing to lower my bid. I did. He has paid me a lot more since.

Getting a job is not just about price though. Sometimes, a client will willingly pay more money if he feels that your work is deserving. When you apply for a job, you read the project requirements, then click ‘Bid on this project’. You’re taken to a page where you key in your  price, suggest the duration of the task, and write a little note of 5000 characters explaining why you’re right for the job. You have the option to send a private message to the client’s inbox, where you can whisper sweet nothings and offer kickbacks or a bribe.

I’m just saying that. Nobody offers kickbacks or bribes. I think.

Once you’re awarded a task, you do it and deliver, and then you get paid. The client has an option to put up a public review of your work, saying how good you are or how much you suck. The more reviews you get, the more chances you have of winning bids in future.

So far, I’ve worked with two clients on the site and gotten one review. Both clients seem quite happy with my work and have given me repeat business. But I have to keep bidding for new clients because at $30 per assignment, you have to do  hundreds before it adds up. Sometimes when a client likes your work, they pitch you directly, so you’ll look at the job board and see ‘Job for Threeceebee’, meaning no one else is allowed to bid. Other times, the client will send work directly to your inbox and not post it on the job board at all.

…to be continued…

Crystal Ading’ is a professional author, editor, rock lover and mother. Her work is available through www.threeceebee.com.