Freelancer  has been around for quite awhile and I know several people who make a good living at it. What kind of a living? $3000 or more a month. That’s why I wrote this review. To help you get started with Freelancer. I can’t guarantee that you’ll make $3,000 a month, but this guide will get you started.

This is largely a bidding site. I’m normally opposed to bidding sites because I feel it diminishes writers and it tends to be almost a worthless effort when bids come in from non-western writers. Freelancer.com does take steps to minimize the impact and even the ability of these writers to bid on the same jobs that you will be interested in so lets get started and examine the site.

Getting started on Freelancer

Hop over to Freelancer.com and sign up. After signing up you will need to create a profile. It’s more than just a standard profile including a photo, name and address. You will also see some blank boxes. These boxes will eventually contain information to let other potential clients assess your completion rate, on time rate, on budget rate and how often the same client has rehired you. There is also a section for feedback.

You are signing up for a free account. There is an upgrade option but look around the site first and take it for a test drive or two. Get a feel for it, the community of freelancers and how the site works before you make any decisions about upgrading.

The Profile

The profile system here is somewhat unusual but it’s actually fun. The site uses points and levels to get you to complete your profile. The more of your profile that you complete, the higher your level, the more likely you are to see the posts of the higher value projects and the more likely you are to be hired. It has almost a game atmosphere.

There is plenty of space to include samples in the portfolio area as well as a nice resume setup. You just copy and past your information into the blocks or write it directly. It’s simple to use and doesn’t take long. For every section you fill out there will be ‘points’ and a percentage added to your account. These points add up to increase your level making you eligible for the better assignments.

Exams

The next area is the one most people leave until last and that is the one marked ‘exams.’ This is both the plus to this bidding site as well as it’s negative. There are exams for English proficiency. This removes the non-English speakers from the bidding list. Successfully completing this exam gives you an 85% better chance of getting hired by English speaking clients over those who don’t take the exam. The negative is that you have to pay to take the exam. As of this writing the cost is $5. Passing this exam also opens up thousands of jobs that would not be visible otherwise. Many clients who only want to get offers from native English writers will click the box that only allows those who pass the exam to bid on their projects.

Freelancer.com is not just a writing site. If there were any doubts to that the exam section will quickly clear it up. If you are a writer that also has technical expertise in computer and technical areas, you can also take those exams. Once certified you will be able to bid on those jobs as well.

Dashboard

This is probably one of the most basic Dashboards in the business. The reason is that Freelancer.com splits up their Dashboards into two segments. The main Dashboard shows only the projects in progress, how much money is in your account and how many bids you have left for the month. The higher your level, the more bids you can place. You can also upgrade your account from the free status for more bids per month.

Your Dashboard has several tabs on it so navigating to the other sections is simple and easy. Most of these are informational so you can keep up with site news.