Freelancing: How to

Step 5: Conveying updates to the Buyer

At step 4, you placed your bid, and you also wrote a cover letter describing details and hence, if the buyer likes your profile, reviews, and impressed by your cover letter, then he will reply you back with mail for interview.



All responses/ invitations that you'll get from the Buyer will be through your Odesk 'messages’. You can reach this page by clicking on ‘Message’ on top, and then clicking on the ‘update’ button. It’s a very simple interface for interacting with the buyer and you can adjust to it in no time. Be kind, and professional while interacting with the Buyer. If you’re good enough, then you’ll get accepted by the Buyer and you shall receive an email about the same.




To accept the project from your side, you need to login to your Odesk account and click on ‘Candidacy’. This page contains the list of projects on which you have placed your bids. The project which was accepted by the Buyer shall have a green link on it, called ‘Accept Project’. So, you need to accept it, and then you shall be taken to a page which shall show you the buyer’s email address. Copy that email address, and send the buyer a thanking email, like:



[Salutation(hi/hello)],

Thanking for accepting Bid. Hoping positive response on completion of projects. asking for the project details so it is easy to start ASAP.Kind request for deposit the requisite amount in Escrow before start of the project, if it is fixed priced project.

Thanking again and pay Regards,


[Your Name]




For your kind notice, these Freelancing websites charge some fee from the buyer and the freelancer for each project. The project fee taken by each website is different and mainly depends on the bid amount. Please refer to the FAQ section of each website for more details:



https://www.odesk.com/w/faqs

https://www.getafreelancer.com/faq

http://www.elance.com/p/help/provider/projectfeecost101




You may have noticed above that it is explicitly asked the buyer to deposit the required amount in the Escrow. This is because to protect monetary loss as there are some buyers who make provider work for their project and then don’t pay the provider later on. The Escrow is a safest way to manage payement being not to misappropriated handled by Odesk, where the buyer deposits certain percentage of the money(as set by provider) at the begining of the project, and the buyer transfers the money once the project is successfully completed.




Now it is time to cheers as you are in the last phase where you will love to be get paid. So, loose your seat belt and ready to fun..................