This lecture will be strictly on Nairaland, I will share 5 things I have done online to make at least $1,000

Let's jump straight at it.

The number 1 is Freelancing. I am a top rated Freelancer on Upwork and I make a good figure working on Upwork
How to get Started , there are a couple of Freelancing sites, Upwork.com , fiverr.com , Freelancer.com etc
Visit any of the sites and register. But my focus is on Upwork. I will not really talk much on the registration as many people have already spent time doing that, So you can search for one of them and register. Make sure you complete your profile 100%.


Once you have registered. The next line of action is to start applying for jobs.

I will make this class very practical so please follow my example

Freelancing sites are like dating sites. You are the cute guy/girl and the clients are the men, women , the sugar daddies and sugar mummies who have the money to spend. Your job is to make them fall in love with you so that they can spend their money on you. But there is an issue, there are finer girls and guys trying to catch your suitors. What would you do?

In this case this is where the competition comes in. Lets look at it in the real world. Two guys trying to catch a girl or two girls wanting the same guy.

If you see think of your freelancing this way, it helps you better get prepared.

Now I will show you how to make your application be more romantic to the clients. Rather than you running after them like the rest. They will be the one begging to spend their money on you.

First of all, just like a dating site, you need to look super hot. Now the question is how do you look super hot. Get qualified. You see we live in a world where people love qualifications. I was at a conference there were two speakers. One of them schooled in NIgeria (he was the more interlligent guy) but the other schooled in the UK (pretty smart too but not as intelligent) . Guess who got standing ovation after they both introduced themselves, Yes your guess is as good as mine. The one that schooled in the UK.

So the first thing you should do is to get lots and loads of certification that relates to your area of study. There are lots of websites where you can get that. these are sites where you can get these courses for free. Also be google and facebook certified if you are doing anything digital. People wil trust you more if you flash your google certification

Coursera
Alison
Udemy
EDX -
Udacity
Lynda / Linkedin Learning

Now that your profile is looking cool, its time to get some social proofs. What are social proofs. I will give an example. If you claim you are good at what you do, you should have at least one person that has patronised you right?

One easy way to do this is, get people to talk about you or post lots of your works online. Its pretty simple

Nice one OP. Keep up the good work.

Lovely.. I am following

Once you have so many social proofs which are like referees that is people telling your suitors that you are as good as your claimed. now is the time to now do your Talking.

First if you meet your crush do you just walk up to them ans start saying hey my name is bla bla bla ..... Most people will just look away.

So how do you go about it.

Start your application by giving just a little of your achievements, then focus on how to solve their problem. Now lets break it down. Imagine you are a lady and two people are approaching you to start a relationship with you. which would you go for?

Candidate A
Hi I am Tayo, I live in Lagos State, I am a mechanical engineer with 5 years experience in building. in addition I finished with a second class and I am one of the top student in my class. I can use all microsoft packages, I am computer lliterate, I can help you fix your computer. Though I charge 20,000 for this, I will give it to you for 10,000

Candidate B
Hi in 2010, I was part of the team that built the first digital station in Africa. I was the site engineer overseeing the project. In addition to that I also worked in partnership with some top orgainsations like MTN, Conoil etc helping them to maintain their system, throughout my stay, we never experience a single system failure because I always do a check every day to ensure all system are working perfectly.
I understand that your computer is having issues. From your explanation it seems like a hardware issue, the processor to be precise. So here is how I am going to fix it. Sorry for the pains this has caused you but I promise to fix this.
Firstly, I would have to do a physical evaluation to be sure it is the processor
Then If it is , I would have to change the processor'
After changing the processor. I would do a test to be sure it is working well
Once I am done, I will also check some of the software that needs update , I will update them to ensure your system is up to date. Once I am done with that, I will physically bring it to your office in the evening to present it to you. Normally, for services like that we charge 25,000 but I will give you a discount of N5,000 . Therefore your bill is 20,000.


Now be truthful, who would you give?

I enjoy your flow. Ride on please.

I heard that upwork is going to ask for many documents for account verification once you get a job (that is if you're from a banned country like 9ja). How true is this?

Banned Country ke? They randomly ask for verification from almost every member. It is not about your country. I did my verification over 4 years ago. Its a normal thing

Webcomb:
I enjoy your flow. Ride on please.

I heard that upwork is going to ask for many documents for account verification once you get a job (that is if you're from a banned country like 9ja). How true is this?

Nice one op.

Following

Now for most people getting their first job is like getting your first kiss. Remember the client doesn't trust you. You need to prove beyond reasonable doubt that you are who you say you are and that you can do what you claim to do.

These are few tricks to getting your first job
Bid small, you need some form of review,
Secondly, address the problem and solution in your proposal

The next Post will address things you should look out for in a job

Please continue. You're doing a nice job

following

Apologies its been a busy period,

First, there are some things you need to understand. here is my general rule. Look out for these items
1. The post title, is it something you can do?
2. Is it hourly rate or fixed contract, hourly rates jobs are charged by the hour while fixed rate is charged by the project. Also how much is the client willing to pay for the job
3. When the job was posted
4. Number of people that have sent proposals, the reason for this is, if a job was posted less than an hour and it has gotten over 50 proposals the chance that the client will even check your proposal is slim
5. Check if the clients payment is verified, as a rule I do not even bother with clients that their payment are not verified
6. I check for their rating, a bad rating sometimes signifies a bad client, I just don't bother
7. I am also interested in how much they have spent.
8. Also the clients country, I am not trying to be racist, but I avoid clients from some countries, Overtime with experience you'd know some of these countries, That doesn't mean they are bad people.

After checking some of these and you are satisfied, quickly click on the job , read and understand the requirements and then you can apply.

here are the tips for applying
1. Don't be in a rush to apply
2. Read the job description carefully
3. Apply to the job by addressing the problem and how you can solve the problem
4. put a competitive rate
5. Review your application and submit

When Applying for a job on upwork,
Start with a salutation, Just something simple, Eg Hi or Hello
You may do some intro about your qualification
Then Dive into how you plan to do the job, (This is the killer part) I know sometimes the Nigerian in you might feel, what if I tell them and they use my idea and give it to someone else .
Its better for them to use your idea than to lose a great job because you didn't give in your best in the proposal. Most of the time, they client just want to know if you have an idea of the job.