How to Guarantee Getting Paid for Your Freelance Work Every Time

So, you want to delve into the world of online freelancing. Whether that is design, writing, coding, photography, or whatever sphere of work you are freelancing in.

Now, you are freelancing for income here and would certainly like and expect to get paid for your work.

This is exactly what I will be discussing in this post, but I will be tackling this hot topic from two different angles.

1. Different methods for receiving your freelance payments
2. How to ensure that your clients actually do pay you

You may be interested in the different means that allow you to get paid by your freelance clients, because, like me, you do not reside in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, or any of the other "more-advanced" countries.

Even if you do live in one of these countries, you might find that receiving your payments for freelance work by paper check or some of the other methods I will be discussing in this post, do not particularly appeal to you.

And so you need more viable options for getting paid quickly and effectively.

Payment Avenues for Freelance Workers

The most popular is payment by check. It is convenient for your client, who simply writes it and drops it in the mail. However, you might not appreciate the time spent waiting for it to arrive by post, and the extra time before it gets cleared and can be deposited into your bank account.

Even if you live outside of the US, you can still get paid via check, but you should note that the time delay will be even more compounded in this case. There is, however, another persistent problem in this case.

Trying to cash US or other country checks in your own country can really be a headache.

Let me give a personal example here, although it wasn't a payment for freelance work specifically. The first payment that I received for my earnings as an Adsense publisher was a US check sent to my address here in Ukraine, where I live.

I can positively tell you that trying to find a way to deposit the money was not easy at all. I was literally referred from bank to bank. And to this day, that check is still lying somewhere in my apartment, un-cashed.

Needless to say, I have since changed my payment methods. I will discuss more on this later on in this post.

Payment by Bank Deposit

Depending on the client, you may have the option to get paid by bank deposit, also known as wire transfer.

This method ensures that you get your money faster; however, you have to be careful with this as it requires you handing over your bank account information to the client.

So, note: only use this method with clients that you trust. For example, don't use it with a first-time client that you found somewhere on Craigslist.

Payment Processors

These include popular companies like Paypal, MoneyBrookers, 2Checkout, etc.

Their service is particularly great because it saves time. I mean, you can literally get paid for your work within a few short minutes.

One downside, however, is the fee charged for these transactions. For example, Paypal gets a 2-3% fee for each payment you receive.

However, many people find the time, convenience, and security benefits that these processors offer worth the fees paid to use them.

I have experience with using Paypal both to receive and make payments online, and I enjoyed it for a long time.

Our love story came to an abrupt end, however, when I discovered that I couldn't withdraw payments from my Paypal account while in Ukraine.

Yes, that's right, Paypal offers differing services based on what corner of the earth you reside in.

So I found myself unable to receive freelance, affiliate, or any other payments through Paypal. Which brings me neatly to my last payment method.

Payoneer Debit Card

This payment method is the last in my list as it combines a variety of payments into one. It's the one I've found to work best for me, which I promised to talk about later.

You can receive payments from Paypal and a host of other processors and companies no matter where you are in the world.

As a freelancer, you simply request payment via Paypal from your client, and withdraw the funds onto your Payoneer Debit Mastercard.

Additionally, freelance job portals like Elance, Odesk, Freelancer, and others list the Payoneer Mastercard as a means of withdrawing your funds.

The company has a basic annual charge of $30 for card maintenance, which they deduct from the first payment(s) you receive onto the card.

The actual process of registering and applying for the card, and receiving it by post is absolutely free, which I found to be very useful at the time.

Register for your free Payoneer MasterCard by clicking this link, and stand a chance to win a $25 bonus. This offer is only available through this link. I didn't even know about it when I registered for mine. You should give it a try.

How to Make Sure You Get Paid, Not Played, by Your Clients

1. Start with a contract. Always begin your work for clients with a contract that clearly details everything that the job entails, including payment terms.

Get more detailed instructions and a free template for crafting freelance work contracts here.


2. Research your client. This should actually be your first step in establishing the legitimacy of your client. Use Google. Search out info on the clients as well as any complaints that may have been leveled against them.

You don't want to waste time and energy discussing plans with a client that you can already guess might not pay you.

If you are working on a freelance job site, checking on factors like the client's award rate might save you time spent on crafting a super proposal for their job posting. Typically, you should avoid clients whose profiles show award rates lower than 40%.

The award rate simply refers to the percentage of jobs that the client posts compared to the total number. So if a client awarded 7 of the 10 jobs he posted, then he has an award ratio of 70%, which is good.

3. Demand upfront payment. Making the practice of requesting an upfront payment from your clients of up to 30-50% will definitely help with getting paid.

After receiving your upfront payment, you can set up the remaining fee to be paid to you upon completion of agreed milestones (clearly stated in your freelance contract).


4. Be prompt with invoicing. Send invoices as early as possible. The fresher your work is in the mind of the client, the quicker you can get paid.

Delaying with sending your invoice could result in your payment being further delayed, or even worse, you never getting paid at all.

5. Follow-up on your clients. Don't keep mute if your client does not respond to your invoice. Follow up by phone, email, and even by post; always politely, of course.

Your follow-up system ahould also include actions taken to penalize late payments, such as fines. It could also include reminders of incentives for early paymemts like discounts. All of this, ideally, should have been clearly stated in the work contract that was signed at the beginning.

So, there you have it. Ways and means of making sure that  an important part of your freelance life (Read: getting paid!) gets accomplished each and every time.

If these tips don't ensure you get paid, then I don't know what will.

Did you find this post helpful? You can also join my email list to receive my newsletter where I share the best tips for successful freelancing.

Did I miss any tip/idea in this post. Do you have a different opinion? Share it in the comments below.

Beginner's Guide to Successfully Navigating Freelance Job Portals

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So, you've decided that you would really like to earn some income by freelancing online. Next thing, you head over to Google and type in the words <freelance jobs online> and you are instantly barraged with millions of web pages that could be of help to you.

A few hours later, you feel like you've been on a 100-km marathon with nothing to show for your efforts but tiredness and a handful of freelance job sites.

Now, despite your tiredness, these sites actually look interesting and appealing to you. That's because you can see that thousands of jobs have been posted there by thousands of employers who could become your prospective clients.

So you give it a go; after all here is the opportunity you've always wanted. The ability to earn a good income doing exactly what you love, and all from the comfort of your own space (or home, traditionally). Yes, that's right, the opportunity to call the shots and be your own boss.

So you got down to work, registered as a freelancer on the job portal and applied for a couple of the jobs that perfectly fit your "ideal job" vision.

A couple of days went by, and then weeks and months. And still nothing. Actually, you had thought that by now you would have had a couple of paid clients under your belt.

So you decide to check on the clients just "one more time" and you log in to the freelance portal, and check your inbox. You also click to check the status of the jobs that you applied for, and unhappily, this time around, you see the dreaded "Awarded to another" notice.

You may now be wondering what you did wrong, and why your fantasy of perfect online freelancing doesn't seem to want to become a reality.

Well, wait just a minute.

Before you wander into job-induced depression, here is some advice from a seasoned online freelancer:

It's. Not. Personal. It's. Just. Business.

Taking specific steps that have been proven successful in landing good jobs on freelance portals will have you making your own success in no time at all.

So I will be sharing with you in this post the absolute basic steps that will take you from being a bumbling beginner to a literal expert in the world of freelance job sites. When done right, these steps will ensure that you are able to utilize such websites successfully in achieving your goal of earning an income online.

I would recommend that you read through all the steps below and then re-read and implement every one that applies to you.

I will be accompanying the instructions with snapshots and examples from Elance.com, one of the most popular online freelance job portals and one in which I have landed several lucrative jobs.

Register on the Freelance Job Site

The first thing that you would need to do would be to register with the portal, in this case, Elance.com. Now, when doing this, make sure that you are as detailed as possible as it will help you later when applying for jobs.

 To get started with the registration, simply click <Get Started Now>.

The page you will be re-directed to requires you to fill in basic information like your name,  username, email address, password, location, and other preferences. Here you will also be asked whether you intend to use Elance as an individual or as a company.

The basic differences between these two options is that registering as a company allows you to have a team of other freelancers who can share and access your account with you. An individual account, however, can only be used by you.

Registering is pretty straightforward. Just be as detailed and accurate as possible when filling in the form!

Complete Your Profile

After registering, it's time to create a profile that shines.

On Elance, the steps to completing your profile are pretty self-explanatory. There is also a helpful score tab which lets you know how complete your profile is. It looks like this:

The new freelancer registration I did for this tutorial had a profile that was 20% percent complete at the time. So some of the things I needed to do to make it more complete would be to verify my email address, enter my basic profile information and upload my picture.

Clicking on each of those links would then give me more details on carrying out the instructions.

I would recommend getting it to 100% complete as it is one important aspect that lends credibility on the site. Doing something as simple as uploading a profile picture is known to increase the number of jobs that get awarded to you.

Display Your Freelance Skills

Another important part of completing your profile is setting your self apart from thousands of others by clearly stating what freelance skills you will be offering.

The predictive text input function of this aspect helps you narrow down your skills into very specific niches.

After this step, you will be asked to choose your membership plan. From the image, you can see that I had the option of either the Basic (free) plan or the Individual (premium) plan at $10/mo. This was because I had earlier chosen to register as an individual, rather than a company.

The company plan also offers a basic and a premium plan.

Apparently the premium plan offers these extras:

• 20 more Connects to apply for jobs with than the free plan
• Access to more than one job category at a time
• Higher placements in search results for freelancers on the portal
• Greater visibility to clients

My opinion is that the premium membership at $10 per month is really worth it if you know that you are going to be making a lot of applications each month. It's also worth it to be found before other people when a client is searching for someone with your particular skills.

Choosing your membership plan now is not something you should sweat over now, as you can always change it later at any time.

Also, you should know that not all jobs require one Connect to apply. Connects simply work like Elance currency, used solely by freelancers, to apply for jobs.

The amount of Connects that you need to apply for a job posting depends on two things. Firstly, if you applied for the job yourself or you were invited by the client to apply. If you were invited by a client to apply for his/her job, then you do not need to use any Connect for the application.

Secondly, the price range of the job's payment determines the amount of Connects needed to apply. Typically, I've found that jobs with payment below $500 require one, while those up to $1000 require two, and above that requires three.

Take Skill Tests

Elance (as well as many other freelance job sites) offer skill tests that you can take  to display your skill proficiency. You can then choose to display the results from the tests on your profile. This is one tip that has always been said to give an upper hand over the freelancers who never bother to take them.

I personally took the skill tests that were relevant to me almost immediately after registering on Elance, together with verifying my identity, completing my profile, and updating my freelance portfolio.

Anything that you can do to increase your credibility before clients who come to hire on the site, such as taking the skill tests, is one that I would highly advise that you do. It, furthermore, shows that you are serious about your participation on the portal.

Create A Solid Freelancer Portfolio

Whether you would like to write, design, develop, market, sell, or do any other thing for paying clients on freelance portals, displaying your portfolio is always a good idea.

It serves as a tool to convince clients who have never worked with you before on the great job you will be able to do for them once they hire you.

So do not neglect to present a solid portfolio.

Search for Jobs

You can start searching and applying for work by simply looking for the Jobs, Work, or Projects tab.

On Elance, simply click on the Find Work tab in the upper navigation bar. Look at the left sidebar, and you will find that the jobs are grouped into categories. This is great because, personally, I find that it saves me time from sorting through jobs that I have no interest in.

Typically, I head straight to the Writing & Translation category or the Website design sub-category on Elance, without wasting any precious brain fuel sorting through unlikely jobs. The categories are also each divided into specific job sub-categories.

Use the Filters to Find Relevant Freelance Jobs

Another method that I've found to be very useful and time-saving when searching jobs is to use the filters. Elance.com has a filter function that allows you to search jobs that fit different criteria such as price, duration, type (hourly or fixed-price), by keyword, and several other criteria.

So for example, when I head over to the Website Design sub-category on Elance, I filter the results I get by searching for jobs with "Wordpress" as a keyword and fixed-price payment.

Just experiment with these filters to find which combination consistently helps you find the most relevant jobs. rather than wasting hours staring at meaningless postings through your computer screen.

Another tip is that you can receive daily emails containing jobs that match your criteria using the <Saved Search> function.

Apply for Jobs

On the <Find Work> page, you will see that all the jobs that have been posted are listed with the most recently-posted first. You can choose the specific category and/or sub-category you want to search in using the links on the left tab. 

You can also change how you want the jobs to be listed; whether by Post Date (which is the default), or by Job Name, Budget, Rate, Time Left, or Proposal Count.

When you have the jobs listed just the way that you want (I prefer the default since it helps me apply for the latest jobs, with the added benefit of little or no prior competition from other freelancers), you will see them listed in the form of headlines and short excerpts.

Some of the most important about the job will be visible in its listing, including the client name (as a link to their profile), job rate and payment time, the time it was posted, and how many job proposals have already been submitted.

(I really find this last info useful, as it saves my time and Connects from applying for jobs that tens of other qualified freelancers have already applied to.)

A small part of the job description is also included in the list view. To view the entire job and apply to it, simply click on its title. This will take you to a page where you read the entire job posting, view any attached files, and submit your own proposal.

If you do not want to apply for a particular job (or even if you do), but still want to keep an eye out for it, clicking on the star icon beside its title will add it to your Watch-List.

Tips for Making A Successful Job Proposal

Let me share a few tips on making a successful proposal on freelance job portals.

1. Be professional, yet not too formal in tone when writing your proposal
2. State points that show how you will directly meet the client's requirements
3. Show examples of the sort of result your work will produce for them
4. Submit your best work samples that are relevant to the client's job
5. Make a competitive price bid

Link Your Payment Withdrawal Method

Elance offers a number of ways for you to withdraw your payments; whether by check, bank transfer, Paypal, Skrill, Payoneer, and others.

Make sure to set your withdrawal method early on as it will take some time before it goes into effect.

Share Your Thoughts:

Is there anything left out of this guide? Do you have experiences and tip you want to share with others. Please share in the comments below. Thanks.