My course, “Freelancing Basics: 101 Ultimate Guide to Freelancing” with a free tutorial of the PeoplePerHour platform, is at a discount price of $15 for this month. The course will return to its original price, $45, once the month has ended. It also includes a free chapter of Freelance Writing that explains a step-by-step procedure of how to outline your proposal. 

Writing a freelance job proposal is an art in and of itself. There are certain rules you must follow to be the best freelancer for the job, particularly if you’re dealing with a client for the first time. Your proposal showcases your commitment and willingness to work on the project.

After you create your freelancer profile, begin searching for the right job. The right job for you is the one where your skillset appears in the client’s description of what they want.

Next, you have to write the actual proposal. But wait! What are you going to write? How are you going to persuade someone to hire you when they know nothing about you (and don’t care)?

Know this: all the client cares about is the work that needs to be done. You need to write your proposal in such a way that the client knows beyond a doubt that you’re the RIGHT person for the job.

I’ve written proposals for years, and clients always reply to me, even if I’m not awarded the job. Sometimes, clients respond so long after my proposal that I don’t even remember what the job was! But clients do read your proposals (at least, I read all the proposals I get). That’s because when clients read your proposal, they’ll find yours more persuasive and convincing than the others’.

Read this if you have no idea what freelancing is all about 

I have a specific way of writing proposals, and, believe me, it works. And I am going to teach you some very basic techniques to remember before you write a proposal for any job. You’ll be able to apply these techniques to any job posting on any platform.

Whether you’ll be working on Upwork, PeoplePerHour, or Fiverr, you’ll find my step-by-step procedure useful. Your negotiation and communication skills matter a lot, and the way you interact with clients will determine whether or not you get the job. So check out my tips and start applying them to your own proposals.

Don’t Be Informal (Clients Are Not Your Friends)

The first suggestion I would give to any freelancer is not to be too informal to your clients, especially when you’re negotiating for the first time. Understand that no matter how good the client is, you should always be professional. So stick to the point and be formal in your writing.

Your client is not your friend. They are paying you to complete the work they need done. Although you can get away with asking informal questions from time to time, I would personally recommend that you stick to a neutral tone.

If you build a long-term relationship with the client where you become more comfortable using informal conversation, then that’s fine.

The more professional your approach towards your conversation, the better the response from the client.

Start With Your Immediate Capabilities

In the beginning of your proposal, immediately indicate your capabilities. That’s the first thing every client wants to know. Your capabilities include your qualifications, expertise, experience, etc. If your list of achievements is too long, summarize them and talk only about those that are specifically mentioned in the job description.

If you have done work in the past that’s similar to what the client is asking for, you should absolutely mention it. This will help your proposal get read all the way through because the client will see that you honed in on topics that were important to him/her. If the job is a featured one and you have to write a long proposal, use the first few lines to highlight that similar experience. The first lines are the most important ones, especially in featured jobs (where clients paid to post the job on a third-party platform). Pay close attention to the first two lines for this job I was awarded:

Don’t Forget to Explain the Client’s Requirements

After you’ve explained who you are, what you have done in the past, and how you can help, you should describe the work that the client has requested. In the above example, you can see that I rephrased the client’s requirements in the second line.

As I mentioned earlier, all clients care the most about what you can do for them. If you list off a list of your achievements, you’ll just bore them. It’s the work you can do that matters.

Never Hesitate to Ask

Sometimes, you think you can do the work that the client requires, but you have some reservations. In such cases, you should mention your expertise to the client. Read the proposal 2-3 times to make sure you’re understanding it correctly.

Also, never hesitate to ask questions, especially if the client was vague in their posting. I have heard of a lot of cases where clients did not want to pay freelancers after they sent the completed work. That can happen if there is a misunderstanding about what the client actually wants.

So always ask questions to better understand exactly what the clients expects of you.

I usually ask questions in almost every proposal that I send. Take a look at this one, which is about writing a business communication article. I should mention that I’ve been awarded jobs from this particular client twice.

Show Them You’re “Mr. Right”

There is one quick secret I want you to keep in mind when you’re writing your proposal. You must use clear examples to convince your client that you’re the “Mr. or Ms. Right” for that particular job. And to do that, you need to

ASSOCIATE YOUR SKILLS WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE JOB.

If you look at the above example, I clearly stated that the reason I was applying for that job was because I had already taught the subject TWICE and I have EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE in it. For those reasons, I believed I could beat out the rest of the proposals. And I was right.

Additionally, the best suggestion I could give to all the freelancers is that always pick a job that you really can work over! Never ever try to convince from anything that you know will not be of high quality and would rather take extensive time.

Additionally, the best suggestion I could give to all the freelancers is to always pick jobs that you can do excellent work for! Never ever try to gets jobs where you know your work won’t be high quality, or ones where it would take a long time to complete.

You never know what you might miss in the time you spend on a long job. Don’t forget the opportunity cost of such jobs.

Ending With a Polite and Hopeful Statement

Always end your proposal with politeness. Statements like “I would be glad to assist you with the task” or “Thank you for inviting me to write a proposal” (you usually get invited by the clients to write a proposal if they find your skills relevant to their job). Doing this brings a sense of completeness to your proposal. Besides, courtesy never hurts.

Note: If you are still confused about how to earn online at home, you can register for my online course of freelancing which explain sall the details in a step-by-step manner along with a detailed explanation of how to use the freelancing platform PeoplePerHour.

I have also included the methods of writing proper proposals and receiving payments straight to your bank account.