Your Guide to Earn Money Online via doing Data Entry, Copywriting etc Jobs
Do you want to make $3000+ per month easily? Via doing simple jobs like copywriting, data entry, typing, online form filling, programming, SEO and etc?
If yes, then carry on and read this freelance tutorial. You will learn the easiest and 100% legitimate way to earn lot of cash on the internet.
Note: To get the mentioned jobs, you will never pay any money from your pocket EVER.
Working at freelance sites is the best/easiest way to earn legitimate money on the internet. You are your own Boss and you will work whenever you want to. Most importantly, it is 100% Free To Join These Sites.
Here is a list of freelancing websites.
Note: Please open these freelance sites in separate windows and carry on reading this guide. This guide is a complete freelance tutorial that contains lot of tips for the New Comers.
1. Elance [Free Membership Available]
2. Getafreelancer (GAF) [100% Free To Join]
3. oDesk
4. Scriptlance (SL) [For The Option "Account Type"; Choose "Programmer" NOT "Buyer"] [100% Free To Join]
5. Freelancer UK [Update: This site is now acquired by GAF: This site now shows the same list of jobs as found at GAF]
Working at freelance sites is the best option for home staying Moms to make money online: You can stay at home with your children and make cash Without any kind of Investment
How much can you earn via doing these online jobs?
Well, I am earning $3000+ per month, and I do copywriting and data entry jobs at above mentioned freelance websites. I prefer only copywriting jobs, as the pay is very good [compared to data entry].
Data entry is a good option to choice if you cannot do any other job. Different jobs require us to have different kinds of skill. Like to do programming work, one needs to have knowledge of different kinds of languages like PHP, ASP, .NET etc.
If a person has no skill in any field, then he can do data entry jobs: as this work requires no Skill or Experience of any kind. If you can operate a PC then you can do this work.
In Reality: it really is difficult [but not impossible] to win the 1st project.
Let’s talk about Getafreelancer or GAF [please note that Getafreelancer has changed their name to just Freelancer: however, in this article, I will still be calling them GAF : ) ].
The first thing to do:
Register at GAF. Registration process is very simple. Within few minutes, you will get an active account at GAF.
REMEMBER : You need to enter professional looking information in all fields of your profile: people [most of them] will see your profile first before they decide to give you any work. So make a decent looking profile.
[Update: GAF has changed the rules and now we can only place bids on jobs that are posted in the categories which we will select in our profile. So, in your profile under the heading “Qualifications”, choose all the categories in which you are interested.
For example: if you have selected the data entry category in your profile and have not selected the copywriting category then you will only be able to bid on data entry projects.
Don’t worry: you can change/edit your profile/qualifications at any time but remember that there are only limited numbers of categories that we can choose and there are limited numbers of times, in each month, when we can edit our qualifications.]
After you create a profile, open GAF home page and scroll down, until you see a heading Similar to this “The 50 Newest projects”.
[At freelance sites, jobs and projects mean the same. Getting a job and winning a project means the same].
Here you will see a list of newest opened projects.
Recommendation: if you are not a programmer or expert in any field then you should do data entry or may be copywriting jobs. For copywriting jobs, you will need to write content in English language [in some cases, you can get projects where content is needed in a different language]. This content needs to have no or very few grammatical mistakes and absolutely no spelling errors.
Look for jobs under the “The 50 Newest projects” section. Open the project that you think you are capable of doing.
After you open the project description page, you should first read the description of the project. Make sure that you can complete the described work.
Important: You have to make sure that you can complete the work. You have to be 100% sure about it. In order to be successful at freelance sites, you need to earn excellent ratings: and in case you fail to complete a project, then you will get a Bad rating. One bad rating can pretty much end the freelance career for a new comer.
[Update: Don't make a very common mistake of bidding on projects where you are not sure what job is required to be done. Sometimes new comers start to bid on different projects without reading and understanding the project description. Some of them think that if they get the Unknown Job, they will simply search about it on the internet and will then learn it in quick time. This behavior is commonly seen as a result of Frustration or Carelessness. Please keep in mind that if you win a project that you cannot complete in the given time period, then you will get a Bad Rating. After that, no one will give you any work.]
Now click on “Place a Bid” icon and then enter the lowest amount of [available] money in the bid. [Every project has its own Budget Range: so the Minimum Amount of money that one can place in his Bid will depend on this Budget Range: That lowest available Minimum Bid Amount is $30 at GAF]
WHAT, the lowest price? Why?
Well, what do you expect : ) ?
You are a New Comer. So you have to do work for the lowest rates.
How can you get a project for higher rates when there are many other people applying for the same project? And they may have high ratings too:
This seems to be a good time to tell you about the Importance of Ratings/Feedbacks
All freelance sites have a rating/feedback system. When a person completes a job, he/she then gets a rating/feedback. The more projects you do, the more ratings/feedbacks will you get.
The more ratings/feedbacks a person have, the more money he/she will earn at freelance sites. But How and Why? Users with High Ratings get work for higher rates as Buyers Trust Them.
Ratings/feedbacks are part of freelancer’s reputation. As you are a new user and you don’t have any ratings therefore you should go for the lowest price.
Remember: the more good ratings you have the more jobs will you get. So in the beginning, your first goal is to Earn Excellent Ratings.
Importance of Communication with Buyers
Communication with buyers is the most important part. You have to send a private message to the buyer as soon as you place your bid. Without proper communication with the buyer chances of winning a project are almost zero.
After you place your bid go back to the project description page and look for a small icon called PM or Inbox [at GAF label of this icon has been changed from PM to Inbox. Also, we can now send a Private Message to the buyer on the same page where we can place our bid.].
Remember: Sending PM is the key factor in winning a project.
Now click on the small PM icon, and send a message to the creator of the project and tell him that you are new but you can do an excellent job and that you will do it for the lowest price that he wants to pay for that project.
ALWAYS, remember to send a PM to the creator of the project, after you place your bid.
[People who create projects at freelance sites or the people who outsource jobs at freelance sites, are called buyers]
After you send the PM, wait for the buyer's response. If you get a reply, that will be your first success : )
After getting a reply from a buyer, open the PM to see what buyer replied and act accordingly.
Few things to Remember:
First of all: you can place bids on 15 [Please note that this limit is changed to 30] projects/month at GAF. In contrast to the other website [SL] where you can place bids on as many projects as you want to.
At GAF, if you become a GM [gold member], you can then place bids on 160+ projects. I suggest you upgrade to gold membership as soon as you earn $12 at GAF [Edit: You now have to earn little more money, as the Gold Membership fee has been increased].
Here are few advantages of gold membership.
There will be no project fees [Please Note that GAF has also changed the rules for Gold Members: Now they too have to pay a certain amount of Fee for every project they will win. However, this fee will be less that the fee which non-gold members will pay]. For example: if you win a project worth $100 and you are a GM, then you will get all$100 after you complete the project.ut if you are not a GM, then you will have to pay a fee (10% of total project budget) to GAF.
What? I have to pay any FEE? Isn't this a Free to Join Opportunity?
Do not worry: it is 100% free to join these sites: You do not have to pay anything from your pocket. After you will complete a job at GAF or any other freelance site, the buyer will pay you the agreed amount of money. You will get this money in your Freelancing account.
At GAF: If you are not a GM, then you will see 10% money being deducted from your account.
See? You did not pay any fee from your pocket. You only got little less money for the work you did. It’s like a commission that GAF takes from non-gold members.
GAF takes this fee only from non-gold members. GMs pay just the monthly gold membership fee and they pay no other fee. [Edit: GAF has made lot of changes in their site. One of these chances is that: now GMs will also pay a small fee. Currently it is 3%: but it may change in the future]
Let’s take an example where I won a project worth $100. After I complete the work, the buyer pays me. Now if I am a GM, then I will see $100 [$97] in my account. On the other hand, if I am not a GM, then I will see $90.
What is the cost of upgrading to gold membership?
It costs $12 [This fee is now changed to $19.95] per month.
I will suggest that you first earn some money at GAF as a non-gold member and then you use it to pay $12[$19.95] to become a GM.Be Safe And Follow The Rules
Remember to NEVER send any contact information to buyers via PM. Contact information includes email, phone number etc.
In case you send any contact information in PM then your online freelance career will be over for sure.
GAF and all other freelance sites will terminate/suspend the account if they find any contact info in PM.
Few Important Tips
At GAF, don’t click on “Message Board” to communicate with buyers. You have to find the PM or Inbox icon, look for it below or in-front of buyer's username. When you post a message in the Message Board the creator of the project will not get a notification via Email. Lot of Buyers never check the MB: but if you send a PM, then buyer will receive an alert via Email.
Don’t open any other page at GAF (other than the home page) to see the latest data entry, copywriting etc jobs. This is because it’s really hard to win old projects and on the home page, you will only see new ones.
Keep the home page opened and scroll down to the “The 50 Newest Projects” section and keep refreshing at this position: Try to be the first one to catch the newly posted projects.
The only hope for new comers to get a job is to catch the newly posted projects. If you are the first person to place a bid on a project, then the chances of winning that project increases significantly.
What payment options are available?
There are many payment options available at freelance sites.
You can select MoneyBookers [MB] or Paypal . Other payment options are not as cheap and safe as these two.
If you live in a country where Paypal is not supported then you can use MoneyBookers to transfer money to your bank account. It’s cheap and safe:
[Note: if you are living in a Country where MB is also not supported, like in Nigeria, then please use the Payoneer Debit Card option]
It’s not difficult to create an account at Moneybookers, however adding bank accounts can [sometimes] create problems. Once you verify the address and name, and add a bank account: you will then receive your money with just one click.
After you create an account at Moneybookers: go to the Profile page and click on Address. You need to verify your postal address in order to enable your MB account for withdrawals.
I personally made the mistake of not verifying my address at the time of creating my MB account. After I transferred my money from GAF to MB, I tried to withdraw the money to my bank account.
Unfortunately, it was then, I found about address verification. I got my money 40 days late because of this small mistake of not verifying my postal address when I first created my MB account.
Anyway, after you click on the verify Postal address button, Moneybookers will send a letter to your postal address which will contain a code. Use this code to verify your account.
[Please note that this verification letter can take up to 45 days to reach you: time varies depending on the country where you live]
After address verification, you have to enter your bank account information.
You will first transfer your money from freelance sites to your MB account and then you will transfer this money to your bank account. The whole process can take up to 14 days.
The real problem is that, you can’t use [just] any bank accounts with Moneybookers. You will need to have an account in a bank which is directly connected to SWIFT Network.
How to find out if a bank is connected to the SWIFT network or not?
The easiest way of finding whether your bank is connected to SWIFT or not, is to call your bank and ask them to give you their Swift Code.
If they have a SWIFT code, then go to your Moneybookers account and try to enter your bank account information. In case MB fails to accept your Bank account information: then it will mean that your bank is indirectly connected to SWIFT network (Not good).
If your bank account is not directly connected to SWIFT network, then go to SWIFT Directory and try to search for a bank in your city, which is directly connected to the SWIFT Network and which is nearest to where you live.
After that, you will have to go to that bank to create a new bank account. After you get a new account, enter its information in your profile at MB.
First you will request the freelancing site(s) to transfer your money to MB, then you will request Moneybookers to send these funds to your bank account. After few days, you will finally receive your funds.
[Update: I recently tried to withdraw money from MB and I got a message to verify my Name too. For that, Moneybookers sent $15 to my bank account. I then went to my bank and got a SWIFT copy of this 15 dollars transaction. I scanned the document and sent it to MB via their website. MB then verified my Name/Account within 24 hours. So you may also get this Name verification message anytime]
I do not know much about Paypal as it is not yet supported in my country. If you live in Pakistan or any other country where Paypal is not yet supported then you will have to use MB.
Paypal and Moneybookers have made it so easy for people doing online jobs at freelancing sites to receive their money. You just need an account at any of these payment processors and then with just few clicks, you will receive the funds in your bank account within few days.
Difference Between Copywriting and Data Entry Jobs
If you can write proper English [English without spelling and grammatical mistakes], then you should do copywriting work. And in case your English writing skills are not very impressive, then you can choose to do data entry.
Remember: there is a big difference between copywriting and data entry. Copywriting jobs pay much more than what data entry pays.
However, if you currently cannot write proper English and still want to do writing work, then you should first try to improve your English writing skills. You can find lot of Online English Learning Courses for Free.
Some Final Words
This opportunity enables you to earn legit money online without worrying about scams. Free online jobs means that you will never invest any money from your pocket. This means that you simply cannot lose any money. So you should never worry about scams while working at these sites.
Best Of Luck…
Before ending this guide, let’s talk about SL briefly.
At SL, if you win a project worth $100, you then get $95 in your SL account: because the site charges a fee of 5% [this percentage may change in future]. It’s a fair deal. There is no gold membership at SL. You can bid on as many projects as you want to. And there is no PM icon at SL.
At SL, you will have to click on “Message Board” and then you will click on Post Message: in order to communicate with the buyer.
All other things are the same as GAF.
I hope all the above information will help you : )
And a special Thanks to freelance sites: these sites have enabled us to make a decent living online while we can stay at our home.
That is all for the basic freelance introduction. Explore this site if you want to know more about these sites.
Still need help?
Please read all the comments below. After that, if you need any more help, then feel free to ask any question in ourfreelance forum.
BENEFITS
First, you will be able to bid on more than 160 projects, non gold members can only bid on 15 [30] or so projects.
Secondly, GetaFreelancer will not charge any projects fees if you are a GM. Which means that, you can win as many projects as you can and gaf will not charge any thing. [Update: GMs now have to pay %3 fee instead of %10 that non GMs pay]
I tried for 20 days, and still I havnt got a single project, what should I do?
I really need money, please help.
I will be waiting for your reply thank you
You should write something like this in PM "What is the minimum amount that you are willing to pay for this project? What ever it is, I am willing to do the whole project for that amount and I will do an excellent work".
Always look for the newewst opened projects, and when you see one, bid at once.
If possible, send few samples of your previous work to the buyer.
my name is nancy patterson and I live in newyork. I have one question.
What is keyword density? and keyword article writing.
For example: if you write a article about data entry, then for how many times should data entry appear in the article. There are free online tools to check keyword density.
I just wanted to ask one thing, which site from the above 2 should I choose?
I only want to work at one site so which one is better. I want to concentrate on one site thanks : )
Anyway, I will suggest that you try both at first, and when you win project at any one of them, you then continue working at that site. Also try Elance.
My name is maria and I am 22, I have done Bachelors in computer engineering.
What kind of free online job do you suggest for me? I tried to find some engineering jobs but I think there are not much of them. and the jobs that are engineering based, they are very difficult because there are variety of subjects in engineering.
You can also do copywriting jobs, for which you will earn very good money.
Data entry includes easy things like typing, online form filling, etc jobs.
I am a programmer and I can build software and website using different languages like PHP, ASP, and Flash. I also am expert in SQL and MYSQL databases. So, are these sites the correct place for me to do work online and earn money online ?
Will I find some decent paying onlinejobs at these 2 freelancing sites?
I have build hundreds of websites for many clients. I run a small software house in my town and I am earning quite good money but its not enough and I want to do work at freelance sites too. I found this page on a search engine and I am quite happy that I found it actually : )
Of course, I am not saying that these sites are a scam, but I just wanted to know how much risk is involved in doing projects at these two freelancing websites.
I lost quite some money at GAF, it had nothing to do with GAF. Actually, there are good people and bad people in this world. So some times, you encounter some really bad people.
When you win any project at GAF, the buyer, will give you all the details about the job. After that you start and finish the work. You then send the completed work to the buyer. The buyer then check the work and after that he will pay you [in case you did the work correctly] (hope fully you will). WAIT, where is the bad thing involved that I was talking about? Well in the last part where you deliver the work, what if you did a excellent and accurate work but the buyer dont pay you? What will you do? Contact GAF? Unfortunately, GAF will do nothing about it. Yes, its true. So what to do in order to be paid for the work you do?
Also, Tom, you can find many projects like, website development, PHP and MYSQL work, etc at these sites.
Please Note: The above comment was posted quite a while ago. At that time, buyers could easily scam service providers as there was no arbitration system at GAF. Just few weeks back, GAF has started an arbitration system that protects users from getting scammed. But still, you need to use Escrow if you want to use the arbitration system in case something goes wrong.
Elance and Scriptlance already have a very good Escrow system: so you don't have to worry about Not being paid by buyers.
I am doing a Full time work at a mobile company in pakistan. I want to make money online other than my salary.
You can utilize your time by doing jobs online and you will earn some decent part time money too.
I have won a data entry project, but as you said, we should use the escrow system to be on the safer side but how can I know whether the buyer escrowed $300 or not?
I have been searching for over 10 mths for valid work from home opportunities. This is my first sign of success.
If you face any problems at the above mentioned freelancing sites, then feel free to tell me about it and I will immediately help you solve that problem.
Now, first of all, I want to tell you one important thing. They delay your first withdrawal only, GAF delay processing the request for no more than 15 days. After the first withdrawal, there will be no such delay in the future.
Secondly, in this delay, GAF only checks that how you got all the money. As I said before in one of my posts, NEVER post your contact information in PM. Never work for any person outside GAF, never work without (you can do sample work) winning a project.
You have $100 in your account. GAF will check that how you got it. After viewing you account, if GAF finds out that you have never won a single project. So then how did you got this money?
I suggest you don't worry about this investigation as now you know what kind of investigation they do and you can continue to do more work.
One last thing, they process withdrawal requests twice (Monday and Tuesday) a week. In case you want a withdrawal then make sure you request before Sunday, so that they process your request in up coming week.
I need to find good and real online jobs. please suggest me on my mobile no. 00919890178072…i will be waiting for your answer
Please search and you will find many copywriting projects where you need to write News related stuff.
Copywriting work does not need any specific qualification like the programming jobs requires, so every person can do it. All you need is to write grammar error free English and that's all.
Everyone can do these projects as they require no specific qualification or experience.
You also have an advantage. There are many article writing jobs related to Health care etc and News related too, and buyers prefer to give such projects to someone who has some kind of experience in these fields which you have. So, if you see such projects, remember to mention your experience in PM to the buyers.
there is awebsite xxxxx
and im interested to do the data entry… but i still not sure whether is a scam or not because i have to pay money for $49.99 before i start my job.
Both payment processors are good. You can choose to use any of them. However, Paypal is like a universal payment processor that is used by many websites. Where moneybookers is not as popular as paypal.
i am a freelancer working in GAC,GAF,scriptlance,
i work in flash,
i have good reviews in scriptlance but i only one review in GAF, i really find tough to get jobs in GAF,
how ever i find easy to get projects in GAC then GAF but GAC rules are strict so i am really scared to work there,
Thank You
You will get many replies.
If not, then I suggest you upgrade to gold member, as then you can place more bids.