Most of the people over internet limit freelance career to make money writing or web designing. But the truth is that there could be numerous possibilities – limited by your imaginations. There are 1001 career which can be taken as Freelancer. It could be about writing or programming or web development or Graphic Arts or Architecture or Engineering & Science etc. Any work which you are doing from office but will prefer to do the same from home can be taken as freelance career.

Since the most popular option is writing, I will give details of 100 companies where you can work as a freelancer (make money writing) in my next post. In this post, I will try to limit myself into those website which work as a mediator and will help you to find a project or client regularly.

One of the major hurdle in starting a freelance career is securing a project or finding a client. Though there are many ways this can be done (directly or indirectly), I will be discussiong about Freelance website which works as a platform for the project provider (client) and service provider (freelancer). There are many freelance website available in today’s market which gives you a fair chance to get project of your choice. The process is quite simple, client will post project details and requirement and if freelancer meets the requirements are going to bid for that projects and client picks up the one based on bid and reputation of service provider. As a faciliator, freelance website charge a fees based on tranasction value (4-10% of the value). This is one of the most easiest way to secure a project in the begining because you save time doing marketing for yourself.

Here are the Top 6 freelance website you can choose to push your freelancing career:

• Elance

Elance.com is a trusted and reliable website offering lots of projects to start your online career. Most of the listed projects are quality post at a higher rate. Though free to join but limited by number of connects (connects is bid count per month). With free membership, you get 3 connects so you can bid for 3 projects carrying 1 connects in a month or 1 project carrying 3 connects in a month. In general, Project upto $500 cost 1 connects to bid, Project value of $500-$1000 requires 2-3 connects to bid while project with more than $1000 value requires more than 3 connects to bid. Although you get only 3 connects with free membership, you can always upgrade your membership to get more connects and apply for the maximum projects of your choice.

Excerpts from the website

More than 97,000 independent professionals count on Elance to help them:
Meet Clients. Show off your skills and meet clients who need your professional expertise.
Stay Independent. Work whereever, whenever and for whomever you want.
Get Paid. Be rewarded for your personal expertise.

The Elance Work System guides the entire online work process to ensure great results by providing a standardized way to set up work engagements, manage the work and exchange payment for results.

The Elance Work System facilitates structured communication, brings clarity on what needs to be done and when, provides tracking, updates and regular reviews of the work in progress, solicits feedback throughout the process and helps release payment from Escrow for the work delivered.

• Limeexchange

Limeexchange.com is one of the best website from Lime Lab LLC. They also offer projects from multiple category which include but not limited to Graphic Arts and Design, Audio/Video and Multimedia, Software Development, Web Development, Networking and Information Systems, Writing and Translation, Services etc, So you are going to get project of your choice irrespective of your niche area. They offers projects on different pay criteria like Fixed price, On an hourly basis or per task basis.

Not to mention It is free to join and right now they are also offering one month vantage membership worth $49.99 for free where you can do unlimited bidding, 180 Free Call minutes, Unlimited skill test and much more. So take the advantage and sign up for an account, make good profile, take unlimited skill test based on your profile and start bidding.

• Getafreelancer

Getafreelancer.com is of the largest freelance website with million of registered members and project payout of USD 47 millions. You have thousands of projects listed at any given point of time. There are many projects which are available for you to pick up for full time. Just pick one project and work for 6 months without thinking about anything else. The best part is they have project from across the field. Be sure to find a project of your interest irrespective of your specialization (To name it broadly – Websites, IT, Software, Writing & Content, Design, Media & Architecture, Data Entry & Admin, Engineering & Science, Product Sourcing & Manufacturing, Sales & Marketing, Advertising, Business, Accounting, Human Resources & Legal etc).

This is also free to join website with allowed bidding of 15 per month. If you want to bid more, you always have an option to upgrade your membership. If I need to look into the negative aspect, the only I could see is that the project value is comparatively lesser than other mentioned websites and the marketplace is quite competitive. For any project you will find 10 of bidding in queue.

• Odesk

Odesk.com is a premium marketplace for freelance worker where you get projects from diversified sector. Here too you have project to pick up based on hourly payment or project based fixed rate. The basic membership for Odesk is free but you need to take the readiness test before you start bidding on project. If you fail to pass readiness test, you can take the test again after gap of 1 month. Once you are certified, you will be allocated 5 bids per month. If you want to increase your bid limitation, you can take skill test which are free. With each skill test you will get 5 bid per month allocation. So if you successfully complete 4 skill test, you will have limit of 20 bids per month.

• Guru

What’s your specialization – Technology, Business or Creative Arts. Whatever it be, you are welcome to explore the world’s largest online service marketplace. As per Guru.com, they are the leader in this industry with more than 1 million registered members and 100,000 active freelancer profiles. It has a paid subscription for sellers and is free for buyers to post their projects.

• Rentacoder

Very simple interface and popular among software developer. As the name suggest, they specialize in software coding. Like other freelance website, It does not charge you any subscription fees. Instead you are liable to pay only upon completion of project. Find a excerpt from this website:

“Looking to earn extra income using your hard-won technical skills? Rent a Coder lets you locate and bid on coding projects and questions from around the world! By completing a free registration, you can publicize your skills on the online resume system and receive emails as new bid requests come in.

We handle all the money collecting so you can concentrate on what you’re best at…coding. By the time you’ve begun work, the buyer’s money has already been placed into an escrow account, freeing you from the problem of getting ‘stiffed’.”

Yes, I too agree it sounds too good to be true but its true. And that is the difference. While I always warn people (who wants to earn online) to be careful about any such thing which sounds too good to true (mostly they turn out to be scam), the same does not apply in this case. Working from home is a reality and many people are already into it earning high six figure income and any individual with this aspiration will be successful if done properly (remember its not for everyone).

There are many individual who says its difficult to work from home, there are so much of disturbance. I too agree but there are many ways to avoid the disturbance and distraction which I will be explaining in this post. If it does not work out to you even after following these tips, then the only good choice is taking your own office away from home.

I have talked much about the advantage of working from home in my earlier post, but you need to follow strict discipline to achieve it. The prime reason for failing to work from home is not following the home based office rule. I will discuss few tips which might help you to work from home successfully.

• Know your work area

The first basic thing is defining the work area, you can not work sometime in the dining table, sometime in Sofa watching TV and sometime in bedroom. Work from home does not mean that you have to be so luxuries to work watching TV in sofa, you have to have a proper work place just like an office. Make your sitting room or any extra room as your office. If you do not have spare room, you can think of partition in the hall or room to make a office space. You need to understand the difference from home and work area in the very first place. Try to keep this place away from entertainment area which include places like TV / Music system etc.

• Work Setup

After defining work area, you need to give some time to create office environment. If possible draw a layout and arrange the furniture, equipment and other office material to make it a workable place as per the defined layout. You need to have some shelf to place the books / files. The idea is to give it a look just like an office. The moment you enters into a room, you should know why you are there.

• Comfort

You should care for your eyes and body. The work area should look spacious enough, so pay special attention to use of furniture which includes desk, chair, cabinet.

• Work Time

Yes it is important. Though you are working from home and you have flexible hours to work, you need to know your work time and your family members also should know the same so that they don’t disturb you with domestic affair at your work timing. If you are lucky to have a extra room for work, it will be good idea to lock the room in your work timing. Do not allow any sort of disturbance. If you do not follow this rule, your efficiency might come down by as high as 80% ( What this mean is your output might be only 20% of your actual capability)

• Phone calls

Avoid phone calls in your work time. This is the real time killer if you are getting it frequently. Even for business phone, you should have set time to respond and rest all queries should be handled by email or support helpdesk. Better to use voice mail for rest of your time.

• Learn to say NO

Easy to say but most difficult to follow. Men are social animal and they dont like to say NO on many occasion while their NO could have saved a day for him. The example include but not limited to “your friend dropping in to your place for a movie” or “your spouse want your company for shopping in nearby supermarket” etc. Its important to say NO when you are at work.

So if you are the one who are going to start work from home. Follow these tips and let me know if it really works towards your success.