How can I make my project attractive to freelancers?

If you’re looking for a freelancer, you want to make your project seem as attractive as possible to the best creative talent. Luckily for you, there are a number of ways you can make a good impression and make freelancers want to work with you (and not your business rival!)

Write a strong brief

There’s nothing worse than a client who doesn’t know what they want, so a half-hearted project brief isn’t going to cut it. You want to provide something detailed and clear, that really articulates what you want. Here are some things to think about including:

1. An interesting title – choose something eye catching and exciting, that emphasises the key elements of your project.
2. Deadline – there’s no point hiring a freelancer who’s all booked up for the next three months if you want the work doing next week. Making the deadline clear in the brief filters out the people who quite simply can’t do your job and saves you both time.
3. Budget – make it clear how much you’re willing to pay from the off. We’ll cover this in more detail later.
4. Tools needed – whether it’s Photoshop or a mixing desk, make it crystal clear what software or hardware they’ll need to do your project.
5. Purpose and audience – what do you want this particular project to achieve? Give clear aims and deliverables. Who is it aimed at? This is especially important for marketing and branding campaigns.
6. Style/genre – for business projects, you want to make your house style and values clear so they can be reflected in the project. For creative projects, make it clear you know your stuff – if it’s a tropical house track you want, say that!

Including these things doesn’t just make your project attractive – it makes it attractive to the right freelancers. It also puts you in a good light as a client.

Use professional language

Professional language shows you’re legit and serious about hiring someone. To put it simply, project briefs aren’t the place for text speak. Compare these briefs:

“Need vocalz 4 my trak”

vs

“I’m looking for a female vocalist for my track. It’s a tropical house, summer vibe floor-filler. Lyrics are written, just need the right person to bring them to life. It’ll be premiered at the summer beach party so a big opportunity for exposure here! Needs to be completed in 1 – 2 months.”

It’s obvious which sounds better!

Set the right budget

It’s obvious that freelancers don’t work for free, but perhaps less so that they don’t work for meager amounts. Do your research upfront and find out what the going rate is for the work you want.

What? It’s more than you thought? Well, remember, this is their income, not a hobby. You’re doing them no favors by giving them underpaid work. In this case, money really does talk and there’s nothing more attractive than a client who knows the market and happily pays the right amount.

Here’s an idea of the sort of budgets freelancers expect for common projects:

• A fully designed and realised logo: $500-$800
• Website design with custom graphics: $750-$3700
• Freelance music production: £300-£1000 a song.

See this blog post for more info on graphic design work and this one for music production. There are also some great tools for estimating costs – see this one for logo design and this one for websites. There’s even one for music production, so ignorance is no excuse.

Be pleasant in person (or via Skype)

If you’ve set up a call or meeting to discuss a project in more detail, don’t ruin all the hard work you’ve put into your brief by being a disorganized mess and setting off a million red flags. Plan what you’re going to say in the meeting and the main points you want to cover. Have a clear idea of what your project is and make sure you can convey that. Don’t be vague – freelancers hate that!

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