Online freelancing, or Internet freelancing, is growing at a tremendous rate, with some marketplace sites doubling in volume in just the past year. If you’re interested in becoming a freelancer, there’s never been a better time to give it a try. But do you really know what's involved in the freelancing lifestyle? What are its pros and cons of online freelancing, and how do you know if it makes sense for you personally? How do you undertake this endeavor in a way that will maximize your chances of success?

There's never been a resource on the Web to answer these questions, to provide advice and guidance to the thousands of contractors who decide to become online freelancers every month -- until now. The Online Freelancing Guide is dedicated to providing essential information to help you build your freelancing career. The detailed information it contains will assist you in understanding what online freelancing is about, learning how to use freelancing sites effectively, and finding and completing projects for satisfied clients.

On the left side navigation bar you will find quick links to the various parts of the site. The upper box green buttons that link to information pages about the site, including testimonials and answers to frequently asked questions. If you have questions or comments about the site, you can also feel free to contact me with your feedback. Need freelancing work done? Consider hiring me to do it. The purple box below these buttons contains direct links to the current content on the site, with the large blue "Site Content" button taking you straight to the site's table of contents.

Thanks for visiting, and check back often for updates!

February 1, 2012:

• Small Update: I realized that I had omitted something important from the topic on selecting delivery timeframes for proposals: a discussion of delivery milestones and their benefits, so I added a subsection covering this subject. I also fixed a couple of minor formatting issues site-wide.

January 30, 2012:

• Chapter Five: I'm happy to announce the publication of the most recent chapter of the Online Freelancing Guide: Online Freelancing Proposals and the Bidding Process. This is the largest chapter of the Guide, covering the all-important topic of how to write and price proposals. The first three sections are devoted to helping you develop the skills you need to be a good proposal writer; it includes an overview of pre-bidding and bidding steps, an explanation of the goals of proposals, and a list of specific suggestions for writing effective bids. The remaining three sections contain my ambitious attempt to explain how to analyze the value of projects and determine bid prices in a way that balances the desire to earn as much money as possible with the need to avoid being outbid. This includes a detailed explanation of the economic principles behind bidding, a discussion of static and dynamic pricing models, and an exploration of specific pricing optimization strategies.
  
  Note that with this update, the Online Freelancing Guide now contains over 250,000 words of content.

• Change in Contact Address: I have changed the contact address for the site, as shown on the contact page. The new address will allow me to respond more promptly and reliably to correspondence.

December 13, 2011:

• Chapter Four: I'm pleased to announce the release of the latest chapter of the Online Freelancing Guide: Finding and Evaluating Online Freelancing Projects. This is the first chapter that gets into the "meat" of online freelancing, discussing an activity that most online freelancers spend quite a bit of time on, especially when they are just starting out. Its pages describe the most important factors for assessing both clients and projects, and provide many tips for how to search for projects in an effective way, and deal with special concerns and situations that are likely to occur. Enjoy!

October 21, 2011:

• Chapter Three! It took longer than I anticipated, but I've just published the third chapter of the Online Freelancing Guide: Planning and Managing Your Online Freelancing Business. Being a freelancer involves much more than just doing your freelance work: you are not just working, you are running a business. This chapter will help you get your freelancing career off the ground, with four sections that cover areas such as choosing work disciplines, setting up a work area, getting computer hardware and software, and building and tuning your online profile and portfolio. It also contains a section that's a preview of the rest of the guide, containing dozens of tips specifically for new freelances. I hope you find it useful.. and I hope the next chapter won't take as long to get done. :)