*By Gusmar Sosa

I have been working through Workana for just over a year and a half. I have a website with a contact form and a description of my services, but if you ask me why I rely on Workana to increase my income, I can list at least 3 reasons.

I wrote this article  thinking about my Freelancer friends, those who share the same passion that I have, such as:

• to monetise my talent and knowledge
• to provide good services free from fixed timeframes
• to develop projects from anywhere I decide to go
• to forever forget having to call a boss ‘boss’
• to increase my earnings with minimal effort

And if this list represents you, then read on and learn why you should rely on Workana to increase your earnings.

Reason #1: Positioning + Prestige = Trust

One golden rule that reminds us of “those who don’t know you don’t buy you“. In our case, it’s “don’t hire you”.

Keep in mind that a potential customer has not decided to hire you because you’re available, they make that decision because they want it that way.

So if you want to increase your income, you must instigate the need. For them, it is crucial to build trust and this is one of the reasons why you should rely on Workana.

In my career as a service provider through Workana, I was able to experience firsthand the strength of the equation: Positioning + Prestige = Trust, firsthand.

What does it take to position oneself and gain prestige in any market?

To position yourself you need:

• good reputation.
• excellent ratings.
• positive comments about your services.
• authority.
• experience.

To have the prestige, it is necessary to:

• be visible to your potential customers (for that, the first element of the equation is positioning).
• offer a premium service.
• demonstrate your knowledge (Know How).
• have the support of important allies.

How to conquer all the components?

Each of the Positioning and Prestige elements is applied not only to telework platforms but to all markets. These elements are the ones that, in the case of my clients, I recommend generating through their brands.

I am a content writer, specializing in Inbound Marketing and generating content strategies that focus on developing these elements with one goal: to convey and incite a sense of trust.

In the case of an entrepreneur or a company with a web platform, we achieve this by ranking on Google and the qualifications of its clients, but… would Workana be the ideal environment for freelancers like how Google is for e-commerce?

The answer is yes, and I speak from my own experience. This is why:

• Workana allows you to have a reputation related to your Ranking and offers you three options for this: overall Ranking, by category, and by country.
• Workana allows customer appreciation through the star rating system.
• Workana exposes customer comments on your profile.
• Your prospect clients can access the number of projects you completed, giving you authority and experience before them.

These steps add up to your Positioning. But also goes beyond that:

• It gives you the opportunity to appear in the top results of a Freelancer search category for clients, and that’s visibility.
• To be able to offer a Premium service and rely on the testimonials of your customers to demonstrate.
• A chat, so that customers can get in touch with you. Thanks to this, once you send a proposal, it offers an environment where you can advise them before hiring. With that, you can finish convincing them (know-how).
  
• If you reach the rank of Hero, you demonstrate that Workana is your ally and that it recognises the quality of your service.

All these are the sum of Prestige.

So, with Workana, you can count on a platform that offers you the commissions, environment, and tools to build trust in your potential clients. In my case, I keep at least 10 ongoing weekly projects and that means a steady income.

In fact, through my website, I invite users to go through my Workana profile and hire me there. Why?

I will explain to you the second reason for relying on Workana to increase your income.

Reason #2: More trust equals more contracts

“Contracts” is the keyword for success in every service provider. A contract is, without a doubt, what you want.

I’ve met other freelancers, and I have to say that when they take a look at my Workana profile and realize the number of clients who’ve hired me more than once (another important metric that builds trust), they ask me why I keep making deals with them through the platform.

They explain to me all about the commission: Workana gets a percentage (which gets lower for clients and freelancers as they move up), and closing deals outside of it would result in no commissions and the whole value would stay with you, they say.

Although I don’t get an extra bonus for clarifying things in favour of Workana, I love sharing about it because it allows me to collaborate towards a better income.

Commission in exchange for security

You have to think about this:

• A customer feels more confident when they pay to know that there is a mediator who can help you recover your money 100% if the service provider fails to comply.
• If you work for clients from abroad, it would be inconvenient for them to have to leave their office or home to make a deposit with an intermediary like Western Union.
• Many of them don’t have PayPal.
• If they can pay with an intermediary with their debit or credit card, they will not feel safe unless that intermediary has a good reputation.

For the last three points, these are scenarios that could easily make you lose a potential or even a loyal customer.

Think about it: With Workana you leave a percentage of your earnings on the platform in exchange for your services, but you have a billing tool that builds trust and makes closing deals easier.

Therefore, the trust and security that are offered on this platform increase the possibility of more contracts.

Play all the cards

Now, keep in mind that to take advantage of this aspect of the platform, you must also work to get customers to stop and see your profile. Not only those looking for Workana Freelancers, but also those you submit to your profile to off the platform.

Believe me, this works! Customers arrive at my website but they don’t feel safe about using my services through the payment method. They see my profile and if they don’t know about Workana, they explore the platform and its reputation and then decide to hire me.

At the same time, it is like a snake biting its tail, that is, the more clients hire me at Workana, the more trust is generated, and the more clients hire me continuously on the platform, the more positioning I achieve and, therefore, I keep converting.

And now that I’ve talked about conversion, I invite you to read on and know the third reason:

Reason #3: Conditions to attract, convert, close deals and retain

The last reason I want to introduce to you today is related to Inbound Marketing. Workana offers conditions for establishing strategies for:

• attraction
• conversion
• closure
• fidelization

With a good profile, and for that you should work on your profile description and your proposals (I use a generic one, in which I mention my achievements, training and “x-factor” or value proposition, only customizing the first paragraph always) you can attract people.

Also, at Workana you can apply SEO to position your profile in searches (I always do).

Attraction is when potential customers are tied to your proposal, and conversion is when they decide to write to you via chat. 

By receiving them via chat, they are already converted; they are no longer simply Workana users with customer profiles, instead they become potential customers of your services. At this time, show your ‘know-how’ and offer some basic advice on the project they have published.

You should always offer something for free, that’s the Inbound Marketing rule, as this allows them to have a proof of your services and become convinced that you can help them solve the problem, which is why they published the project in the first place.

The customer will always check what you say, no matter how much you show it, with a quick look at your profile, comments, ratings, ranking, and position.

If he hires you, then, you will have closed a deal! And with Workana’s extension system, you’ll be able to suggest additional solutions that will help you build customer loyalty.

Extra Bonus: Why Rely on Workana: It already has your market niche

Before wrapping up this article, I want you to think about one thing: If you want to promote your services on Google, be it through paid ads or organic placement, the first thing you need to do is good market segmentation.

You must define your ideal customer and attract this intended audience through guidelines or organic positioning strategies. Content, whether programmed or not, would have to go to your niche and, thus, attract potential customers.

At Workana there is already a segmentation in place, there is already a constant traffic of potential customers and they enter the platform to publish projects with only one goal: find a Freelancer to help them.

Are you a Freelancer?

So your ideal client is looking for you at Workana. In short:

• Increase your position and prestige.
• Build customer loyalty and keep them on the platform to be better ranked and continue to attract, convert, close deals and build loyalty.
• Take advantage of Workana’s conditions and tools.
• Build confidence in the payment methods; Workana is your partner and the percentage is really low

It was a pleasure! Let’s conquer the market!