做自由職業者可得到應得報酬的5件事

As a freelancer, you have a lot of competition out there. This sometimes means that work isn’t as abundant as you’d prefer and it can be tempting to work for a lower rate just to have an income stream. But you can only work for a discounted rate for so long before you begin to get frustrated with the work that you’re doing. If you’re talented at what you do, you should be getting a rate that fits your skill level.

作爲一個自由職業者，你面對着這裏的很多競爭。這有時候意味着工作並不如你想的那樣豐富，而它誘人的地方在於能以較低的收費去獲得一個收入源。但在你對你的工作感到沮喪之前，你只能以一個打折的收費工作。如果你擅長你的工作，你就應該得到一個符合你的技能水平的收費標準。

Regardless of whether you are a writer, graphic artist or computer programmer, here are some ways that you can get paid what you are actually worth.

不論你是一個作家、藝術家還是一個程序員，這裏有一些你可以得到你應得的報酬的方法。

Your Expertise with the Questions You Ask

通過你問的問題展示你的專業知識

If you take a job and are given only a sentence or two of instructions, you probably won’t be creating what the client actually wants. The problem is, many clients don’t know what they actually want and so they provide instructions that are not specific enough. It is your job as a freelancer to ask questions that will not only show them your expertise and commitment to their satisfaction, it will greatly reduce the number of unsatisfied customers that you have.

如果你接受了一項工作，而只被給予一、兩句指令，那你可能不能創造出客戶真正想要的。問題在於，許多客戶並不知道他們真正想要什麼，所以他們只能提供不夠具體的指令。作爲一個自由職業者，這是你的工作，去問那些不僅能展示你專業知識也能給他們滿意承諾的問題，這會極大你擁有的不滿意客戶數量。

Of course, the questions you ask will vary depending upon what service you are providing to them.

當然，你問的問題應根據你提供給他們的服務而異。

What to Charge

知道收取費用

If you don’t know what the going rate is for the type of work that you are doing, you will have a hard time charging what is fair. Often, freelancers find themselves low-balling their bid for a project only to find that the client would have been satisfied with a price that was double what they actually bid.

如果你不知道你在做的這類工作的現行價格，你會對如何公平收費感到困惑。自由職業者經常發現當自己低價競爭一個項目時，只會發現當他們要客戶2倍於項目實際價格時客戶就會滿意了。

You’ll also need to decide how you are going to set your rate ? per hour, per word or a fixed rate for the entire project.

你還需要決定怎樣確定費率—每小時、每字或者對整個項目是一種固定收費。

rtise by Word-of-Mouth

口頭宣傳

The best way to advertise is not by posting on Craigslist or visiting forums where writing services are bought and sold. Instead, the best way to advertise is to impress every single customer that you do work for, so that they will recommend you to their friends and associates.

最好的宣傳方法不是在Craigslist上打廣告，也不是瀏覽那些買賣文案寫作服務的論壇。相反的，最好的宣傳方法就是給每一個你效勞的顧客留下好印象，這樣他們會把你推薦給他們的朋友和合夥人。

Posting on forums means that you will have to keep the same rate or even lower your rate, but when you advertise by word-of-mouth you are going to be in demand and that means that you can set your rates much higher.

在論壇上打廣告意味着你要保持相同費率，甚至降低費率，但當你得到口頭宣傳時，你就會處於被需求之中，這意味着你可以設定更高的費率。

r to Work on a Trial Basis

提供試用工作

If you want to show a client how valuable you are, it might be worth it to work for a short time for free. Depending upon what type of service you provide, you might be able to offer an article, a design, a block of code or just an hour of service to show clients that you are the freelancer that they should be working with.

如果你想向客戶展示你如何有價值，免費工作一小段時間可能是值得的。這取決於你提供的服務類型，你可能提供一篇文章、一個設計、一串代碼或只是一個小時的服務以向客戶展示你就是他們應該與之合作的自由工作者。

If you are trying to land clients that pay decent rates and have consistent work, this is a great way to attract them and it is definitely worth the unpaid work that you will be doing to get a great long-term client.

如果你正在試圖尋找可以付給你體面工資並一直有工作需求的客戶，那這是一種吸引他們的極好方法，完全值得你要付出的免費工作，去獲得一個長期的大客戶。

r What Others Don’t

提供其他人沒有提供的'

Some of the things you might be able to give clients that no one else does include great communication and the ability to ask the right questions, fast turn-around times, multiple revisions and advice on other aspects of the project that they are working on, to help them get the best result possible. If you can provide clients with the experience that they desire, you will not only improve your chances of getting more work from those clients, you’ll also improve your odds of negotiating for a higher pay rate.

你可能能夠提供一些其他人不能提供的東西，包括順暢的交流，問正確問題的能力，快速週轉時期期間，多次修訂和他們正在工作的項目的其它方面的建議，去幫助他們獲得最好的可能結果。如果你能夠提供給客戶他們渴求的經驗，你不僅僅會提供從這些客戶得到更多工作的機會，還會提供你索要一個更高費用的可能性。

By following the 5 steps that I’ve outlined above, you’ll have customers begging to take your money. Sometimes, I even have to turn down some seriously intriguing software development contracts and offers — but I’ll take that problem any day.

通過採用我上面概述的5個步驟，你會擁有讓你賺錢的客戶。有時，我甚至必須拒絕一些真的很吸引人的軟件開發合同和工作—但我隨時能解決這個問題。