There are more than 500,000 freelancers in the Smartcat Marketplace with more joining every day. Any potential customer posting a job on Smartcat or browsing the marketplace will see thousands of profiles to choose from. How can increase your chances of getting the job?

Unless you speak a very rare language where you’re unlikely to have much competition, standing out as a linguist online can be hard. But there’s plenty you can do to make yourself more visible. Even small changes to your online profiles can make a big difference, whether it’s adding a profile pic or uploading recent work samples.

Here are some tips and tricks from Smartcat vendors that have been selling their services on the platform for some time.

It’s all about ratings and reviews when it comes to attracting more work, but many customers want to know more about you beyond that. Have you completed all sections of your Smartcat profile? In case you don’t know, our algorithm displays and recommends potential vendors based on all the data provided by them, and that includes having a complete profile.

So, get started with these basics:

• Add a photo. Yeah, people still judge a book by its cover, and profiles with a photo get 30% more views than the profiles without one. And of course, looking respectable and trustworthy may earn you some extra credit.

• Tell something interesting about yourself. Your skills can’t speak for themselves no matter how strong they are, but you can make a point of highlighting them. Add some personal details that will make your bio look unique or you could even say something in the language you translate into.

• Be honest when describing your skills. Don’t try to be a jack of all trades, saying you speak dozens of languages and know hundreds of subjects equally well. Choose the language pairs that you’re really confident in and prepare a nice portfolio to showcase your proficiency.

• The devil’s in the detail. It’s also important to pay attention to other profile sections, such as your native language, rates, subjects (area of expertise), and availability. The Smartcat algorithm will take all this into account when buyers search for service providers according to their project specifications, including deadlines, budget, language pairs, and other requirements.

• Double check. Make sure your mobile phone is written correctly and has the right (international) format so that we could reach out to you with important notifications.

To learn more about filling in your profile, check out our ”Completing your profile” article.

Now let’s dive deeper into the sections of your profile listing your services, rates, availability, and productivity so that you look more attractive to potential customers.

• Rates. Setting rates can be tricky, but it’s always good to check out the average market rates to help you decide what’s best for you. Think about your workload, your income goals, your ideal customer, and your unique selling point, to work out rates that fit both your needs and the market demand.

• Daily productivity. Potential buyers don’t always know whether vendors will be able to take on their projects, especially when deadlines are tight. One way to stand out is by clearly stating how many words you can comfortably process per day. This will not only let prospects see if you can meet their expectations in terms of project completion dates, but it may also help you land a certain volume of work on a regular basis. Just be careful not to make false promises as your ability to meet deadlines is just as important – if not more – as your productivity rate.

• Availability. Smartcat is very flexible in terms of how much you want to take on. However, if you’re only available one day a week, it will be harder for you to get as many orders as if you’re available throughout the week. Plan your time accordingly and don’t forget to change your availability whenever you’re on vacation or take time off work.

Customers coming to Smartcat want quality translations. And in most cases, they check real feedback from other customers before choosing a service provider to work with. They see it as proof that other buyers – probably just as anxious as they are now – entrusted their documents to you and were happy with the result.

The higher up the search results your profile appears, the more likely a customer will choose you over another translation provider.

Every time you get a new positive review your chances of getting profile in the top positions increases, making you stand out even more. So here are a few ideas on how to get more reviews:

• Don’t be afraid to directly ask customers for a review (you can do this in the chat).

• Be nice: respect deadlines and pay attention to translation quality to make the customer truly enjoy working with you.

• Do a small project at a lower rate just to get a positive review and thus a higher search position and consider it an investment into bigger future projects.

• Reach out to the customers you weren’t able to agree on terms or prices and make them an offer they won’t be able to ignore.

And besides all mentioned above, there’re some more steps you can take to make yourself a better candidate for collaboration.

Stay in touch. In the modern world, we are online almost 24/7, so if you spare some time to reply to the incoming offers and messages you’ll make an impression of a man who cares;

Respect your client’s time. Smartcat estimates the project completion time based on each freelancer's availability, productivity, and previous jobs. This metric is visible to the customers and it may become a real game-changer.

Keep yourself in the foreground. We have a great community where both vendors and clients ask and answer their questions. Taking part in the discussions can help you declare yourself as a respected and trustworthy professional.

Be proactive. Actually, you can directly offer your services to the customers who post their jobs on our Marketplace. This is also a chance to get the orders that appeal to you more than the other.

So, you see, earning more as a Smartcat freelancer is no rocket science. You can succeed with just a bit of strategic thinking and an unconventional approach. So get to your profile now and tweak it for better results!