Quick Start

A short, illustrated guide showing you how to start working on one of the popular freelance sites – starting from signing up and ending with the withdrawal of the earned money.

Because of the ScriptLance high popularity, this site will be used as an example illustrating each step. The whole process is very similar for the other sites (especially for those based on a similar script – GAF, GAC), so it should be easy after following the walk-through with ScriptLance as an example.

Registration (signing up)

After clicking on the ScriptLance banner or link, you will be taken to the SL’s home page.
To sign up as a freelancer (provider), click the “Programmers” image (see the screenshot below).

Then “sign up” at the bottom of the page

Enter email address. This address will be used to communicate with the site, so it has to be a valid one. You will receive an e-mail containing the link which will allow finishing the registration process.

Clicking the link in the just received e-mail, you’ll be taken to the your profile page.
Fill in the following fields:

• Nickname you’ll use for this site and the name of the company.
• Your qualifications (designing, programming, etc.)
• Average hourly rate and short description of the company and services you are providing
• You can upload your logo and check if you want to be informed about the new projects matching your qualifications (as listed in your user profile). It’s a good idea to turn this feature on.

You’ll be able to change (update) these informations in the future by selecting “Edit Account Info” in the user account management.

After finishing setting-up your profile, you’ll see the information confirming your newly created account, the username and password. Don’t reveal this password to anyone.

Congratulations! You’ve just registered your account and can start your work as a freelancer.

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Projects

After setting up the account you can take part in an auction or even in a few ones. On the main page you’ll find the list of 10 recent projects (marked with (1) on the screenshot) and 10 Featured projects (marked with (2)).

To see the list of all the projects, click “View All” (3).

Once you see the interesting project, click on its name and enter the project auction page, with the project description (1) and providers’ offers (2). You can place your bid (4) or send a Private Message (PM) to a buyer using PMB (3).

Placing your offer – bidding on the project. Declare the price you are ready to make the work for and the time needed for it (1), and put a comment describing your offer (2). You have also the possibility of selecting the option of being notified if someone place the offer lower than yours (3). You will see a confirmation of placing the bid on this project.

The details of the project can be discussed using the Project Message Board (PMB). You’ll see the list of the private messages sent by other providers (1) and you can send your own message by clicking “Post Reply” (2).

WARNING! You can’t post any form of contact (e-mail, IM, etc.) – it is possible only in case of the Featured projects.

To send a Private/Personal Message (PM), write it in the message field (1), you can also send the message to everyone – then the “Private Post” (2) field should be left empty. By default there is a webmaster’s nickname written in it.

A short explanation of one of the most important pages – account management panel. You can see:

• the most recent financial transactions (transfers, fees, withdrawals) with the option of displaying the full list (1)
• projects you have bidded on (with a possibility of withdrawing the bid from active projects and the option of displaying the full bidding history) (2)
• projects won and writing a review for the webmaster (and a list of all the won projects) (3)
• financial transactions including money withdrawal (4)

If you have convinced the buyer and he selects your offer, you’ll receive the e-mail informing about it
Additionally this e-mail will contain a link to the page where you can accept the selection (you have to confirm your acceptance of the work on this project). You also have the possibility of accepting or denying the selection on your account management screen (2).

Congratulations – you have won a project!

Now the work on it starts, then – there’s handing the finished work and finally – the payment for the work done (using the Escrow deposit is highly recommended).

After finishing the work and receiving the payment, both sides should write the reviews. It’s the common practice that it is a buyer to be the first to write a review, then a provider does it.

You write a review using the account management page – next to the list of won projects, there are nicknames of the webmasters. Clicking on the right nick, you’ll enter the page, where you can rank this webmaster and write the review for the project you have just finished.

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Money withdrawal

You can request the withdrawal using one of the methods available – cheque, PayPal, e-gold or wire transfer. Each method has its own fee for the processing.

Enter the amount you want to withdraw (1) and select the method of withdrawal (2).

Depending on the method selected, fill-in the forms and…

… wait until the money arrives.

If you have a question regarding any particular step described above, just ask.