My ‘own’ story about freelancer.com About the experience of first ever income…

But I was the employee. Obviously, I had to wake up at night contact him. When I mailed him at day time in India, the reply came, “I sleep at night, I can't reply you at 2:30 AM.” It was 2:30 AM in India when the reply came. :D

My ‘own’ story about freelancer.com

Hello, Hi!!! Date: October 11, 2011

Let me introduce myself, please!

I am just a simple, fun loving, just turned 19 years 3 days old guy named Sankalp, Sankalp Agrawal, a resident of Gangapur City, a small town in the Rajasthan state of India.

What my name means, is Determination.... :)

I am a student of Computer Sciences (for Bachelor in Technology degree), living presently in New Delhi, the capital of India.

I live in a family of four, with my younger dear sister, mom and dad.

Dad is a teacher of Mathematics in a school.. having a salary of somewhat around $ 400 per month.. out of which they spend nearly $ 200 on me... per month...

And the other three live in the remaining half.. :(

This above line makes me feel the bad, the most.... :(

The conditions are not that bad which you might think of reading above..

but the problem is, that they are not good either...

That’s why I had been looking for a something like freelancer.. as in India you can't expect job without having a degree in your hand. :(

I have had heard for the freelancer.com through my brother's wife as she had just completed her MBA and wanted a job to pass time at home, as my brother used to be in office...

I registered freelancer.com last year, but was so surrounded by the feelings of “not being capable of doing something” due to the failures in the field of studies that I faced, that I couldn't start freelancing that year...

And

Telling the truth I was not 18 that time... :)

Having a feeling of “making my family’s life better” made me to freelance during the summer holidays this year..

In fact, I still think I was doing it for my mobile phone not for the betterment of my family's life. How selfish I was!!!

New freelancers can't get a job as easily as older ones can, so I was on a bidding spree..

Meanwhile the story of the mobile phone that I wanted....

I saw a really very smart looking smartphone in the hands of a friend of mine. I took that from him for a minute or two. Was simply amazed at the looks of that phone!

I asked the price- $ 199 as per the Indian price.

That money might be very little for some people, but this was not the case with my parents!

I asked my parents to buy that phone for me. The clear reply came- “NO”.

As they had just submitted my college tuition fees and as I already said they were and are spending half of their income on me.

I was sad... :( As I think I should be.

But my name means Determination.. I wanted that phone... That’s why I said, earlier, How selfish I was !

I was simply bidding to get earned to buy that phone for ME only.

Whatever the case, my bid of $ 30 to input 1000 jokes into the database of a website jokesandjava.com was accepted, by @majormedia, real name, Derek Major, an employer from Canada.

As the job was, he gave me some websites where public domain jokes are listed. I just had to copy them and paste into that database. The work was obviously a low skill one, but so was the payment too.

One thing that could have created a problem was, how to keep me going until 1000 jokes. Anyone can get bored of doing such a work after 600-700. But thank God, that was not the case with me.

But I remember I had to toil hard, for that $ 30, $ 25 in fact :)

I was out of my town, at my some relatives’ home, to spend the summer holidays. Hang on, that was not a town in fact, it was a village.

My cousin, somewhat modern as per the standards that village, had a laptop, a USB modem to access to internet (at just 10- 15 KBps). I checked my mail. Got the news that my bid was accepted. I was thinking to submit $ 10 or so before accepting the bid, as accepting would charge me $ 5. So launched a support ticket to know if it is necessary to keep account in positives only. The reply came, No, it isn't.

So, I accepted the bid. Got the mail with the email-address of the employer. Tried to contact him. Reply came at midnight, as per IST. Contacting him was the toughest part, as the time difference is nearly 10-11 hours. So, when its day here, night there and vice versa.

But I was the employee. Obviously, I had to wake up at night contact him. When I mailed him at day time in India, the reply came, “I sleep at night, I can't reply you at 2:30 AM.” It was 2:30 AM in India when the reply came. :D

In the end, I successfully completed the work in the given time limit of 3 days.

Whatever he replied, doesn't matter, I would still say,

“what a nice man he was!”

I never asked for money, he himself created the milestones, and released them after checking the work. I once again thank him for making me earn... for the very first time.

Thank you Mr. Derek Major.

So, that’s how I got my first $25. The fb status was.

"What I have learnt in a past few days is to respect every earning person of this world, specially my family members, & more especially my father...

$ 25, my first ever income."

I can never forget this fb status!!!

I came home, saw a contest that, Mr. Matt Barrie needed a five word speech. I submitted many. Only one :( was rated with five stars. He gave some different speech, but later awarded $ 100 to many, I was also the one in those many.

Got $ 100 more. Oh my God, still I couldn't buy that phone. But now, even I didn't want to buy that phone. But in fact, I bought a phone worth $ 100 or my father. My parents were very happy. I still remember their happy faces.

Here's how, freelancing began for me... and as I have not spent very much time on freelancing due to shortage of time due to studies... I think I have to still, make a start... :)

Name: Sankalp Agrawal

Country: India

Freelancer.com user id: ska081092